Improving Access - Publications

Publications

Breaking the Glass Wall. A Practitioner's Agenda for Improving Access

This book features twelve examples of successful innovations that have improved access. It also discusses the challenges for policy makers and practitioners in overcoming obstacles.

Drawing from examples from all over the world, this volume shows that many worldwide problems in democratic governance can be traced back to the concept of Access. A glass wall that is not always immediately visible stands oftentimes between disadvantaged citizens and the services they are entitled to by law.

Improving Access

A short article on Improving Access written by Jorrit de Jong, Research Fellow at the Ash Institute of Democratic Governance and Innovation, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. The article was published in the March 2008 edition of 'Ideas and Insights', the monthly newsletter of the Global Network of Government Innovators, written by members of the Global Network.

Equity and Development

2006 World Development Report, The World Bank
This report analyzes the relationship between equity and development. It reports documents the persistence of inequality traps by highlighting the interaction between different forms of inequality. It presents evidence that the inequality of opportunity that arises is wasteful and inimical to sustainable development and poverty reduction. It also derives policy implications that center on the broad concept of leveling the playing field-both politically and economically and in the domestic and the global arenas. The report recognizes the intrinsic value of equity but aims primarily to document how a focus on equity matters for long-run development.

Access for all: Basic public services for 1.3 billion people

China Human Development Report 2007/2008, UNDP China and China Institute for Reform and Development
The 2007/08 China National Human Development Report, ‘Basic Public Services for 1.3 Billion People’ focuses on internal gaps in the delivery of four essential basic public services: primary and junior secondary education, basic health care, social security (including retirement, medical, workplace injury, unemployment and maternity insurance) and employment services.

The State of Access: Success and Failure of Democracies to Create Equal Opportunities

The academic volume ‘The State of Access: Success and Failure of Democracies to Create Equal Opportunities’ is now available.

This book documents a worrisome gap between principles and practice in democratic governance. 'The State of Access' is a comparative, cross-disciplinary exploration of the ways in which democratic institutions fail or succeed to create the equal opportunities that they have promised to deliver to the people they serve.

‘The State of Access’ is available at Brookings Institution Press and Amazon.