Batley and Larbi examine how governments of developing countries are organized to deliver public services. The book is based on comparative international studies of four service sectors: Health care, urban water, business promotion and agricultural marketing. Governments everywhere are being driven to adopt an 'indirect' approach - managing, contracting and regulating public agencies or private partners, rather than providing services directly. It questions how governments are responding and whether this approach is appropriate to the capacities of developing countries.

Autorentext

RICHARD BATLEY is Professor in the International Development Department of the School of Public Policy at the University of Birmingham, UK. His research interests are in governance, service delivery and urban policy in India, Latin America and Africa. GEORGE LARBI is Senior Lecturer in Public Sector Management and Governance in the International Development Department at the University of Birmingham, UK. He works on new approaches to public management, service delivery and governance. He has experience in Africa, the UK and Kazakhstan. He is Assistant Editor of the journal Public Administration and Development.

Zusammenfassung
This is the concluding volume of a series on the reform of service delivery in developing countries. Each of the four previous volumes has examined a particular area of government activity: health care, urban water supply, business development, and services to support agricultural trade. A broad pattern of reform has affected these different sectors: liberalization, the introduction of private sector management approaches, charging for services and new forms of working with the private sector. The leading question running across the five volumes is whether these approaches are appropriate to the context and capacities of developing countries. This final volume draws together the strands, comparing the experience between these sectors in selected developing countries of Africa, South and Southeast Asia and Latin America. It argues that reform approaches need to be sensitive to the institutional conditions of particular countries.

Inhalt

The Changing Roles of Government The Politics of Service Reform Internal Management Reforms Charging for Services The Experience of Contracting The Experience of Regulation The Capacity of Government