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2013 | Book

Tracking Implementation Read chapter Read first chapter

Millennium Development Goals and Community Initiatives in the Asia Pacific

Editors: Amita Singh, Eduardo T. Gonzalez, Stanley Bruce Thomson

Publisher: Springer India

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

The book brings together implementation studies from the Asia Pacific countries in the context of the deadline of 2015 for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The contributors to this volume are scholars belonging to the Network of Asia Pacific Schools and Institutes of Public Administration and Governance (NAPSIPAG). NAPSIPAG is the only non-West governance research network presently located at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi after having shifted from its original location at INTAN (Government of Malaysia) at Kuala Lumpur in 2009. ‘Implementation’ is a less understood but a much debated area of governance research. It requires micro-level analysis of government agencies, service delivery departments and stakeholders on one hand and its national and global policy level connections on the other. Implementation studies are above disciplinary divides and subsequent disjunctions which inhibit explorations on policy downslides or failures. The studies relate to the new initiatives which governments across the region have undertaken to reach out to the MDG targets agreed upon in 2000. The focus of analysis is the policy framework, local capacities of both the government agencies and people in drawing partnerships with relevant expert groups, ability to bring transparency and accountability measures in transactions for cost-effective results, leadership and sustainability dimensions which influence the functioning of local agencies. The book is especially important in the background of 15 voluminous Administrative Reforms Commission Reports accumulating dust in India and similar efforts lying unattended in many other countries of this region as well. Countries like Malaysia, which has focused upon ‘implementation strategies’ combined with timely evaluation and supervision of administrative agencies has almost achieved most of their committed MDGs. A special report of Malaysian efforts, initiates the debate of moving beyond the ‘best practice research’ in implementation arena. The central idea of this book is to demonstrate the role of communities in making governance effective and government responsive to the needs of people.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Tracking Implementation
Abstract
This book highlights the need for attending to smaller governance initiatives and practices which have successfully withstood the turbulence of the times and delivered goods and services to people. Governments belligerently adopt mega-reforms which remain underperformed due to their inability to resonate with the requirements of local people. The contributors have analysed some successful practices from across the region of Asia-Pacific and suggested ways in which such community led initiatives could involve governments, universities and NGOs to upscale and replicate them as the deadline to achieve MDGs approaches, and country governments face a performance test in United Nations.
Amita Singh, Anbumozhi Venkatachalam
Chapter 2. Narrowing Disparities via the New Economic Model (NEM): Is Malaysia Set to Excel Beyond Its MDGs Targets MDGs
Abstract
The report entitled “Malaysia – The Millennium Development Goals at 2010” confirmed that Malaysia had achieved most of its MDGs ahead of time while showing progress in moving towards some of the goals and targets that it has yet to achieve. This report, prepared by the UNDP in Malaysia in close cooperation with the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department, reaffirms the 2005 findings that Malaysia’s achievements were indeed impressive in aggregate terms. Nonetheless, findings in this report also acknowledged that Malaysia still lagged behind in areas such as maternal mortality, women in managerial positions and female political representation, HIV/AIDS and the persistence of tuberculosis at a relatively high level.
Shamsulbahriah K. A. Rodrigo, Norma Mansor
Chapter 3. The Scaling-Up Process and Health MDGs in the Philippines
Abstract
The Philippines is statistically on track to meet most of the 2015 MDG health targets. But while it may “win the numbers,” the unanswered need is how to broaden the MDG reach to expand access and enhance quality for more Filipinos over a wider geographical area in order to cover more impoverished areas. Conventional wisdom suggests enlarging the scale of both locally based effective pilot health projects and centrally established government health operations. That implies that centrally based, top-down governance and locally driven, bottom-up governance are considered complements rather than substitutes. But pilots seldom spread geographically, and centrally directed health programs have reached bureaucratic exhaustion. The key to unlocking this dilemma is to reinvent the scaling-up process: in the process of reaching out, centrally directed health programs should be “localized” down without loss of coherence, and local initiatives should be scaled up without loss of context. While a coherent national health framework is indispensable, health is at its core contextual—the result of localized interactions and shared experiences. A successful, context-friendly expansion seems to lie in scaling up the conditions that allowed the health initiative to do well, more than the specific elements that constitute it. In the final analysis, a reinvented scaling-up process is always a negotiated arrangement on how to maintain the appropriate balance between central authority and local autonomy. This chapter attempts to draw lessons, using a critical assessment of a number of significant cases of public sector health service delivery systems in the Philippines, regarding the links between local health contexts and a reinvented scaling-up process.
