Oxfam

Research for Oxfam’s Basic Services campaign

When Oxfam was planning its campaign for basic services for all, they commissioned Public World to explore what kind of public management produces ‘equitable and good quality public services based on good governance practices and strong civil participation’.

The research focused on primary health care and children’s education and on identifying the factors tending to improve efficiency and effectiveness. It involved a literature review and four case studies, in Mali and Tanzania (education) and Mozambique and Yemen (health care).

Each case highlighted particular lessons, while the study as a whole reached six broad conclusions:

that there was a need for a new ‘good governance’ model based on improving civil society and employee participation;
that forms of civil society participation that oblige poor households to provide cash or in-kind resources were neither efficient nor equitable;
that those forms of civil society participation undermine in particular gender equity, which was honoured more in the rhetoric than the reality of public service reform;
that involving civil society and private organisations as contractors in service delivery require stronger not weaker public institutions;
that international financial institutions tended to ignore proven examples of success if they did not involve privatisation or market mechanisms;
that resources could be used more effectively and efficiently if there were more of them.

For more information, please email admin@publicworld.org.