Community governance and service delivery in Nepal: an assessment of influencing factors

This paper analyses factors influencing effective service delivery at the grassroots level in Nepal, through a qualitative field study which includes in-depth interviews with 110 community-based organisations (CBOs) and five focus group discussions. The findings indicate that a wide range of governance arrangements have been deployed in the effort to achieve effective service delivery. However, many CBOs lack a solid governance system for their development undertakings, leading to poor performance and lack of accountability. A number of factors are identified as causing this weak practical application of community governance, notably institutional mechanisms, socio-economic structures, power politics and interests, capacity limitations and resource constraints

Availability of and Accessibility to Primary Health Care Services for Women Living in Poverty: The Bangladesh Case

Poor women, in both rural and urban areas in the northern region of Bangladesh, suffer from high maternal mortality rates (MMR), and compared to other regions, this group also has a low proportion of births assisted by skilled attendants. This thesis critically examines the availability of and accessibility to primary, particularly maternal, healthcare services, provided by government and non-government organisations in Bangladesh. The broader purpose of this thesis is to probe the gap between the national MMR in Bangladesh and the target set by the 5th Millennium Development Goal (MDG). It also explores ways of reducing the gap, especially given that the country's MMR is very high compared to other South Asian countries. The study is significant because it has gone beyond the bio-medical approach (with the focus on human patho-physiology and emphasis on cure over prevention) and develops a bio-social approach to improve maternal health. The latter encompasses strategies to reduce high MMR from sociological and public health perspectives. The study used both primary and secondary data to meet its objectives. Triangulation of methods (questionnaire interviews of service users and providers, focus group discussions [FGD] and direct observations) were employed to collect primary data. A large number (160) of mothers who delivered at least one baby during the last ten years and the heads of relevant health centres were interviewed. Eight FGDs were conducted during the research. An assortment of articles, reports, theses and books were consulted in complementing and substantiating the arguments in this study

Islamic Schools in Australia: Muslims in Australia or Australian Muslims?

The impetus for this research comes from the ongoing community debate over the increasing number of Islamic schools being established in order to meet the needs of Australia's growing Muslim population. The thesis traces the history and development of Islamic schools in Australia in the last thirty years. It acknowledges some of the early difficulties that they faced but then seeks to explore the apparent contradiction between the growing demand for the schools and increased public opposition, in particular since the events of September 2001. In Australia this took the form of growing Islamophobia accentuated by the Australian values debate after 2003, and the portrayal of the Muslim community by the media as a monolithic entity tainted by radicalised militant Islam. The research carried out over several years, starting in 2004, seeks to fill a gap in the limited literature on the subject to date. While there has been growing research on what Muslims think about life in Australia and how the wider community perceives Islam, there has been very little work done on the Islamic schools which are currently attended by about 20% of young Muslims in Australia. This thesis is constructed around three central questions posed to staff and former students at the schools. The first looks at what is taught in the faith units and who teaches these subjects. Linked to this is the question of the extent to which an Islamic ethos pervades the 'hidden curriculum', that is the other subjects taught in the curriculum and the daily rhythm of school life. The second question considers the impact of the Australian values debate and whether staff and students agree with the charge that Muslim values are different from Australian values. This question also takes into account the frequently made accusation that the schools teach intolerance of other faiths as a central tenet of Islam. Finally the thesis seeks to respond to the allegation that the schools form ghettos that isolate the students from mainstream Australian society and thus function as agents of exclusion

Diaspora Capital, Capacity Development and African Development: Role of Nigerian Migrants in Australia

This thesis examines the role of Australian-based skilled migrants from Nigeria in the capacity development of their country of origin. The dataset that formed the basis for the analysis was collected through semi structured interviews and surveys with two cohorts of skilled migrants. The first set of data is about the lived experiences of forty-five skilled migrants and two Nigerian diplomats in Australia. The trans-national activities, emotional ties, and social and professional networks that these sets of skilled migrants maintain across Nigeria and Australia are examined to ascertain their relevance for the capacity development of Nigeria through the transfer of professional skills. The second set of data consists of survey responses and semi- structured interviews obtained from twenty-two returned migrants who have gone back to Nigeria after their studies or employment in Australia. Underpinned by a qualitative approach to research design and a thematic approach to data analysis, the professional skills, and knowledge, economic, social, cultural and human capital of these skilled migrants are discussed as a form of migrants' social remittances and diaspora capital in the context of capacity development. Capacity development of Nigeria is discussed as an independent process that can be achieved with the contribution of migrants' diaspora capital. The thesis introduces the new concept of non-financial remittances, which marks its significance and contribution to research on migration and diaspora capital. This thesis is important because it examines the lived experiences of Nigerian diaspora members in Australia, trans-migrants and return migrants who have returned to Nigeria after spending extended periods of time studying and working in Australia. The diaspora capital of these diaspora members and returned migrants is examined in terms of their contributions to capacity development through their transfer of skills for the capacity development of Nigeria. Diaspora capital in the context of this study is defined to have an encompassing meaning that entails several benefits that the Nigerian diaspora own and can be used to contribute to capacity development of Nigeria. This thesis looks beyond the argument of the negative effects of brain drain of skilled migrants by highlighting the idea that financial and social remittances can compensate for brain drain and migration of skilled migrants in developing countries. The diaspora option to enhance capacity development, migrant's social networks and trans-national activities are suggested as countervailing trends that may mitigate the negative effects of skilled migration from the homeland. The framework of analysis for the study is built around Bourdieu, Putnam and Coleman's idea of social capital theory to examine migrants' bonding, bridging, linking and digital social capital and their effects on social network formation transfer of professional skills and capacity development. The research findings highlighted six major themes that include diaspora capital, modes of professional skills transfer and challenges that impede the use of diaspora capital for capacity development. Based on these analyses, the thesis argues that social networks, professional networks and transnational activities of skilled migrants such as professional visits to Nigeria, virtual online activities and volunteering can counter-balance the negative effects of brain drain and the exodus of skilled migrants on the capacity development of Nigeria. The study found that there are several inefficiencies and structural weaknesses that hinder the optimal utilisation of the skills of these groups of skilled migrants for capacity development. In the concluding chapter, the thesis provides policy recommendations on how the Nigerian government might more fully harness and utilise the skills of the Nigerian-born migrants of the diaspora