Eduardo T. Gonzalez
Chapter 4. Healthcare Governance and Climate Change Adaptation: A Pharmaceutical Industry Perspective
Abstract
The 4th assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that ‘the global burden of disease and premature deaths’ are somewhat contributed by climate change (IPCC, Introduction to the working group II – fourth assessment report. In: Parry ML, Canziani OF, Palutikof JP, van der Linden PJ, Hanson CE (eds) Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 1–6, 2007). The extant literature and scientific evidence on climate change and public health also suggest that climate change could create one of the biggest challenges to public health and its future governance. This does not only have profound impact on public sector health services but also poses significant threats to private sector health service providers. One of the private sector establishments that tend to become directly affected by climate change is the pharmaceutical industry. Given the scenario of uncertainty and risk associated with climate change, this industry appears to be in a unique albeit intricate situation as it faces both risks and opportunities as a consequence of climate change. As climate change adaptation entails both risk aversion and opportunity utilisation, it may, therefore, be considered useful to study the pharmaceutical industry in relation to its exposure to climate change and subsequent adaptation measures. Given the paramount importance of climate change adaptation by the pharmaceutical industry and its social and environmental implications, the issue of governance becomes an indispensible part of any such study. Following a scrutiny of the extant literature and recent scientific evidence on climate change, this chapter aims to present climate change adaptation strategies adopted by the pharmaceutical industry. The role of government in managing or moderating these strategies is also considered.
Md Khalid Hossain, Sharif N. As-Saber
Chapter 5. Reaching the 7th Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on Environmental Sustainability: The South Asian Response
Abstract
Environmental crisis can block all progress and development which the world has achieved so far. Realising this, the need for environmental sustainability MDG. The international community in a feeble attempt to respond to the crises facing humankind and Mother Earth adopted a Millennium Declaration under the auspices of the United Nations in the year 2000 and set for itself a very ambitious 7th Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015. Planet Earth is facing a multifaceted crisis of unprecedented proportions. This crisis is not only an existential threat to humankind but also to all life forms and environment of the planet. The fast pace of consumption of resources, particularly of the nonrenewable kind, and exclusion of large mass of human population from the ambit of ‘progress and development’ has created inequity and disequilibrium in nature and among human society. This inequity and disequilibrium in turn has created the crises being faced by Mother Earth and its inhabitants.
The South Asian community under the aegis of regional cooperation grouping, SAARC, 4 years after the Millennium Declaration, recommitted themselves to the goals of MDGs by declaring their own South Asian Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs echoing the goals of MDGs were organised into four broad categories of livelihood, health, education and environment. The United Nations Millennium Development Goal 7 pronounced its objective to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources. The environment SDG specifies its goals to achieve acceptable levels of forest cover, water and soil quality, air quality, conservation of biodiversity, wet land conservation and ban on dumping of hazardous waste including radioactive waste.
This chapter attempts to examine and analyse various initiatives taken by SAARC on the threat of climate change to a sustainable environment in the context of global negotiations on this subject and emerging new concept of human security distinct from traditional concept of security. The new paradigm of human security perceives security as freedom from danger, fear, want and deprivation.
Suman Sharma
Chapter 6. Interrogating the PPP Model in Health-Care Insurance
Abstract
With the introduction of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) in April 2008, India has pioneered a public-private partnership model to provide health insurance to the poor. RSBY has several stakeholders – the central government, the state governments, the insurance companies, the public/private health-care providers and the below poverty line (BPL) families – who will all benefit from the new scheme. It is the first government social sector scheme to embrace a business model of profit. National Health Accounts data (2010) reveal that the government sector (centre, state and local) together accounted for only 20 % of all health expenditures, and 78 % took the form of out-of-pocket payments – one of the highest percentages in the world. This new scheme is essentially meant for the Indian workforce (about 300 million) in the informal sector who do not have any kind of access to health protection benefits. Despite severe initial challenges, RSBY is today considered a successful public/private partnership model in terms of outreach and sustainability and may well become a precursor to other schemes in the social sector. This chapter investigates the major causes of low coverage of health insurance and the major determinants of accessing effective health insurance in India. Related issues pertaining to reforms in health sector administration and financing are also discussed.
Rumki Basu
Chapter 7. Reducing Gender Gaps Through Gender-Responsive Budgeting in Davao City, Philippines
Abstract
Inspired by the Millennium Development Goals of addressing gender inequality, this chapter examines the initiatives of local governments in the Philippines to empower women through gender-responsive budgeting. Two basic issues are addressed: (1) how is the 5 % gender budget utilized for gender and development? and (2) does the mandate of allocating this budget manifests the effort to ease gender gaps and improve women participation in development?
