GOVERNANCE AND THE ERADICATION OF POVERTY: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE
| Published date | 01 October 2012 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1640 |
| Date | 01 October 2012 |
| Author | Paul D. Collins |
GOVERNANCE AND THE ERADICATION OF POVERTY: AN
INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE
PAUL D. COLLINS*
,†
University of Nottingham and Birmingham, UK
key words—governance; public administration; poverty alleviation; poverty eradication
BACKGROUND
Progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals appears to have been mixed in impacting poverty
on the ground—at least when looking behind the aggregate statistics and myriad of indicators for measuring
progress. One of the challenges of a target-driven, donor-led approach is how to embed well-intended initiatives
in local government and community governance institutions and engage with the poor and marginal groups
themselves. A number of donors have made major efforts in this key direction. However, poverty and broader
deprivation are reduced largely through the policies and programmes of national and local governments, sometimes
assisted by aid. It is the evolving social contract, the implementation environment and the capacity of public
administration that are the key determinants.
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, GOVERNANCE AND POLICY MANAGEMENT: KEY ASPECTS
The special issue thus explores ways of finding multidisciplinary solutions that are more likely to be effective in
leading to long-run poverty reduction, especially those that are public administration,governance/accountability
and policy related and those that have not been effectively addressed hitherto.
Key aspects include the following:
•administrative leadership and how toreverse the perverse incentives that distract from accountability to the poor;
•going beyond public service quality per se in pursuit of a rights-based approach to service delivery and universal
access;
•the implications of informal–formal institutional links in policy, resource allocation and implementation;
•how to ensure that budgetary priorities for poverty-related items, and funds are actually expended efficiently
and effectively for the intended purpose;
•how to enhance the capacity of front line/grass roots public administrative agencies and local government and
prevent elite capture of the latter
•development of collaboration between government and non-government stakeholders at different governance
levels across sectors:
•understanding factors making organisations of given characteristics better fits for implementing a poverty
programme, including of course non-governmental organisations (NGOs) but potentially some government agencies,
*Correspondence to: P. D. Collins, 24 Rommany Road, London SE279PX, UK. E-mail: paul.collinspd@googlemail.com
†
Hon. Professor of Politics, Nottingham University; Senior Honorary Fellow, Birmingham University; and Hon. Advisory Editor, Public
Administration and Development Journal.
public administration and development
Public Admin. Dev. 32, 337–344 (2012)
Published online in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.1640
Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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