Suchergebnisse

Many public policy programs fail to translate ambitious headlines to on-the-ground action. The reasons for this are many and varied, but for public administration and management scholars a large part of the gap between ambition and achievement is the challenge associated with the operation of the machinery of government itself, and how it relates to the other parties that it relies on to fulfill these outcomes. In their article, Carey and Friel set out key reasons why public health scholars should seek to better understand important ideas in public administration. In commenting on their contribution, I draw out two critical questions that are raised by this discussion: (i) what are boundaries and what forms do they take? and (ii) why work across boundaries? Expanding on these key questions extends the points made by Carey and Friel on the importance of understanding public administration and will better place public health scholars and practitioners to realise health outcomes.

We make the case that the adoption of the asset-based approach to community development could reframe how we think of Indigenous policy development and implementation. We present the case of a specific site which explicitly adopted this approach and delivered enhanced outcomes for communities. Drawing on this example we identify elements of successful Indigenous policy in terms of enhanced services for citizens: new ways of developing and implementing policy; widening the circle of participation and developing social and human capital. We identify the crucial role of appropriate resource allocation and the need for effective, ongoing facilitation to ensure the asset-based approach can be used effectively to improve community development at the local level. Based on the successful adoption of this approach in this example, we call for more research into the potential of this approach to drive new approaches in Indigenous policy and implementation.