The results show that initiatives for women development are demand driven and are focused on three areas as (a) gender sensitivity training, (b) raising awareness on violence against women and children, and (c) sustaining livelihood and income-generating activities. Albeit the response of the local governments is low, communicating the gender budget policy to them can be considered as an advocacy tool for providing resources for GAD. The goal of empowering women and the concept of gender budgeting would have been disregarded and would not have been taken into account had a specific amount not been cited.
Emilia Pedrosa Pacoy
Chapter 8. Women Empowerment Through Learning and Livelihood Project (LLP) in Southern Philippines
Abstract
The predominance of men in socioeconomic and political spheres of patriarchal societies creates inertia in the achievement of one of the third Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that relates to the promotion of gender equality and women empowerment. In the Philippines, gender inequality has been a stumbling block in development work involving women and also aggravates transparency. Theory on the vicious circle of poverty posits that individuals and households may fall into the deprivation trap and remain there due to the interweaving operations of isolation (spatial or informational), vulnerability, physical weakness, powerlessness, and poverty itself. Learning and livelihood project (LLP) chose to use informational isolation and powerlessness as entry points for development intervention to help women and to lessen gender inequality. With the idea that women could be empowered via literacy and numeracy trainings, LLP promotes women in project planning and implementation for better transparency in community development works. This chapter examines this empowerment experience of the women involved in the LLP project. In addition, this chapter also argues for encouraging the activities that promote social capital among the women and can be made the launching pad of a cooperative.
Isaias S. Sealza
Chapter 9. Revisiting the Role of Universities in Achieving MDGs
Abstract
Much of the action toward the achievement of MDGs escapes the synergy required in making university education relevant and impactful. The sterility of degree-based education and the creation of ivory tower intellectuals are not the roles which any university can boast about in present times. Education which resonates with public action is the most important contribution of universities. Thus, every university also has an indirect responsibility to provide and develop its local community, and unfortunately, such contribution to developing community through various sustainable development efforts is often underestimated. The contentious issue is that public universities in Malaysia should play a strategic role in the economic and social development of the country and the regions where they are located. This is because university is an important player in the social system because of its supply of professionals that have universalistic skills which provide a better identification of social and economic responsibilities. This chapter, therefore, attempts to explore Malaysia’s public universities’ role in helping its surrounding community. Particular attention will be given to strategic innovation programs that help foster the development of the community ICT development. Using stakeholder theory and corporate social responsibility model as a framework of study, the study argues that public universities should move beyond its traditional mission of education and research and instead be more sensitive to and aware of the needs of its local community.
Raudah Danila, Ahmad Martadha Mohamed
Chapter 10. Community-University Partnerships for Improved Governance
Abstract
Representatives of nongovernment organizations (NGOs), local government units (LGUs), and national government agencies (NGAs) have identified the dearth of indigenous knowledge system in the community where sensible information could emanate from as the cause of poor local planning and development. Thus, they have posited the need to interlock theory-practice-research to produce better qualified graduates and to enable a continuing curriculum enhancement through the documented gains and challenges met along the way. To fill the gap between theory and practice, technology of participation was used in action research to develop research-oriented curriculum for BS in Public Administration (BSPA). Relevant information was gathered from the needs, experiences, and practices of stakeholders, students, faculty, administration, alumni, community leaders, and industry representatives and was processed quantitatively and qualitatively. BSPA curriculum also has research-related subjects that include Introduction to Statistics, Statistics for Social Sciences, Quantitative Research Methods, Qualitative Research Methods, Policy Analysis, and Undergraduate Thesis Writing. This BSPA curriculum enhancement project highlights the gains of community-university partnership in delivering the best quality of governance education. This project hopes to produce public administration professionals who are equipped with the necessary research skills and knowledge. Research as a capability is believed to improve the quality of local governance by ensuring that decision making at all levels of the government must be based on the real dimensions and state of things in the community.
Mervin G. Gascon
Chapter 11. Determinants of Managerial Innovation in the State University Administration in Sri Lanka
Abstract
Universal access to education is one of the key development goals to be achieved by 2015 under the Millennium Declaration declared in 2000. At a conference on universities and the Millennium Development Goals held in April 2010, vice-chancellors across the Commonwealth declared that future national and global development goals should recognize the role of higher education, and universities in both developed and developing countries should draft clear strategies and share expertise more effectively to support the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Thus, universities are expected to play a crucial role in shaping and developing human resources required for the development process in a country. The immediate output of these institutions would be employable and quality graduates who should possess the required knowledge and skills with positive attitudes.
