Implementing the Transparency Agenda
Implementing the Transparency Agenda

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-08

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9780215047403

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Whilst progress towards the Government's objectives for transparency is recognised there are areas where further work needs to be done. It does not help government to meet the objectives of the transparency agenda when large quantities of raw data are released without ensuring that the data are fit for purpose. Some data are very difficult to interpret, and some is not being presented on a consistent basis, for example in local government. Poor or incomplete data hinders the ability of users to exercise effective choice and undermines the ability of service deliverers and policy makers to focus on improving quality. The Government has not yet developed a full understanding of costs and benefits of making information transparent, and so decisions on what data to make available and in what form are not yet guided by value for money considerations. The Cabinet Office says the Open Data Institute will establish a fuller evidence base on the economic and public service benefits of open data. The push for release of more data has also thrown up new challenges which departments need to meet, facilitated by strong leadership from the Cabinet Office. These include questions on how to sustain interest in data after the initial launch (for example crime maps), how to ensure sufficient disclosure of information by private firms delivering government contracts, vigilance over protecting personal privacy, and how the benefits of data disclosure can be realised by those without internet access

Implementing transparency
Implementing transparency

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-04-18

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780102975505

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This National Audit Office report highlights progress across government in fulfilling most of its initial commitments to promote the transparency of public information. However, government needs a better understanding of costs, benefits and use to assess whether transparency is meeting its objectives of increasing accountability, supporting service improvement and stimulating economic growth. The Government has significantly increased the amount and type of public sector information released. Twenty-three out of 25 commitments by central government, due by December 2011, had been met by that month. However, the assessment of value for money is underdeveloped. While the Cabinet Office has identified six types of potential benefits from open data, it is not yet using this framework to evaluate the success and value for money of its various transparency initiatives. The new Open Data Institute will have a role to improve evidence on economic and public service benefits of open data. Levels of public interest in the different types of information released vary. More than four-fifths of visitors to the Government website data.gov.uk leave the site immediately without accessing any further link. In some sectors, data that would better inform accountability or choice is either not held or not yet made available. The Government estimates that public data already contributes £16 billion annually to the UK economy. Despite announced new transparency commitments to stimulate additional economic growth, the ability to maximise economic growth from traded data is constrained by current arrangements to charge for data, and limited understanding of potential benefits.

Making Politics Work for Development
Making Politics Work for Development

Author: World Bank

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2016-07-14

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1464807744

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Governments fail to provide the public goods needed for development when its leaders knowingly and deliberately ignore sound technical advice or are unable to follow it, despite the best of intentions, because of political constraints. This report focuses on two forces—citizen engagement and transparency—that hold the key to solving government failures by shaping how political markets function. Citizens are not only queueing at voting booths, but are also taking to the streets and using diverse media to pressure, sanction and select the leaders who wield power within government, including by entering as contenders for leadership. This political engagement can function in highly nuanced ways within the same formal institutional context and across the political spectrum, from autocracies to democracies. Unhealthy political engagement, when leaders are selected and sanctioned on the basis of their provision of private benefits rather than public goods, gives rise to government failures. The solutions to these failures lie in fostering healthy political engagement within any institutional context, and not in circumventing or suppressing it. Transparency, which is citizen access to publicly available information about the actions of those in government, and the consequences of these actions, can play a crucial role by nourishing political engagement.

Smart Technologies for Smart Governments
Smart Technologies for Smart Governments

Author: Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-07-19

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 3319585770

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This book examines the introduction of smart technologies into public administrations and the organizational issues caused by these implementations, and the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to rationalize and improve government, transform governance and organizational issues, and address economic, social, and environmental challenges. Cities are increasingly using new technologies in the delivery of public sector services and in the improvement of government transparency, business-led urban development, and urban sustainability. The book will examine specific smart projects that cities are embracing to improve transparency, efficiency, sustainability, mobility, and whether all cities are prepared to implement smart technologies and the incentives for promoting implementation. This focus on the smart technologies applied to public sector entities will be of interest to academics, researchers, policy-makers, public managers, international organizations and technical experts involved in and responsible for the governance, development and design of Smart Cities.

