Local government service delivery
Equitable and efficient service delivery is at the heart of local government’s mandate. The resources in this section focus on the management and delivery of key strategic, corporate and technical services, ranging from those for which local government has direct responsibility, to shared service provision, and services for which local government is a partner.
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Reflections on the Local Government (Community Well-Being) Amendment Bill
Measuring Local Well-being: reflections on the Local Government (Community Well-Being) Amendment Bill. The Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Bill is designed to provide local authorities with greater legal freedom to make investments that will raise the well-being of their local community. The legislation is predicated on the assumption that people’s well-being is influenced by their local context. In order to identify the influence of changes in context generated by local investments, it is necessary to recognise that individuals differ in many ways and that the impact of any given investment can vary substantially from one person to the next. Indicators based on collections of individuals miss much of that variation. It is also necessary to recognise the variety of ways well-being can be measured. This short article raises both these issues by exploring three measures of well-being currently available on the 2018 Quality of Life survey.
Author: Philip S. Morrison Publisher: Policy Quarterly Publication year: 2019
Streamlining project management with Microsoft in the city of Stirling, Australia
Project management can be both complex and challenging. And when projects span multiple areas, are interdependent, and cost many millions of dollars, project managers play a mission-critical role.
Author: Microsoft Publisher: Microsoft Publication year: 2018
The political path to universal health coverage: Elite commitment to community-based health insurance in Rwanda
Rwanda is the country with the highest enrolment in health insurance in Sub-Saharan Africa. Pivotal in setting Rwanda on the path to universal health coverage is the community-based health insurance (CBHI), which covers three-quarters of the population. Despite the importance of the Rwandan case, analyses of the history and politics behind the scheme are largely absent. This article fills this gap by identifying the political drivers behind its development. It engages in process-tracing of the critical policy choices regarding the CBHI: the design of the first pilot, the decision to make enrolment mandatory, the policies to ensure its adequate funding, and the strategy of day-to-day implementation. It argues that the commitment to expanding health coverage is part of the broader efforts of the ruling coalition to foster its legitimacy based on rapid socio-economic development in a context of a dominant political settlement. The paper also argues that CBHI was chosen as a solution to expand access to healthcare over other approaches because it was the policy option that was the most compatible with the ruling coalition core paradigmatic ideas of popular participation, individual and national self-reliance.
Author: Benjamin Chemouni Publisher: World Development Publication year: 2018
Local governance and ICTs in Africa
This volume presents important original research on ICT and local goverance in Africa that must not be ignored by public policymakers – at municipal, regional, national and continental levels – in the respective countries in Africa. It is strongly recommended that this work be used and debated.
Author: Timothy Mwololo Waema and Edith Ofwona Adera Publisher: International Development Research Centre Publication year: 2011
Communities in control? The challenges of neighbourhood governance with reference to local government reform in England
Recent local government and public service reforms in England have been orientated towards devolving public service delivery and decision-making to the neighbourhood level. These reforms have been driven by political, social and managerial agendas that aim to make local government more accountable and responsive to local communities, to build social capital and to enhance the cost-effectiveness of local services. This paper, with reference to the current policy framework in England, aims to identify and review the possibilities and challenges for local government officials and partner agencies in moving towards decentralised public service provision and governance. The paper initially identifies the key aspects of reform brought in by the central government Department of Communities and Local Government that seek to extend neighbourhood influence and governance structures. The discussion then turns towards considering the challenges in ensuring effective citizen participation – namely responding to multiple policy objectives; devising appropriate neighbourhood governance structures; re-thinking the role of local government; identifying and managing trade-offs; building community and local government capabilities for wide-ranging participation; and ensuring effective partnership working at all levels of local government. In conclusion the important steps towards tackling these challenges in England are recognised although a number of concerns remain.
Author: Harriet Churchill Publisher: Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance Publication year: 2008