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• Making work better
• Improving public services
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  • Oxfam
  • World Bank
  • South African Transport and Allied Workers Union
• Promoting sustainable development

World Bank

Civil society participation in public services

The promotion of civil society participation has become a leitmotif of public service reform worldwide, especially in developing country contexts, but what does it mean and does it necessarily improve services and outcomes?

The World Bank asked us to critically examine the issue as part of a project about social policy in development. We explored how deliberative participatory processes can help public sector workers and users to improve services.

Our report showed how participation could enable both users and workers to help improve the design and operation of public services, to take more responsibility for equitable mobilisation of resources, and to use those resources more efficiently and effectively.

However, we also showed how, in the name of ‘civil society participation’, some national and local governments were burdening local social organisations and/or poor citizens with direct financial responsibility for their services.

You can read our paper here.