Best practices in the participatory approach to delivery of social services

Abstract

With the growing appreciation that it is a fundamental prerequisite for the realization of development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed on by the world leaders at the September 2000 UN Millennium Summit, good governance has become one of the main expectations of citizens around the world. Hitherto, the monopoly of the few and privileged, the globalization of technologies is progressively enabling an inexpensive, instantaneous and broad diffusion of information, affecting styles of politics, management, culture and social organization across the globe. The relative ease of accessing information has increased the ability of citizens to share views, experience and knowledge, as well as to become aware of their rights, to make their demands known, and to increase civil influence generally.