Developing Country Perspectives on Public Service Delivery

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, this book examines the status of the public service in developing countries, in the sectors of health, infrastructure, labour and marginalized populations, rural economy, and public administration. The chapters, with sector themes, examine the three basic foundations of public policy, namely, 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. It includes studies from Russian Federation, India, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Fiji, South Africa, Columbia, Philippines, Macedonia, and India. The multi country and multi sector perspective lends itself to the investigation for a comprehensive overall development model. The book will take the lessons from the chapters and use theory to develop and suggest model(s) of development on delivering effective and efficient public service, applicable across countries.