New Means of Accountability in the Public and Third Sector of Emerging Economies

Workshop summary

Three decades of New Public Management reforms have reinvented both the scope and quality of accountability across public sector entities, while there has also been increased attention to accountability in the third sector.

Public administrators and voluntary sector leaders are especially under pressure as they are required to act as managers and discharge accountability both upwards to higher level parties and downwards to citizens or beneficiaries; with an emphasis on results and outputs from resources entrusted to them.

Conflicts, tensions and resistance are not surprising when organisational leaders are confronted to multiple, somewhat diverging expectations and dimensions of accountability.

A search for a new means of discharging accountability has been instigated in the public sector focusing particularly on individuals and their learning aspects.

The learning dimension of accountability is also connected to the articulation of pluralistic (deliberate) democracy given that it offers public administrators with the mechanisms to obtain information about their own functioning and improve performance by reflecting on the achievements and challenges of their past activities.

In the third sector, concerns about how donated funds are spent and the social impact of projects have taken centre stage, albeit that basic mechanism of financial accountability remain limited in some emerging economies.

How to book

This is a free workshop run by the Centre for Accountability and Global Development but please register you attendance on Eventbrite.