Table of contents

Changes that the public sector needs to make

14. What changes should the public sector make to improve our skills?

• Start by improving our own understanding of the private sector. We are often very suspicious of the private sector. We have inadequate knowledge of the sector. Regeneration skills in some of the ENTRUST cities are dominated by architects and social workers. There is a need for economists and business administrators as well. Our professional cultures do not talk to each other enough. We need:
  – cross-disciplinary training
  – links between business administration and economic development, together with planning and social administration / social work
  – job descriptions/working contracts that include the objectives of involving the private sector
  – training in mediation skills
  – opportunities for sharing definitions and for joint action

• Look at our decision making processes. They may be too cumbersome and central-ised. To achieve decentralisation we need to:
  – Train professionals with cross-disciplinary skills
  – Allocate power to neighbourhood managers.

15. How do we develop joint monitoring and evaluation systems?

• Both public and private sector organisations are suspicious about evaluation and do not see a pay off from ex-post evaluation. Evaluation disturbs relationships of power between actors. To resolve these dilemmas we need to:– Focus on process evaluations, timely and oriented towards the information needs of actors in the neighbourhood. But we must beware of overly proce-dures, that hinder spontaneous actions, and time-consuming data-collection.
  – Make regular analysis of programmes and business plans and activities.
  – View monitoring as a means to stimulate practical cooperation which can also guarantee transparency.

16. Are there problems/dangers in working with the private sector?

• The private sector may only be interested while there is a high subvention of public money. If this is not forthcoming, they shift their focus. This happens at a macro(national level) as well as at the micro level (neighbourhood).
• There can be uses and abuses in system – for example, the private sector begins projects with incentives but fails to finish or withdraws when money is gone and job remains undone. This increases distrust rather than creating trust.
• Gentrification – if you upgrade an neighbourhood, it may not help the existing community
• The private sector may take advantage of the situation, especially if the public sec-tor is in a weak position.