Jocelyne Bourgon

Can ideas from the past help to invent a better future? In this part-memoir and part-guide, Jocelyne Bourgon explores this central question through the representation of her noteworthy career and professional life. A Public Servant’s Voice presents Bourgon’s reflections on her time in government. As the first woman clerk of the privy council for Canada, secretary to cabinet, and head of the public service from 1994 to 1999, Bourgon brings an unprecedented perspective to public administration and public sector reform. She reflects on decades of work in the public sector and the field of public administration, in Canada and abroad. This book covers her career from her first days as a public servant to creating A New Synthesis of Public Administration to face the challenges of the 21st century. Along the way she played a key role in the Charlottetown negotiations, helped bring Canada a decade of fiscal surplus, launched initiatives to strengthen the public service, and worked with peers around the world. Providing a public service perspective on events in Canada in the late 20th century steeped through the life of one public servant, this book is more than a memoir. Instead, it speaks specifically to those who are willing to take on the heavy burden of serving their fellow citizens and provides vital insights for the future of Canadian governance.

Can ideas from the past help to invent a better future? In this part-memoir and part-guide, Jocelyne Bourgon explores this central question through the representation of her noteworthy career and professional life. A Public Servant’s Voice presents Bourgon’s reflections on her time in government. As the first woman clerk of the privy council for Canada, secretary to cabinet, and head of the public service from 1994 to 1999, Bourgon brings an unprecedented perspective to public administration and public sector reform. She reflects on decades of work in the public sector and the field of public administration, in Canada and abroad. This book covers her career from her first days as a public servant to creating A New Synthesis of Public Administration to face the challenges of the 21st century. Along the way she played a key role in the Charlottetown negotiations, helped bring Canada a decade of fiscal surplus, launched initiatives to strengthen the public service, and worked with peers around the world. Providing a public service perspective on events in Canada in the late 20th century steeped through the life of one public servant, this book is more than a memoir. Instead, it speaks specifically to those who are willing to take on the heavy burden of serving their fellow citizens and provides vital insights for the future of Canadian governance.

Hvordan leder vi den offentlige sektor, sa vi fortsat kan levere samme eller bedre velfaerd i en tid med faerre ressourcer, stigende krav og oget kompleksitet? Dette sporgsmal var udgangspunktet for et forskningsprojekt, der blev indledt i 2006 af Jocelyne Bourgon med involvering af over 200 topledere, politikere og forskere fra bl.a. Australien, Canada, Holland, England, Brasilien, Singapore og New Zealand. Forskningsprojektet - The new Synthesis Project - korer stadig under Public Governance International (PGI) - pgionline.com. Mange lande har i de senere ar gjort store fremskridt i retning af at forbedre deres performance og compliance i form af en billigere og mere effektiv offentlig sektor. Disse reformer har imidlertid ikke indebaret en tilstraekkelig opmaerksomhed pa civilsamfundet. Den Nye Syntese er en faciliterende struktur, der undersoger, hvordan tidligere systemer og praksisser eventuelt kan sameksistere med de nye kompetencer, der kraeves for at forberede de offentlige myndigheder pa fremtiden. Den Nye Syntese har saledes ogsa fokus pa emergens (innovation af velvaere sammen med andre) og resiliens (modstandskraft og robusthed). Den Nye Syntese udforsker, hvordan offentlige myndigheder, borgere og lokalsamfund kan samarbejde og dele ansvaret om at producere offentlige resultater af hojere vaerdi og med lavere samlede omkostninger for samfundet. Den Nye Syntese fokuserer samtidig pa anvendelsen af de offentlige myndigheder og afhaengigheden af samfundets kollektive styrke. Den udforsker, hvilke midler de offentlige resultater kan opnas med. Den Nye Syntese for offentlig vaerdiskabelse i det 21. arhundrede er en oversaettelse af bogen A New Synthesis of Public Administration - Serving in the 21st Centrury, som er skrevet af Jocelyne Bourgon. Den danske udgave er bearbejdet af Kristian Dahl fra konsulenthuset LEAD - Enter next level, der samarbejder med Jocelyne Bourgon om at udvikle en strategisk rammemodel, som med afsaet i internationale og nationale pers

The New Synthesis (NS) brings together the role of government, people and society in a co-dependent and dynamic governing system. The purpose is to invent new solutions and build a better future - together.One thousand participants have been involved in some ways in the NS Initiative in the period between 2012-2015. One thousand journeys of discovery have been unfolding since.This second NS book documents four of those journeys and signals the need for a set of important conversations to re-think public innovation, re-frame leadership in a public sector setting and discuss probing questions on economic theories and demografic principles.About the author:Jocelyn Bourgon - President of Public Governance International (PGI) and project leader of the New Synthesis Initiative; an international collaborative research effort aimed at exploring the new frontiers of public administration. Former Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet of Canada, she served as Deputy Minister of several major departments including Transport, the Canadian International Development Agency and Consumer and Corporate Affairs. Jocelyne Bourgon has also served as President of a UN Committee of Experts in Public Administration and governance, president of the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) and Canada´s Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-opereration and Development (OECD).Jocelyne Bourgon is the author of A New Synthesis of Public Administration: Serving in the 21st Century (2011), which was published in a Danish version in 2017 (Den Nye Syntese for offentlig værdiskabelse).

Starting from the premise that democracy is more than simply a matter of universal suffrage and the holding of regular multiparty elections, and that development is about much more than growth of GDP, this Report focuses on how to make democracy work for pro-poor development and on development policies that in themselves uphold and promote democratic values. It argues that development and democracy are not only goals in their own right but must also be mutually reinforcing. Pro-poor development recognises that people need the ‘capabilities' to do and be the things that they have reason to value, such as being adequately nourished, having equitable access to justice and participating in decisions that affect their lives. It also recognises that development policies aimed at the general populace may have a more limited positive impact on particularly disadvantaged groups. Such groups need to be identified (for example, in terms of gender, ethnicity, religion, age or occupation) and policies need to be specifically designed for improving the lives of the poor. The Report argues that governments, the private sector, civil society and the international community each have a vital role to play in delivering development and democracy, and calls for responsibility, partnership and concrete actions from all these actors. Without responsibility on all these levels, development and democracy will remain rhetoric rather than become reality. Prepared by the Commonwealth Expert Group on Development and Democracy at the request of Commonwealth Heads of Government, the Report contains a number of recommendations for action at the national and international levels. It will be of interest to policy-makers, multilateral and bilateral agencies, the private sector, civil society organisations and all those committed to development, democracy and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.