Politicians like to associate with winners not whiners.
Dr.YKK
Creative Governance begins with people.
This Part 2 relates my personal experience in Mauritius several years ago.
Towards the end of my creativity consulting with the government, I was taken o one of the poorest villages to help to resolve some of their many outstanding problems. When I arrived there, there were only two people to meet me. This was because most of the villages were attending a reception and official visit by a Minister.
After waiting for nearly an hour when the visit was over, a handful of village officials trudged in. I was handed a list of over 20 problems. Since I had only about an hour left, I asked them to select only the most pressing problem to be resolved.
The most pressing problem was the prevalence of small potholes on the sandy pathways leading to the village. Because of this bus services could not be provided and the children had o walk a very long distance to the nearest school.
I began by asking a series of questions in order to understand the background of the problem. After this, I began to explore the possible solutions to them.
The final solution agreed upon was to set aside a certain day where each adult in the village will be responsible to fill up one pot-hole. Since the potholes were relatively small, a two or three buckets of soil or stones would be sufficient to do the job.
This project would be undertaken in a spirit of festivity where a Minister or senior politician would be invited to officiate. Furthermore, the mass media would be invited to cover the event. The intention was that once the potholes had been covered, the village spokesman would request the VIP guest to surface the road properly. This would be difficult for the VIP to refuse in full glare of publicity especially when the villagers have taken the effort and initiative to cover the potholes. Besides, it would make the VIP look good. And politicians like to associate with winners not whiners.
Talk on Creative Governance
Please email me at DrYKK@mindbloom.net if you want to invite me to present an illuminating one hour Talk on Creative Governance and thereafter to facilitate a session to help solve a prevailing public and social problem in the spirit of Creative Governance.
I would appreciate if you could share Creative Governance stories with me so that they could be featured here. Please forward your response and contributions to DrYKK@mindbloom.net
Monday, January 28, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Creative Governance Begins With People
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
It is very common for people to blame the government they elected for every malady they faced. Yet as the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead says, A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Creative Governance begins with people.
People talked about rights, but hardly ever about their responsibilities. As a consequence, billions of dollars in budget, resources and efforts were wasted. The community suffered as a result.
A blog on Andrew Mawson's book, The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities Work reminded me of my own experience in Mauritius. Let me relate Mawsons experience first before sharing my own.
In the mid-1990s, a 35-year-old woman called Jean Vialls who was dying from cancer, was struggling to care for her two children, aged 16 and two, as well as her elderly parents. She was not getting the support she needed from social services and the National Health Service (NHS).Mawson decided to do something about it.
This was what Mawson wrote about the meeting with NHS and health officials:
This, then, was the NHS in action, and it was heartbreaking to witness. All the people in the room were incredibly well-meaning. They were in the caring professions for good reasons, probably to do with wanting to help and make a difference. But, somewhere along the way, they had lost touch with the realities of the lives of the people with whom they were dealing. The core business of the welfare state was meant to be people like Jean. But she had been forgotten about in the scramble to demonstrate equality of opportunity, or efficiency of delivery, or equitable use of public money. The NHS did not seem to understand who the customer was.
Mawson’s efforts to do something about the situation was stuck in bureaucracy until the Health Minister intervened. The success achieved (Bromley-by-Bow) was cited as a prototype for healthy living centres, aimed at improving health among poorer communities, and that would belong to the communities that they serve and not be parachuted in from the government machinery. However, without community involvement, many of the 257 centres established with millions in funding had proved unsustainable and were running out of money.
Who is at fault? I think it is a combination of both the government and the community. Perhaps funding from the Government should only be provided if it comes from a community initiative and not the other way round. I leave you to ponder over this point.
To read the full article, go to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jan/09/socialenterprises.regeneration
I will share my experience in Mauritius in my next blog.
Talk on Creative Governance
Please email me at DrYKK@mindbloom.net if you want to invite me to present an illuminating one hour Talk on Creative Governance and thereafter to facilitate a session to help solve a prevailing public and social problem in the spirit of Creative Governance.
I would appreciate if you could share Creative Governance stories with me so that they could be featured here. Please forward your response and contributions to DrYKK@mindbloom.net
Margaret Mead
It is very common for people to blame the government they elected for every malady they faced. Yet as the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead says, A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Creative Governance begins with people.
