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Ongoing Research

The IPS conducts research across a wide range of topics in the broad areas of public policy and public management. See below for details concerning recent and ongoing research projects. A review of the research activities conducted by the IPS is available here.

For information on the Henry Lang Fellowship and the Holmes Prize in Public Policy, please go to the end of the page.

Emerging Issues Programme (EIP)
In 2006 Chief Executives in the public sector agreed to pool funds to enable the IPS to conduct research on emerging longer-term issues of cross-cutting significance to the whole public sector. Since then more than a dozen projects have been funded under the EIP. These have covered a wide range of policy issues as can be seen from the list of completed projects:

Projects currently underway which are funded under the EIP include:

In addition future EIP projects approved to commence over the next two years include:

1. After Treaty settlements
Many commentators see the end of the Treaty settlements process as providing the opportunity for Māori and the Crown to segue into a new relationship. If settlement moves Māori from ‘grievance mode to productive mode’ then it also offers a new role for iwi organisations. Certainly, an iwi can, in theory, focus its attention on wealth generation rather than litigation. More recent settlements have also had an increasing emphasis on co-management of natural resources. On the other side of the relationship, the current government's election policy was that the end of settlements should also herald a shift in constitutional arrangements, serving as a trigger for the abolition of the Māori seats.

Major issues arise after the end of the settlement process in a variety of domains– environmental, political/ constitutional, and social/economic. Increasingly iwi are expected develop their natural resources but also to act as environmental guardians and, at times, regulators of development, either on their own or in partnership with the Crown. How will these roles (developer, guardian, regulator) work together and what are the policy implications if they are in conflict?

On political/ constitutional, will the completion of Treaty settlements leave Māori in a position of sufficient political, economic, social, and cultural strength that they themselves might no longer see the Māori seats as constitutionally necessary?

The focus of the proposed project is on the economic/social issues. What roles might iwi organisations adopt in the future, and what might remain the responsibility of the government? Iwi organisations have grown more sophisticated and complex but there is considerable variation among iwi in terms of: the size and nature of their resource base; access to professional skills for wealth-creation and governance; models for financial, social, and cultural development; and the intersections among them (including differing views on roles in social service delivery). Priorities among iwi differ on, for example, how much of their own money (as opposed to the Crown's devolved money) should go on social development. Where is the line to be drawn between the responsibilities of the state and those of the iwi? As a further complexity, a significant number of Māori, including some of those most disadvantaged in society, will be outside of these iwi structures.

Possible project – What are the future possibilities facing Māori in the post-settlement era? What is the range of choices facing iwi organisations as they address social and economic development for their people? What are policy issues that arise?

Project manager contact details – paul.callister@vuw.ac.nz

2. Realising the long-term potential of the continental shelf
Around 96% of New Zealand is under water and we have the world’s fourth largest Exclusive Economic Zone, yet only 3% of our GDP comes from the marine economy. In the face of growing international demand for resources, this is an increasingly valuable asset (reflected in recent media coverage about potential offshore oil reserves and the growth of aquaculture). Equally, the continental shelf contains a high proportion of New Zealand’s biodiversity, some of which is threatened by inappropriate fishing practices, pollution and the acidification of the oceans as a result of greenhouse gas emissions. Under international law New Zealand has sovereign rights to resources in the EEZ, and an obligation to protect the marine environment. However the high seas are subject to multilateral agreements which can influence the way we govern our EEZ. Oceans are a classic 'governance of the commons' challenge, and we need to take into account international best practice in this area.

One problem is that the regulatory environment affecting ‘oceans’ is based on sector-based approaches to manage particular species or resources, such as fisheries, or particular problems, such as marine pollution. Changes to marine ecosystems are cumulative in nature – pressures and drivers of coastal ecosystem change combine the forces of environmental fluctuation (such as ocean-climate “regime shifts”) and anthropogenic stressors or pressures. The partial sector based approaches struggle to grapple with complex adaptive systems.