The WTO Regime on Government Procurement
The WTO Regime on Government Procurement

Author: Sue Arrowsmith

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-04-28

Total Pages: 895

ISBN-13: 1139501429

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Originally an important but relatively obscure plurilateral instrument, the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) is now becoming a pillar of the WTO system as a result of important developments since the Uruguay Round. This collection examines the issues and challenges that this raises for the GPA, as well as future prospects for addressing government procurement at a multilateral level. Coverage includes issues relating to pending accessions to the GPA, particularly those of developing countries with a large state sector such as China; the revised (provisionally agreed) GPA text of 2006, including provisions on electronic procurement and Special and Differential Treatment for Developing Countries; and procurement provisions in regional trade agreements and their significance for the multilateral system. Attention is also given to emerging issues, especially those concerning environmental, social and SME policy; competition law; and the implications of the recent economic crisis.

European Higher Education Area: The Impact of Past and Future Policies
European Higher Education Area: The Impact of Past and Future Policies

Author: Adrian Curaj

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-07-03

Total Pages: 727

ISBN-13: 3319774077

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This volume presents the major outcomes of the third edition of the Future of Higher Education – Bologna Process Researchers Conference (FOHE-BPRC 3) which was held on 27-29 November 2017. It acknowledges the importance of a continued dialogue between researchers and decision-makers and benefits from the experience already acquired, this way enabling the higher education community to bring its input into the 2018-2020 European Higher Education Area (EHEA) priorities. The Future of Higher Education – Bologna Process Researchers Conference (FOHE-BPRC) has already established itself as a landmark in the European higher education environment. The two previous editions (17-19 October 2011, 24-26 November 2014), with approximately 200 European and international participants each, covering more than 50 countries each, were organized prior to the Ministerial Conferences, thus encouraging a consistent dialogue between researchers and policy makers. The main conclusions of the FOHE Conferences were presented at the EHEA Ministerial Conferences (2012 and 2015), in order to make the voice of researchers better heard by European policy and decision makers. This volume is dedicated to continuing the collection of evidence and research-based policymaking and further narrowing the gap between policy and research within the EHEA and broader global contexts. It aims to identify the research areas that require more attention prior to the anniversary 2020 EHEA Ministerial Conference, with an emphasis on the new issues on rise in the academic and educational community. This book gives a platform for discussion on key issues between researchers, various direct higher education actors, decision-makers, and the wider public. This book is published under an open access CC BY license.

Implementation and World Politics
Implementation and World Politics

Author: Alexander Betts

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2014-07-17

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0191021865

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A significant amount of International Relations scholarship examines the role of international norms in world politics. Existing work, though, focuses mainly on how these norms emerge and the process by which governments sign and ratify them. In conventional accounts, the story ends there. Yet, this tells us very little about the conditions under which these norms actually make any difference in practice. When do these norms actually change what happens on the ground? In order to address this analytical gap, the book develops an original conceptual framework for understanding the role of implementation in world politics. It applies this framework to explain variation in the impact of a range of people-centred norms relating to humanitarianism, human rights, and development. The book explores how the same international norms can have radically different effects in different national and local contexts, or within particular organizations, and in turn how this variation can have profound effects on people's lives. How do international norms change and adapt at implementation? Which actors and structures matter for shaping whether implementation actually takes place, and on whose terms? And what lessons can we derive from this for both International Relations theory and for international public policy-makers? Collectively, the chapters explore these themes by looking at three different types of norms - treaty norms, principle norms, and policy norms - across policy fields that include refugees, internal displacement, crimes against humanity, the use of mercenaries, humanitarian assistance, aid transparency, civilian protection, and the responsibility to protect.