Policy and Politics of Preference: The Quota System in the Bangladesh Civil Service

The quality of any democracy is reflected by the extent and magnitude of democratic inclusion inherent or intended for the system. The notion of democratic inclusion, which, broadly, is "the incorporation, influence and representation of various disadvantaged social groups within democratic institutions" (Hero & Wolbrecht 2005, 4), has become prominent in recent years. In every democratic society, existing or aspiring, public policies are being shaped to politically incorporate traditionally unrepresented disadvantaged groups in state structures, especially the public bureaucracy. As Donald Kingsley (1944, 185) argued in his seminal work several decades ago: "In a democracy competence alone is not enough. The public service must also be representative if the state is to liberate rather than enslave". As well, in a democracy civil servants are said to be "exercising a public trust" and therefore are expected to be "representative ... of the people as a whole" (Rosenbloom 1989, 11) and thus the state has the responsibility to provide opportunities to everyone irrespective of their social, economic, gender and ethnic attributes to enter public offices

Colonial Bureaucracies: Politics of Administrative Reform in Nineteenth Century Australia

This book is an abridged version of my PhD thesis submitted to the University of Sydney nearly three decades ago. All these years the thesis was lying on shelves collecting dust as my areas of interest and priorities changed. A few years ago, I felt the urge of sharing the contents of the study with a larger audience and enabling them to appreciate contemporary changes in Australian public bureaucracy in the backdrop of changes that started occurring more than one hundred and sixty years ago. It is important to scan the pages of history to perceive why administrative changes occurred in the way they did and what forces were at play in shaping those changes. I therefore decided to give the thesis the shape of a book by thoroughly editing and substantially reducing the original study and making it more focused and readable. I was particularly interested in exploring the manner in which the formative phase of public administration unfolded in a distant land whose 'colonial' history began only two and a quarter centuries ago. There, 'modern' political and administrative institutions developed in an indigenous social-cultural milieu that had not felt the need for any organized system. The native heterogeneous tribal groups scattered throughout the vast continent followed traditional lifestyles and social relations were based on complex kinship structures and rules. Thus, these institutions had to be created from scratch and were mainly based on British patterns to meet the demands of new and expanding colonies far away from the colonizing country

Bureaucratic Elitism in Bangladesh: The Predominance of Generalist Administrators

This article briefly examines bureaucratic elitism in Bangladesh, which basically inherited a transformed version of the British colonial administrative legacy. With its distinctiveness as a special social group, the bureaucracy maintains itself as a subsystem with pronounced autonomy. The Administrative Cadre of the civil service preserves the elitist tradition in supportive political conditions. It virtually shields itself from other functional groups and its members occupy key positions in the governmental structure and wield tremendous power and authority over policy making. Indoctrination and training is its own preserve and highly politicised groups within it regulate civil service recruitment and placements. Within the Administrative Cadre, elite integration is strong, while there is wide differentiation between this group and other cadres. Reform attempts failed to make inroads into changing bureaucratic behaviour mainly due to resistance from the elitist cadre, which remains the dominant instrument of the political executive

Public Management Reform

Public Management Reform (PMR) has come of age. In many countries, both developed and developing, change in the patterns of engagements both within administrative systems and outside with external entities - social, political and economic, is evident. Within the machinery of government the range of refinements and extensions has encompassed organizational, managerial, financial, technological and legal aspects, while in the external domain relational changes with political structures (the executive and legislatures), other public bodies, social organizations, private concerns and the general public have goaded the public bureaucracy to be more interactive, responsive, transparent and accountable. New configurations have transformed the bureaucracy's interface with society and the public, the methods of delivering services, ways of measuring and improving performance, and mechanisms for ensuring and maintaining ethical standards. The infusion of neo-liberal principles in a world of globalization has added a totally new dimension to the role of the state, in general, and its administrative arm, in particular, and reconfigured their inter-connections with civil society, the private sector and an array of international economic regimes