Uptake of APPP findings debated at international meeting on public management
16 May 2011
Working with the grain and swimming against the tide
APPP's Working Paper 18 discusses the prospects for getting research findings about local governance and public goods provision taken up by policy-makers and practitioners in Africa. It argues that one immediate obstacle is a systematic over-selling of the ability of ‘community monitoring’ and transparency to lead, on its own, to better results. In this field, the hunger for simple, upbeat, ‘can do’ messages regularly overpowers the evidence from research.
On 11-13 April David Booth took a version of this paper to the XV conference of the International Research Society on Public Management in Dublin. It featured in the panel on Politics and Governance of Public Services in Developing Countries convened by Richard Batley and Willy McCourt. Richard and Willy are preparing a special issue of the IRSPM’s journal, Public Management Review, based on the panel.
