MINELRES: CFP: Enhancing the capacity of local governments to provide equitable access to minorities to public services

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Petra Kovacs <kovacsp@osi.hu>


INVITATION & CALL FOR PAPERS for the
11th NISPAcee Annual Conference
http://www.nispa.sk/new/index.php?action=conf2003

"ENHANCING THE CAPACITIES TO GOVERN:
Challenges facing the CEE countries"
Bucharest, Romania, April 10-12, 2003

***************************************************************

Working Group on Democratic Governance of Multiethnic Communities

Guidelines for papers on  "Enhancing the capacity of local governments
to provide equitable access to minorities to public services".

Officials as well as citizens are often frustrated in their attempts to
get a clear picture on the performance of government's achievement in
promoting inclusive policies responsive to the needs of ethnically
diverse communities. Success stories or bad examples become reported by
the media sometimes. However, comprehensive information and analysis is
rarely available on the issue equity in public service delivery.

We are calling for policy studies to provide suggestions by which local
governments and their agencies or institutions might regularly assess
their performance or demonstrate progress. Interested individuals are
invited to join the Working Group's research team and to submit papers
analyzing key factors of successful practices in providing equitable
access to public services for minorities.

The expected outcome of the meeting of the working group is to start a
benchmarking process that may stimulate improvement of quality of
governance and services through comparisons between the performance of
different local governments in the region. Such benchmarking will
identify "best" models of service delivery in ethnically or socially
diverse communities.

In order to reach the aimed outcome, papers to be presented at the
Bucharest conference should follow the following guidelines.

Selected Policy Areas are:
(a) social/welfare
(b) housing
(c) municipal administrative services
(d) administrative remedies in handling complaints
(f) equal opportunity employment

*****************************************************

PLEASE, SEND YOUR ABSTRACTS TO ORGANIZERS:
Viera Wallnerova at wallnerova@nispa.sk
Petra Kovacs at kovacsp@osi.hu
Jana Krimpe at krimpe@tpu.ee

*****************************************************

Guidelines

Goals
The goal of our inquiry is threefold:
- to provide governments and public officials with suggestions on
improving particular situations related to the public management of
multiethnic communities
- to accelerate new policy actions in areas of service provision to meet
the need of minorities
- to enhance local governments capacities to measure their performance
in managing ethnic diversity.

What is 'local level'
What is considered a 'local level' may differ from country to country.
However, the working group will not address initiatives, which are
solely the responsibility of national or federal governments.  It will
include city, county and regional level administration, acting either on
their own behalf or in partnership with non-governmental organisations,
charities, foundations, companies or other bodies (including national or
state governments) improving their policies to achieve more equitable
public services.

What is 'Good Practice'
A 'good practice' is defined as an initiative that seeks to achieve any
or all of the following:
- increasing the equitable participation of ethnic groups in local
policy processes
- overcoming barriers to equal access to public services and improving
co-operation with local administrations
- promoting equal opportunity standards in local administration
- providing special services or recognising distinct cultural identities

Local level good practice may entail the concrete application of
national level legislation at the local community level.

The local government dimension
The ideal 'good practice' case study would be one where the sub-national
(local and regional) level of government has an active and central role.
Cases where other types of actors receive support from the local
authorities may also be included.

Practices and policies initiated by an NGO will only be included to the
discussions of the working group when non-governmental actors are acting
as a replacement of local authorities; that is, when they take on some
tasks which would normally be part of the duties of local authorities,
but the local government fails to fulfil them.

Case Study Outlines

Title of the Case Study
The title of your study-paper should point to the major "policy problem"
of the case, relevant to the topic of the discussion on the capacity of
local governments to provide equitable access to minorities to public
services. This should also be applied in the case of chapters of your
paper.

Abstract (250 words)
The topic, the problem to be addressed, main findings, implications

1. The problem with which the program/practice deals  (maximum 2 double
spaced manuscript pages)
- Size, gravity of scope, trends over time
- Prior efforts to deal with it

2. Nature of the program (describing)  (max. 4 double spaced manuscript
pages)
- Goals and objectives
- Activities: what went on in the program/policy over time
- Actors
- Activities and services
- Beneficiaries (target group)
- Staff
- Conditions of operation
- Participants interpretation

3. Results (analysing, evaluating) (max. 6-8 double spaced manuscript
pages)
- How closely did the program follow the original plan?
- Did recipients improve their situation? Or did the situation overall
situation improve?
- Preprogram versus postprogram (methods for measuring change)
- Rate of change (if data is available)
- What improvement (or lack of improvement) meant to recipients?
- Is any change observed due to the program/policy (external effects)?
- How valuable was the program/policy?
- Costs and benefits
- Effectiveness of the program
- What characteristics of the program/policy are associated with the
success (or the lack of success)
- Characteristics of recipients associated with success
- Types of services/activities associated with success
- Circumstances associated with the success
- What unexpected events and outcomes were observed?

4. Implications for benchmarking good practices to stimulate improvement
of quality of governance and services in multiethnic communities (max.
3-4 double spaced manuscript pages)
- What combination of actors, activities, resources and conditions are
associated with success and failure?
- What was the process of the change?
- Compare the actual events with the assumptions of the program/policy
concepts
- What are the limits of your findings? What are the populations, places
and conditions to which your conclusions do not necessarily apply?
- What are the recommendations implied by your findings for the future
modification of the program/policy?


(authors are encouraged to use Eoin Young, Lisa Quinn, 2002, Writing
Effective Public Policy Papers: A Guide To Policy Advisers in Central
and Eastern Europe, available on-line at http://lgi.osi.hu/publications
)