The importance of investing on education has been identified by the government of Sri Lanka since independence in 1948. The government has been providing educational facilities to all students from grade one to the university level since the last six decades. The total expenditure incurred for the education has been provided from the General Treasury of Sri Lanka. In this context, the education is imparted free of charge for the nation’s students. This situation has long been contributed for enhancing the quality of the human resources of Sri Lanka. The government allocates 2.08 % of the GDP (gross national product) (Central Bank of Sri Lanka:2009) to maintain the entire education system (the school and the university education). However, lack of financial resources is a major constraint being faced by the state universities in Sri Lanka. This situation is badly affecting on the overall performance of the student and the universities. Despite the financial and other constraints, authorities of the state universities could not reduce its expected service. Under this situation, university authorities face several difficulties in implementing educational programs and in achieving their organizational targets. In this study, it is argued that despite these constraints, the university administration has to find alternatives to achieve its intended objectives. In this line, this study argues that if the university authorities perform in innovative ways in managing their educational programs, that would lead to improve the quality and the relevance of their output, leading to more effective and efficient administration.
In this context, this study attempts to answer several research questions: (1) What is the level of innovation in the university administration in Sri Lanka? (11) What are the factors affecting on innovation in the state university administration? and (111) What can be done to improve innovation in the state university administration in Sri Lanka?
Quantitative data have been utilized to address the research questions posed in this study. For this purpose, a random sample consisting of 166 (coordinators, heads, and deans) of the public universities in Sri Lanka was selected. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.
The findings confirmed that innovative activities occur in the state universities in Sri Lanka. Nearly 60 % of the sample agrees that they introduce, accept, and implement innovative activities in their organizations. The study identified that the administrators’ motivation to achieve is the significant determinant of the managerial innovation in the university administration. This factor alone explains nearly 20 % of the variance of managerial innovations in the university administration. The other determinants are supportive environment, support of the external environment, skillful human resources, and the administrators’ age. These factors altogether explain nearly 37 % of variance of the dependent variable. Improving efficiency, quality, and effectiveness of the educational programs are the direct benefits of innovation. Based on the findings of the study, policy measures are proposed to improve innovation in the state university administration in Sri Lanka.
R. Lalitha S. Fernando
Chapter 12. Regulatory Mapping in Local Governance and the Economic Governance Index in Sri Lanka
Abstract
In Sri Lanka, the role of local authority is important today more than ever after the government aligned its development agenda with United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals and implemented local economic governance (LEG) program. LEG program envisaged to build public-private partnerships at the local authority level. As part of the LEG program, the Asia Foundation (TAF) carried out economic governance index (EGI) study in 19 local authorities to understand government-influenced constraints to economic growth at the local level. Based on the findings, TAF introduced regulatory mapping to inform the public and business community about the services, authority, and responsibilities of local authorities and their role in creating an enabling environment for private enterprises to flourish. According to EGI study, Puttalam has the weakest urban council (UC) among the 48 local authorities which were selected for the study. This chapter evaluates the present performance of Puttalam Urban Council using the ten subindices of EGI study. It was presumed that the impact made by the intervention could be conspicuous in a locality where the pre-intervention performance is weak. The study also used a topic guide to facilitate focus group discussions to capture qualitative outcomes and challenges. Further, this chapter also examines the regulatory mapping process along with its strengths as an innovative tool.
D. L. Chamila Jayashantha, W. M. R. Wijekoon
Chapter 13. Benefits and Challenges of E-Governance for Service Delivery in Nepal
Abstract
The growing application of information and communication technology (ICT) and their subsequent use in strengthening interaction among civil societies, communities, citizens, and businesses have given rise to a new governance paradigm known as e-governance. E-governance came both in developed and developing countries as a quest of making public institutions more transparent, accountable, and efficient for the better delivery of public services. This chapter discusses the prospects and challenges of ICT for improving service delivery in Nepal which is considered an important tool to help meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG goals). The study concludes that there has been improvement in the application of ICT as well as internal efficiency in the decision-making process. However, there is room for improvement in the service delivery provision. It has decreased discrimination and enhanced accountability of officials, but citizen’s inclusion in the public decision-making process and empowerment, though improved from before, still remains important aspects that need due attention.