Another problem is that in the absence of a clear lead agency, work occurs through a number of agencies which can compound the sector-based problems. Work has largely ceased on developing an Oceans’ Policy pending the resolution of the foreshore and seabed issue. Since 2005, LINZ has led a multi-agency programme, Oceans Survey 2020, mapping New Zealand's ocean 'farm', including the continental shelf but new initiative funding has ceased so Oceans 2020 projects are being managed within baselines. This work has thrown up collaboration issues with interagency work as well as technical issues concerning problems of sharing information and spatial integration. New Zealand needs to develop policies and institutions, using Oceans Survey 2020 baseline data, if our marine resources are to be adequately protected, managed and harnessed.

Possible project – What are the policies and institutional arrangements New Zealand needs to put in place to protect, manage, and harness the resources of its marine environment?

Project manager contact details – mike.mcginnis@vuw.ac.nz

3. Future State 2 - Directions for Reform of the New Zealand public management model
New Zealand has struggled unsuccessfully over the last decade to identify and implement system changes that simultaneously enable delivery of ‘bottom line’ organisational accountability for outputs and ‘top line’ cross-agency responsiveness and achievement of outcomes. In academia much is being written about post new public management (NPM) but there not yet any convergence about what might supplement or replace NPM. One explanation for this lacuna, the absence of the discovery of a ‘big new idea’, is that no one has the answer to the question ‘where is the step change going to come from?’

Much is known about the components of the New Zealand public management system, such as some of the pre-conditions for successfully joining up horizontal and vertical ways of working. Service delivery staff already know important elements of what is required to achieve step change, as part of developing innovative responses to emerging issues on the ground. New Zealand has the opportunity through ANZSOG to access the learnings from the New Synthesis project involving a dialogue between academics and practitioners from six leading jurisdictions.

We propose to capture, distil, and learn from these different perspectives by bringing together: a) the explicit knowledge about our formal public management system and its components, b) academic perspectives on comparative public management systems from the New Synthesis project, and c) the tacit knowledge of practitioners involved in solving practical inter-agency problems as they emerge. Whereas the Future State project was exploratory, the proposed next phase will be diagnostic.

This will involve as series of workshops/roundtables and focus groups which will explore recent examples of inter-agency collaboration such as the Community Link Centre (e.g. Linwood) or the joint border initiative. It will draw on the experience of subject experts (from New Zealand and internationally) together with the insights of practitioners. This process will develop advice on the specific areas of tension and leverage, identify any immediate first steps or quick wins, and suggest directions for reform of the overall public management system.

Possible project – Explore what new ways of working are required for the public sector to respond effectively to emerging complex problems. How do accountability and performance management systems need to be reframed to accommodate inter-agency modes of working? What needs to be retained and what needs to be added to or upgraded in the NZ public management model to drive the changes required?

Project manager contact details – Derek.gill@vuw.ac.nz

4. Citizen-centred alternative service delivery
Experience in both the United Kingdom and, more recently, in New Zealand has shown that increased investment in capability and service delivery has not necessarily resulted in corresponding improvements in performance. In the United Kingdom, the Blair government responded to concerns about disappointing public sector performance by placing greater emphasis on choice and competition.

The public debate in New Zealand is framed narrowly in terms of the privatisation of services, whereas in a range of sectors (health, education, welfare) we already have a wide variety of service delivery arrangements in place. At every level of the system, there are choices about the model that supports service provision (financing, funding, nature and mix of providers, client selection) as well as choices about the mode (service delivery, facilitation, co-production etc.). Taking all these choices together, they generate a wide spectrum of options for changing the nature of user engagement, and for achieving better outcomes by generating innovative forms of service delivery.

Work in this area would summarise the dimensions of choice in alternative modes of service delivery and the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches in generating innovation and enduring performance improvement. This could then be applied to a particular domain such as dependent older people to explore ‘welfare pluralism’ in practice.

