BIDE

HOW TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES:
A TOOLKIT FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE

To Be Announced

This workshop is for those who are bullish about the future of government but are bearish about its current state. It is for those who believe in the value of good government and are seeking ways and means to design good governments. To be called good, a government must not only do the right things, it must do them right. While we at BIDE care deeply about “what” governments do, this workshop is primarily about “how” they operate.

For several decades, the debate was centered on questions of ends: what government should do, and for whom. In the past decade, a consensus has emerged that the central failure of government today is means, not ends. This workshop will thus present a review and a thorough analysis of the most successful means adopted in developed and developing countries to improve the performance of their government agencies.

There is overwhelming evidence that “good governance” matter. Yet, the debate on good governance has been intellectualized to the extent that it has ceased to provide operational guidance for practical policy makers in most countries. This is particularly true for developing countries which have scarce capacity to implement reforms and narrower windows of opportunities. Therefore, this workshop will provide practical tools and guidance for reformers to achieve quick results. The focus of this workshop will be on “implementation” issues rather than theoretical debates.

The world has become more complex, and so have most governments around the world. Yet even as governments have become more complicated, they have been slow to adopt to real changes in the world—particularly those changes driven by advances in technology and communications. Along the way, many governments have become distant from the people they are supposed to serve. Most governments began with a solemn covenant that promised that the government will be people’s servant and not their masters. It is time to renew that covenant.

The focus of this workshop will be on techniques for increasing the “quality” of government and not simply reducing the “quantity” of government. The workshop will not focus exclusively on efficiency either. After all, what is the point of making an organization more efficient, if it is completely ineffective?