The Public Services Impact Approach

This book explores a gap identified in the design, implementation and evaluation of public management systems: an explicit focus on and embedding of human development outcomes. Building on Amartya Sen’s capability approach, the book explores the delivery of agricultural extension services in the Amhara region of Ethiopia and builds up a detailed picture of how user groups rank and value particular capabilities, understood as their ability to achieve certain functionings, and how far public services contribute to it. The book then examines business process reengineering and deconstructs measurement and evaluation approaches from the point of view of its contribution to capability expansion. The book proposes an emergent alternative to existing approaches based on the use of real time feedback from users to service providers and it demonstrates how the informational richness that stems from impact evaluation – including the process of choice, functionings and capabilities – can be used to enhance the effectiveness of service delivery. The Public Sector Impact approach can thus provide a more complete management philosophy and framework in order to tackle human development challenges.