1st Edition

Doing Public Good? Private Actors, Evaluation, and Public Value

Edited By R. Pablo Guerrero O., Peter Wilkins Copyright 2016
    222 Pages
    by Routledge

    222 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book examines the contributions of non-public organizations, such as foundations, philanthropies, charities, non-governmental organizations, private businesses, and entrepreneurs to public goods and services. Too often the impact of the contributions of such private actors are overlooked. However, they are playing an increasing role in meeting societal needs across the developing world.

    Doing Public Good? lays out key elements that need to be considered in evaluating the net results achieved by these private actors. It uses case studies and analysis to show how to answer such questions as: Is it working? How do they and the public know they are doing good? And how to improve? Such questions are particularly important since little is known about the net results of private avenues for delivering public value.

    The contributors conclude that "doing good" organizations need to be more transparent and accountable regarding their operations and achievements. The book suggests perspectives on how better monitoring and evaluation systems can improve their accountability.

    Foreword, Ray C. Rist

    Preface, R. Pablo Guerrero O. and Peter Wilkins

    Part I: Concepts, Questions, and Context

    1 The Provision and Evaluation of Public Services by Nonpublic Actors: Concepts and Questions
    Andrew Gray

    2 Three Models of Doing Good: Recognizing the Implications of Delivering Behavior Change and System Transformation
    Tom Ling

    3 Philanthropy, the State, and Public Goods
    Tobias Jung and Jenny Harrow

    Part II: Cases

    4 Accountability for the Public Policy Contribution of Not-for-Profit Organizations: Who is Accountable to Whom, and for What?
    Peter Wilkins and David Gilchrist

    5 Achieving Results for Private Actors in Africa
    Per oyvind Bastoe and Elizabeth M. White

    6 The Rise of Indigenous African Foundations/ Philanthropies and their Development Impact
    Andrew O. Asibey

    7 How Accountable Are Charitable Organizations: An Empirical Study of International Children's Aid Organizations
    David Kirsch and Robert Schwartz

    8 The Provision of Public Goods and Services by Socially Oriented Entrepreneurs: Experiences of Indian Health Care
    Andrew Gray and Rosalind Miller

    9 Social Impact Bonds: The Role of Evaluation
    David Gilchrist and Peter Wilkins

    10 Being Good, but Doing Good?: The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation's Role in the Provision of Safe Water Supply in Africa
    R. Pablo Guerrero O.

    11 Reframing "Doing Good": A Canadian Case Study
    Pearl Eliadis

    Part III: Conclusions

    12 Conclusions
    Donald Lemaire

    Contributors

    Index

    Biography

    R. Pablo Guerrero O. is the Network Director of the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency, a multi-stakeholder action network to advance fiscal transparency, public participation and accountability in countries around the world. He was a founding Commissioner of the Federal Institute for Access to Information & Data Protection in Mexico (2002-2009), where he subsequently was the Secretary General (2013-14). Between 2009 and 2013, he was the manager of the Mentoring Governments for Transparency Program at the International Budget Partnership. Before 2003, he was a university professor at the CIDE (Center for Research & Teaching in Economics) in Mexico (1994-2003) specialized in public administration reform for accountability, anticorruption and fiscal transparency. He started his career as news reporter and correspondent in Washington & Paris, where he studied master and PhD programs in public policy (SAIS-Johns Hopkins University and Sciences-Po).