Ishtiaq Jamil, Tek Nath Dhakal
Chapter 14. e-Leadership for e-Government in Indonesia
Abstract
The development of e-government in Indonesia, as mandated by the President Instruction No. 3 Year 2003 on Policy and National Strategy for Development of e-Government, is an effort to develop an electronic-based government so as to improve the quality of public services and to realize good governance. The anticipated benefits of e-government include efficiency and effective, improved services, better accessibility of public services and more participative, transparent and accountable government management. However, due to the complex process during its development, e-government has not been implemented successfully, especially in government institutions. Based on research on best practices of e-government implementation in several regions, it is found that the key factor in capacity building for e-government is strong leadership. The leadership in question mostly has the ability to manage personnel, equipment and other organizational resources and to use ICT to solve problems and achieve the vision and mission of his organization. Leadership that has such competencies is commonly known as e-leadership.
Awang Anwaruddin
Chapter 15. NGCSOs and Capacity Enhancement of Low-Income People in South Australia
Abstract
This study seeks to identify the impact of the nongovernment community service organisations (henceforth NGCSOs) in developing capability of the low-income people in the Playford and Salisbury council areas of South Australia, especially in the field of education and health with a focus on general conceptual and methodological issues. Basing on the data collected from the ethnographic study, from the interviews of some key officials in the departments of health, education and social inclusion of the government of South Australia, from the case study of some members of a community service providing organisation and its client, and on the data published by ABS, ACOSS and SPRC on poverty, taxation and government expenditure in Australia, this chapter argues that a high payment by the government on social security and welfare purpose cannot ensure the alleviation of poverty unless there is a community-orientated approach in developing capabilities pursued by the NGCSOs. In doing so, this chapter points out certain limitations in the role of the Australian state that has constricted the development in the spheres of health and education among the low-income people of Playford and Salisbury of South Australia.
Rabindranath Bhattacharyya
Chapter 16. From Reinvention to Communitization: The Himalayan Indian State of Nagaland Shows the Way
Abstract
Access to services is inextricably linked to wellbeing in terms of the expansion of human capabilities and human freedom. The traditional hierarchical centralised bureaucratic model of public services however has been critiqued as inefficient, unresponsive and rigid. To meet these challenges, governments are gradually resorting to the use of a variety of innovative service delivery methods such as contracting out, outsourcing, vouchers and user fees or the decentralisation of services to the lower-level government or partnerships with non-profits, community groups and information and communication technology to deliver services. In India, innovative modes of service delivery have also been adopted and accepted widely. In the state of Nagaland, the adoption of community participation as an innovative service delivery model has improved the delivery of MDG critical services like education and healthcare. In this chapter, an attempt is made to study the contribution of Nagaland communitisation of institutions for accessing the MDGs.
Sylvia Yambem
Chapter 17. Reaching Out to the People: The Role of Leikai Club in the State of Manipur (India) in Achieving the MDGs
Abstract
Mobilising neighbourhoods for implementing government programmes and well-being of people is not a new phenomenon in governance strategies across the world. The burden and the challenge of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of United Nation has emphasised it further in a more convinced manner. The role of community participation as a partnership model for achieving MDGs by 2015 has brought to surface one best practice from the state of Manipur. This chapter explores the role of leikai-clubs (neighbourhood organisations) as one such organisation in the state of Manipur which has taken many initiatives which make access to MDGs much easier. MDGs. Historiography reveals these leikai-clubs were known for active participation in the social, economic, cultural and political life of the state which is now part of their lived world. This chapter also argues how achieving the goals of the MDGs remains a challenge without true participation and urges the need to utilise the potential of community for a better society.
Irina Ningthoujam
Chapter 18. Epilogue: Thinking About Reaching Out: Analytical Approaches to Develop Feasible Projects
Abstract
This chapter is about reaching out to users of public services from operational levels in the public sector. Its starting point is the need for focus and commitment to create outcomes of value to citizens. This chapter examines the use of logic models to help structure feasible proposals. Such models focus on defining paths to desired impacts and help turn intangible resources into tangible results. This chapter proposes that logic models can help managers and staff to think about opportunities to implement development goals by improving focus, accountability, feasibility and targeting. It suggests that such initiatives may also help find funds, win support from senior managers and political leaders, provide a basis for consultation with users and create resources with which to generate continuing streams of innovation in the formulation and delivery of public services in developing countries.
RFI Smith
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Millennium Development Goals and Community Initiatives in the Asia Pacific
Editors
Amita Singh
Eduardo T. Gonzalez
Stanley Bruce Thomson
Copyright Year
2013
Publisher
Springer India
Electronic ISBN
978-81-322-0760-3
Print ISBN
978-81-322-0759-7
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-0760-3