Developing Country Perspectives on Public Service Delivery

The book examines the status of public service in developing countries, in the sectors of health, infrastructure, labour and marginalized populations, rural economy and public administration. The last decade has witnessed significant government focus on service delivery in developing nations like South Africa, Philippines, India and Malaysia. At the forefront of this movement has been the public sector reforms significantly driven by two broad factors: public sector inefficiencies and liberal economic ideology. This move towards efficient public service delivery in developing nations (versus developed nations) has required a significant shift in institutional thinking and institutional capacity for the governments. It is therefore no surprise that while economic liberalization has been relatively easy to implement, governance reforms towards public service delivery has been significantly more challenging. In this background, the chapters of the book, with sector themes, examine the three basic foundations of public policy―courses of action, regulatory measures and issues, and funding structures and priorities―in public service delivery. The book is a multi country, multi sector, perspective since it includes studies from Russian Federation, India, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Fiji, South Africa, Columbia, Philippines, Macedonia and India. This perspective lends itself to the investigation for a comprehensive overall development model.

Anjula Gurtoo is an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. Her research interest is in the area of public policy, have published in the area of institutional reforms and decentralization, urban infrastructure, informal entrepreneurship, rural economy and energy and environment. She has been a fellow of the Social Science Research Council, New York and of the University of Leeds, UK. Her recent awards include: Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru National Award (2010-2012) for outstanding contribution in the field of Public Policy and Social Science, awarded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Madhya Pradesh, India, and Social Science Research Award (2009) by International Development Research Centre, Canada – Special mention for overall contribution to research and also for best paper in the category 'rural innovation systems'.

Colin Williams is a Professor of Public Policy, at the Management School, and Director of The Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences, University of Sheffield, UK. Colin's broad research interests are in re-theorising the nature of economic development and investigating the implications for public policy. Spatially, his interests range across the full spectrum from local and regional economic development in the UK through to the restructuring of western economies, post-socialist societies and the third (majority) world. Much of his work focuses upon rethinking the meanings of 'economic' and 'development,' which directly feeds into the work of the Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development (CREED), University of Sheffield, UK. Colin currently serves as Editor of two journals – The International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy and the International Journal of Community Currency Research. Some books authored by him are: Rethinking the Future of Work: Directions and Visions (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), The Hidden Enterprise Culture: Entrepreneurship in the Underground Economy (Edward Elgar Pub, 2006), A Commodified World? Mapping the Limits of Capitalism (Zed Books, 2005) and Cash-in-Hand Work: The Underground Sector and the Hidden Economy of Favours (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).