Possible project – Identify the critical factors that define the role and limits of alternative service delivery models in adding public value, and apply those critical factor in a particular domain (such as dependent older people).

Project manager contact details – Derek.gill@vuw.ac.nz

5. Reframing the practice of policy
Current modes of policy development have been developed to respond to ‘technical’ problems solvable by ‘expert’ solutions. There have been some marginal changes to the approach to policy, with increased modelling capabilities, and increased use of surveying and consultation instruments, but the approach has essentially remained intact. While suitable for simple or technical problems, that approach to policy needs to be revised and policy practices need to be reframed if they are to be equal to emerging challenges. What would policy development look like generally, and what would its practices be, if multiple and incommensurate values, complexity, uncertainty were embraced instead of obfuscated, and if moreover, the increasingly sophisticated data analysis that is now possible was also brought to the task?

Many of the policy outcomes that will be front of mind for government (reducing obesity and frailty, intergenerational equity) cannot be achieved by provision of public services alone, but will require the active contribution of citizens (co-production). Moreover, there is significant untapped potential in the data analysis capabilities currently available. Policy solutions need to adopt 21st century tools and new ways of working, harnessing the knowledge and creativity of citizens in problem solving, policy and service design to create outside-in, citizen-centred, and business-centred government. In particular, policy will need to enlarge its frame to encompass co-production and co-design, while protecting probity and guardianship of information.

• How would policy practice need to shift to improve the ability of public services to understand and respond to the way different groups experience their world and build constructive solutions with those groups?
• What skills and dispositions would policy analysts and their managers need, in order to understand different types of problems and work from multiple perspectives?
• What adjustments are needed to incorporate these approaches?

Possible project - How does policy practice need to change to respond to an increasingly diverse populations and increasingly complex problems?

Possible sub-themes - What implications will this have for:
the education and training of analysts and advisers and
other public management processes to ensure they support new policy practices?

Project manager contact details – Derek.gill@vuw.ac.nz

Other Research
The IPS continues to sponsor research and research-informed discussions on a variety of other policy issues including constitutional matters (e.g. political finance, electoral reform, the head of state, etc.), economic issues (e.g. regulatory reform), the funding of research, science and technology. Current research projects include

Missing Men
This three-year Foundation for Research, Science and Technology research programme is led by Dr Paul Callister. It involves researchers from Victoria University and Waikato University, government agencies and the private sector. A key focus is on the gap between male and female educational participation and achievement, especially within Maori and Pacific populations. For further information, please click here for the project's page.

Criminal Justice Issues
The IPS has sponsored research and research-informed discussions on a variety of issues in the area of criminal justice. This has included the publication of several substantial volumes in recent years:Restorative Justice and Practices in New Zealand: Towards a Restorative Society(edited by Gabrielle Maxwell and James Liu) and Addressing the Causes of Offending: What is the Evidence? (edited by Gabrielle Maxwell).

Current research projects include:

Population Ageing Issues
In 2009 the New Zealand Institute for Research on Ageing (NZiRA) was incorporated into the IPS. Prior to this, the IPS had worked closely with NZiRA on various projects, including the hosting of research-informed events and the publication of a substantial volume (edited by Jonathan Boston and Judith Davey) on Implications of Population Ageing: Opportunities and Risks.

Current projects include a follow-up to the October Round Table on Support and caring for dependent older people – how should responsibility be shared? and presentations on the findings of the Families, Ageing and Migration project. A conference on Retirement Income Policies and Intergenerational Equity, is planned in collaborating with the Retirement Commission for July 2010. There is ongoing interest in workforce participation by older people and the application of the Active Ageing concept, in policy and in the community.

The Holmes Prize in Public Policy: Information on the Holmes Prize in Public Policy.
Henry Lang Fellowship: Information on the Fellowship and the recipients

 

 

© 2006 Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand