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Governance International provides cutting-edge expertise, consultancy and training based on leading international best practice on:

Recent and current projects and clients include:

Service Charters in Brazil

As the quality of public services is inevitably going to fall across most of Europe, due to public spending cuts, politicians and public managers have to manage expectations. One way of telling service users what they can expect (and what is expected of them) is to establish service charters. Governance International has been commissioned by the central government of Brazil to compare service charter policies in Ireland, Spain and United Kingdom to help the Brazilian government understand how it can support the use of service charters in the public sector. Unlike the UK and Ireland, Spain has had some service charters which include financial compensation, in those cases where the promised standards could not be met. Its service charters have been part of a nation-wide strategy on quality management. Ireland published Customer Action Plans, showing how its charters would be put into practice by responding to areas where improvements were necessary in meeting customer needs. The UK had a programme for certifying excellence in those services that can show they have a sound customer policy. For more information please contact salvador.parrado@govint.org

Participatory budgeting in Austria

Elke and other participants showing off 'Agenda 21' banknotes

The Regional Agenda 21 Network of the state Oberösterreich commissioned Governance International to  run an inter-active workshop to brief local councillors, directly elected mayors and managers of the state government on international experiences with participatory budgeting. This also included facilitation of a roundtable discussion with engaged citizens, councillors, mayors and officers at a major network event attended by 70 participants in the evening, after a keynote speech on participatory budgeting by Elke. If you are a small local authority with less than 10,000 inhabitants and already have used participatory budgeting approaches, we would like to hear from you to pass on your experiences to Austrian pilot local authorities. Please contact elke.loeffler@govint.org.

In-house training on co-production in children’s services for London Borough of Camden

Following a two-hour taster session on public service co-production for senior managers of Camden Council, Governance International was commissioned to run a one-day in-house training event for 25 staff members of children services. The training focussed on  explaining to the participants what co-production is and showcasing what it has achieved around Europe.  Interactive workshops revealed that Camden staff are already engaged in a number of valuable co-production initiatives but that most staff members had not been aware of them. The training enabled them to build on existing co-production initiatives and to roll them out more effectively.

In-house consultation with voluntary sector organisations on cuts in Argyll and Bute

Participants debating possible changes to the current grant system

As Argyll and Bute council is facing a reduction of overall funding for children and family services by 15%, Governance International was commissioned to provide expertise and independent facilitation for a consultation event involving about 30 voluntary organisations. Governance International staff ran several workshop sessions to co-design a more streamlined and efficient funding system with the participants. The council is currently holding an online consultation on the results of the event. For further details on the outcomes of the event click here or check the press release on the Council website. If you are interested in running a similar consultation on cuts please contact frankie.hine-hughes@govint.org


Policy report on state of the art in privatization of public services for the EU Commission

The EU Commission has recently completed three major European research projects on the liberalisation and privatisation of public services in the EU and commissioned Governance International to prepare a policy report which distils the key lessons for policy-makers from the research reports. Our report will shortly be published by the European Commission.

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