Event/Événement : Designing services for rural communities, June 2009

Source: OECD
Innovative Service Delivery Workshop Series. Designing services for rural communities: the role of co-design and co-delivery. 11-12 June 2009. OECD countries agree that the scale of the demographic, geographic and fiscal challenges facing our public services requires new thinking and new practices.

Differences between regions, and their populations’ needs and preferences, call for a different mix of public services adapted to regional characteristics. In this context, innovative service delivery could take many forms ranging from the pursuit of new organisational forms and arrangements, including partnerships with other levels of government and other sectors, in order to improve the delivery of programs and services, to the types of services and who delivers. It could enable programs and services that result in: more cost-effective, responsive delivery to citizens; changes in organisational culture and management practices so that the organisation performs more effectively; and the granting of greater authority to managers, thus moving decision making closer to the point of delivery, to the communities served.

The issues facing rural communities are not new. Policymakers have struggled with designing appropriate services and delivery mechanisms for some time. Innovative approaches are needed if we are to move beyond the usual range of options to explore new possibilities and to test them in practice.


Agenda and Information:
www.oecd.org/gov/ruraldevelopment/crcworkshop