People talked about rights, but hardly ever about their responsibilities. As a consequence, billions of dollars in budget, resources and efforts were wasted. The community suffered as a result.
A blog on Andrew Mawson's book, The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities Work reminded me of my own experience in Mauritius. Let me relate Mawsons experience first before sharing my own.
In the mid-1990s, a 35-year-old woman called Jean Vialls who was dying from cancer, was struggling to care for her two children, aged 16 and two, as well as her elderly parents. She was not getting the support she needed from social services and the National Health Service (NHS).Mawson decided to do something about it.
This was what Mawson wrote about the meeting with NHS and health officials:
This, then, was the NHS in action, and it was heartbreaking to witness. All the people in the room were incredibly well-meaning. They were in the caring professions for good reasons, probably to do with wanting to help and make a difference. But, somewhere along the way, they had lost touch with the realities of the lives of the people with whom they were dealing. The core business of the welfare state was meant to be people like Jean. But she had been forgotten about in the scramble to demonstrate equality of opportunity, or efficiency of delivery, or equitable use of public money. The NHS did not seem to understand who the customer was.
Mawson’s efforts to do something about the situation was stuck in bureaucracy until the Health Minister intervened. The success achieved (Bromley-by-Bow) was cited as a prototype for healthy living centres, aimed at improving health among poorer communities, and that would belong to the communities that they serve and not be parachuted in from the government machinery. However, without community involvement, many of the 257 centres established with millions in funding had proved unsustainable and were running out of money.
Who is at fault? I think it is a combination of both the government and the community. Perhaps funding from the Government should only be provided if it comes from a community initiative and not the other way round. I leave you to ponder over this point.
To read the full article, go to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jan/09/socialenterprises.regeneration
I will share my experience in Mauritius in my next blog.
Talk on Creative Governance
Please email me at DrYKK@mindbloom.net if you want to invite me to present an illuminating one hour Talk on Creative Governance and thereafter to facilitate a session to help solve a prevailing public and social problem in the spirit of Creative Governance.
I would appreciate if you could share Creative Governance stories with me so that they could be featured here. Please forward your response and contributions to DrYKK@mindbloom.net
Friday, January 4, 2008
Creative Governance in Malaria Eradication & Overcoming Bureaucracy
I came across two instances of Creative Governance practices that I would like to share with you on this blog. One involves a young Russian mayor who banned excuses from his staff and the other comes from a profitable social enterprise that helped to eradicate malaria in Kenya.
These two Creative Governance practices serve to highlight that bureaucracy and health issues can be solved with some creative thinking and commitment.
Malaria Eradication
Malaria will affect 300 million people worldwide this year and contribute to one in five childhood deaths in Africa, according to the World Health Organization. Malaria is not the only enemy; a handful of infectious diseases – all treatable with inexpensive generic drugs – accounts for 70 percent to 90 percent of childhood illness and death in the developing world.
HealthStore Foundation founder Scott Hillstrom combines microfinance with established franchising practices to address the simple problem of “getting the drugs to sick people when and where they are needed.
The foundation gives healthcare workers microloans (first created by Prof.Yunus from Bangladesh who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize) to open their own for-profit Child and Family Wellness (CFW)Shops which distribute medical products and services to remote communities in Kenya. Applying the basic principles of successful franchising, the foundation then trains the franchisees in uniform procedures, carefully selects locations, and conducts regular inspections to ensure quality and consistency. By 2005 the number of CFW shops had increased to 435,527.
Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2007
Comments
This is an incredibly creative and socially responsive way to solve what seems like an intractable problem. It cleverly combines the characteristics of micro-financing and franchising to come out with this brilliant idea of HealthStore franchising. I believe that in the end it is business that will provide sustainable philanthropy. HealthStore proves that a profitable and socially responsible business is a great way to contribute human values and doing good to society.
Russian Mayor Bans Excuses
The mayor of Megion city in Russia has issued a list of excuses that he will not tolerate from civil servants. The phrases include: What can we do?" "It's not my job," "It's impossible," "I'm having lunch," and "There is no money." Alexander Kuzmin, the 33-year-old mayor of Megion, has banned these and 25 other phrases as a way to make his administration more efficient.
He said he was taking action as he was tired of civil servants telling him that problems were impossible to solve, rather than offering practical solutions.
"Town authorities are there to make town residents' life comfortable and prosperous," Kuzmin, a trained oil engineer who studied business administration in Canada, said in a statement posted on the town Web site. "Town officials must work out mechanisms to solve and remove problems, not to avoid them."
Officials who disobey the ban while in the mayor's office "will near the moment of their departure," the statement said.
Providing the mayor with wrong or incomplete information, or being late in reporting important information will be considered an attempt to undermine his work, it said.
Source : AP, 4 Sept. 2007
Comments
This is an excellent example of Creative Governance to eradicate irresponsible bureaucracy in the public service. Hope this provides food for thought for other ideas to improve the public service.
Talk on Creative Governance
The above are just two of the many stories on Creative Governance that I have collated.
Talk on Creative Governance
Please email me Dr.YKK at DrYKK@mindbloom.net if you want to invite me to present an illuminating one hour Talk on Creative Governance and thereafter to facilitate a session to help solve a prevailing public and social problem in the spirit of Creative Governance.
I would appreciate if you could share Creative Governance stories with me so that they could be featured here. Please forward your response and contributions to DrYKK@mindbloom.net
These two Creative Governance practices serve to highlight that bureaucracy and health issues can be solved with some creative thinking and commitment.
Malaria Eradication
Malaria will affect 300 million people worldwide this year and contribute to one in five childhood deaths in Africa, according to the World Health Organization. Malaria is not the only enemy; a handful of infectious diseases – all treatable with inexpensive generic drugs – accounts for 70 percent to 90 percent of childhood illness and death in the developing world.
HealthStore Foundation founder Scott Hillstrom combines microfinance with established franchising practices to address the simple problem of “getting the drugs to sick people when and where they are needed.
The foundation gives healthcare workers microloans (first created by Prof.Yunus from Bangladesh who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize) to open their own for-profit Child and Family Wellness (CFW)Shops which distribute medical products and services to remote communities in Kenya. Applying the basic principles of successful franchising, the foundation then trains the franchisees in uniform procedures, carefully selects locations, and conducts regular inspections to ensure quality and consistency. By 2005 the number of CFW shops had increased to 435,527.
Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2007
Comments
This is an incredibly creative and socially responsive way to solve what seems like an intractable problem. It cleverly combines the characteristics of micro-financing and franchising to come out with this brilliant idea of HealthStore franchising. I believe that in the end it is business that will provide sustainable philanthropy. HealthStore proves that a profitable and socially responsible business is a great way to contribute human values and doing good to society.
Russian Mayor Bans Excuses
The mayor of Megion city in Russia has issued a list of excuses that he will not tolerate from civil servants. The phrases include: What can we do?" "It's not my job," "It's impossible," "I'm having lunch," and "There is no money." Alexander Kuzmin, the 33-year-old mayor of Megion, has banned these and 25 other phrases as a way to make his administration more efficient.
He said he was taking action as he was tired of civil servants telling him that problems were impossible to solve, rather than offering practical solutions.
"Town authorities are there to make town residents' life comfortable and prosperous," Kuzmin, a trained oil engineer who studied business administration in Canada, said in a statement posted on the town Web site. "Town officials must work out mechanisms to solve and remove problems, not to avoid them."
Officials who disobey the ban while in the mayor's office "will near the moment of their departure," the statement said.
Providing the mayor with wrong or incomplete information, or being late in reporting important information will be considered an attempt to undermine his work, it said.
Source : AP, 4 Sept. 2007
Comments
This is an excellent example of Creative Governance to eradicate irresponsible bureaucracy in the public service. Hope this provides food for thought for other ideas to improve the public service.
Talk on Creative Governance
The above are just two of the many stories on Creative Governance that I have collated.
Talk on Creative Governance
Please email me Dr.YKK at DrYKK@mindbloom.net if you want to invite me to present an illuminating one hour Talk on Creative Governance and thereafter to facilitate a session to help solve a prevailing public and social problem in the spirit of Creative Governance.
I would appreciate if you could share Creative Governance stories with me so that they could be featured here. Please forward your response and contributions to DrYKK@mindbloom.net
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Creative Governance via Citizen Oversight
It has been said that we need all the brains that we have and all the brains that we can borrow. Government administration can be much improved with the inputs from its citizens. In this regard, the Latin American countries provide excellent models of Creative Public Governance by establishing legal frameworks for Citizen Oversight.
Since I couldn’t find any definitions of Citizen Oversight on the web including Wikipedia, I have to create one. Here it is: Citizen Oversight is a legal framework where recognized citizen groups can act as watchdogs on the government for greater transparency , accountability and receptiveness to public opinion. I welcome readers to improve on this definition.
Though the Citizen Oversight systems differ from country to country in Latin America, what they have in common is a legal framework that allows citizens to keep watch over and monitor government action, such as "citizen assistance systems, oversight committees, participation in decision-making bodies, watchdog bodies, etc." Citizen oversight of public institutions and authorities is expanding in various shapes and forms in Latin America. It’s becoming more and more widely accepted by both the governments and their people.
One outstanding success is Brazil. Through its Citizen Oversight participation, Brazil now leads the world in participatory budgeting.
Another shining example is Chile. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet made a brave decision to place (on the web sites of ministries and public services) information at the public’s disposal, starting with the salaries of public employees and officials - something that no other previous administration had ever done.
Citizen Oversight is fast gaining popularity in the US too. A Google search on the term Citizen Oversight came out with 174,000 entries.
Comment
With easy access to the internet and increasing literacy levels, Citizen Oversight is a concept whose time has come. Surprisingly, it comes from what has often been perceived as repressive governments of Latin America rather than the advanced economies and open democratic political systems of the US and the European Union. Whatever it may be, it is not a matter of if but a matter of when, this concept will spread throughout the world. Governments should therefore prepare and take pro-active action to set up Citizen Oversight rather than have it forced on them by NGO pressure groups.
Talk on Creative Governance
Please email me at DrYKK@mindbloom.net if you want to invite me to present an illuminating one hour Talk on Creative Governance and thereafter to facilitate a session to help solve a prevailing public and social problem in the spirit of Creative Governance.
I would appreciate if you could share Creative Governance stories with me so that they could be featured here. Please forward your response and contributions to DrYKK@mindbloom.net
Since I couldn’t find any definitions of Citizen Oversight on the web including Wikipedia, I have to create one. Here it is: Citizen Oversight is a legal framework where recognized citizen groups can act as watchdogs on the government for greater transparency , accountability and receptiveness to public opinion. I welcome readers to improve on this definition.
Though the Citizen Oversight systems differ from country to country in Latin America, what they have in common is a legal framework that allows citizens to keep watch over and monitor government action, such as "citizen assistance systems, oversight committees, participation in decision-making bodies, watchdog bodies, etc." Citizen oversight of public institutions and authorities is expanding in various shapes and forms in Latin America. It’s becoming more and more widely accepted by both the governments and their people.
One outstanding success is Brazil. Through its Citizen Oversight participation, Brazil now leads the world in participatory budgeting.
Another shining example is Chile. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet made a brave decision to place (on the web sites of ministries and public services) information at the public’s disposal, starting with the salaries of public employees and officials - something that no other previous administration had ever done.
Citizen Oversight is fast gaining popularity in the US too. A Google search on the term Citizen Oversight came out with 174,000 entries.
Comment
With easy access to the internet and increasing literacy levels, Citizen Oversight is a concept whose time has come. Surprisingly, it comes from what has often been perceived as repressive governments of Latin America rather than the advanced economies and open democratic political systems of the US and the European Union. Whatever it may be, it is not a matter of if but a matter of when, this concept will spread throughout the world. Governments should therefore prepare and take pro-active action to set up Citizen Oversight rather than have it forced on them by NGO pressure groups.
Talk on Creative Governance
Please email me at DrYKK@mindbloom.net if you want to invite me to present an illuminating one hour Talk on Creative Governance and thereafter to facilitate a session to help solve a prevailing public and social problem in the spirit of Creative Governance.
I would appreciate if you could share Creative Governance stories with me so that they could be featured here. Please forward your response and contributions to DrYKK@mindbloom.net
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