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Activities - NGO/UN Activities
Commission for Social Development,
February 4-13, 2004
Item 3: On the follow-up of the World Summit for Social
Development and the 24th Special Session of the General
Assembly; Priority theme: Improving public sector effectiveness
Seminar
Hosted by the Triglav Circle at the UN:
On the occasion of the forty-second session of the
Commission for Social Development and its consideration of its
priority theme Improving Public-Sector Effectiveness, the Triglav Circle
organized a workshop on The Concept of
Effectiveness in Public Policy. This workshop took place
Friday 6 February, from 1.15 PM to 2.45 PM, in conference room C
of the United Nations Secretariat. Approximately 35 people
attended this seminar. They represented delegates of member
countries, the UN secretariat and representatives of other NGOs.
Statement by Barbara Baudot,
Coordinator of the Triglav Circle to the Commission on Thursday,
February 5, 2004*
Thank you, Mr Chairman,
The Triglav Circle was established to help realize the core
message of the Social Summit, wherein governments expressed
their commitment to respond more effectively to the material and
spiritual needs of individuals, their families and the
communities in which they live.
Public policies are made to address these needs. They vary
considerably, with levels of resources, and, perhaps more
importantly, with cultures and political systems.
Yet, our contention is that the question of the effectiveness of
these public policies, notably those designed for the delivery
of essential social services, can and should be approached
through a universal framework inspired by basic moral
principles.
Three questions are illustrative of this approach.
First, Do public policies promote equity, mutual respect, and
sustainable life styles?
Second, Is public sector policy-making driven by altruistic
motivations?
And third, Is public policy guided by a
meaningful vision of life?
First: Do public policies promote equity, mutual respect, and
sustainable life styles?
Common sense should inform the policy maker that a harmonious
society does not evolve from measures that fall short of
equitable consideration of all members of society or which fail
to take into account the finitude of natural resources and the
fragility of the biosphere. Effectiveness would therefore ride
on answers, for example, to the following questions: Do public
policies address the root causes of inequities and inequalities?
Do they tend to redistribute income so as to reduce the enormous
gap between the rich and the poor? And, Do they tend to
discourage the relentless squandering of natural resources by
countries with advanced technology enabling them to do so?
Like the beam of the proverbial lighthouse, public goods should
provide for all on an equitable basis. Thus the provision of
public goods and services is ideally the most effective way to
promote fairness and harmony. Public goods must include
education, health, opportunities for employment, and the
protection of nature. Thus, members of societies and the world
community should share concern for the highest quality of public
services.
In this context, assessment of the effectiveness of the public
sector must be in terms of its efficacy in the promotion of
well-being for all, much more so than by the comparative costs
of delivering services.
Second: Is public sector policy making driven by altruistic
motivations?
Two thousand four hundred years ago, Aristotle noted the
likelihood that public policy pursued with self-serving intent
would fail. Today, too many public policies are motivated by
private gain through economic expediency and political ambition.
It is common that such murky initiatives become so bound up in
political dealings that the crucial public problems nominally
addressed become obscured.
Even if a policy is written in lofty and benevolent words its
faulty implementation will reveal the real underlying interest.
An all-too-common motivation for public policy is to ensure that
laissez-faire economic relations are securely embedded across
the world without consideration for conditions that make markets
equitable and open to all. Often this idea confuses public
service efficiency, which should be gauged in norms of equity,
for its economic perversion, expediency. The escalation of
social uprisings in poor countries where the provision of water
resources has been taken over by private corporations is one sad
example of exploitation of the circumstances of the indigent as
a result of this perversion.
Social policy-making would be well served by a large injection
of traditional virtues. Prudence would take the trouble to look
beyond numbers and percentages to the real issues. Honesty would
call for transparency in all dealings. Compassion would favor
mutual understanding and provide needed sympathy. Humility,
humanity, and honor would demand effectiveness by all measures
of social justice. Policy makers often reject these virtues but
the poor performance of cool-headed "instrumental rationality"
now prevailing in many forums suggests that a change is in
order.
Third, is public policy guided by a meaningful vision of life?
On the dark side of western modernity is the perception that
economic progress is the universal measure of well-being and the
foundation for happiness, even, implicitly, the purpose of life.
In this spiritual void, forces of the market promise fulfillment
in material things. Paradoxically, economically advanced
societies are challenged by mounting obstacles to their real
happiness, harmony, and security.
But even if public policies were to provide equity and equality
of opportunity and even if the actors were magnanimous, there
would still be need for a wider vision of human destiny.
Scientific thinking, as Albert Einstein has reminded us, has
significant limitations. It produces empirical knowledge and
indirectly, implies means of action. But, such thinking is not
the way to determine the meaning in life, nor to identify the
values essential to social harmony, sustainable life-styles, and
happiness. These can be discovered through spiritual,
philosophical, or religious thinking. This type of thinking is
the fount for appreciating nature and for the establishment of
the ideals of a good society.
Vaclav Havel, the former President of the Czech Republic has
articulated what many others have observed, that civilization
must regain a sense of purpose through a change in this sphere
of the spirit, in the attitude of humankind toward the world,
and his or her place in the order of existence. Only such new
understandings will allow the development of new models of
behavior, new scales of values, and a new sense of
responsibility to the world. This demand for regaining a sense
of purpose is a common spiritual minimum shared by great
philosophies and religions. In aspiring to such ends it should
be possible for the effective working of public policy to reduce
the glaring inequities and disparities that exist between people
and to overcome the obstacles to harmonious relations between
people and nature.
*The views in this statement are not
necessarily shared by all the members of the Circle but
illustrate the type of considerations that are raised in
gatherings of the Circle, consistent with its terms of reference
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