Is the poor reputation of the public sector in service delivery justified? Is non-government provision in fact the only way to effectively deliver services to the poor? This paper for the World Development Report 2003/04 workshop by the Kennedy School of Government, USA, re-evaluates public and non-government service provision.
Current perceptions of state service delivery are overwhelmingly bad. Government administration in developing countries is seen as slothful, corrupt, inefficient, and incapable of reaching the poorest. Non-government service delivery is usually regarded as the only effective choice for provision to the poor. However, in reality non-government programmes require poor people to make commitments and contributions that are not required by state-run services. They also face constraints in terms of the scale of services they can provide, and are rarely under obligation to consider equity in allocating their scarce resources. Less-poor, lower-middle, and middle classes receive relatively reliable state delivered services with little effort.
Public sectors may be less incapable than is often thought. Closer analysis reveals that:
- Public sectors have improved in recent years, thanks to greater attention being given by donors and development programmes to improving government performance.
- Some public sector organisations have demonstrated an ability to sponsor innovations in service delivery. Instances of excellence are not as uncommon as assumed.
- Questions of why some public servants perform well and are committed despite poor pay and conditions and why some public organisations are responsive to powerless constituencies, have not been analysed or understood.
- Non-government providers are prey to the same technical, logistical, and managerial failures that plague traditional providers.
- The poor usually have limited capacity to make demands on government, but this also holds true for alternative providers. Even when engaged in managing services at local level, they cannot insist on the quality of what they receive.
Rather than giving up on the public provision of services to the poor as too difficult, policy makers should mainstream poverty reduction in service delivery. This means addressing difficult political and public sector management issues, including changes in policy making. It will require governments to:
- Have better information on the conditions and location of poor people, and the specific causes of poverty.
- Base policy-making on this information, not on the budgetary requirements for service delivery. Governments may have to confront difficult issues regarding resource allocation.
- Improve the capacity of public sector organisations and make organisational culture congruent with responsibilities. This will require heavy donor support in terms of training and institutional reform.
- Increase public awareness to encourage reform and maintain momentum.
