In Search of Canadian Political Culture - UBC Press

Transaction UBC Press Publishers
Mainstreaming Gender,
Democratizing the State?
Institutional Mechanisms for the
Advancement of Women
Shirin M. Rai
Mainstreaming Gender,
Democratizing the State
reflects the commitment
of the United Nations to
promote mechanisms
that aim to achieve
equality between women
and men. It identifies
institutional mechanisms
for the advancement of
women including national
machineries as one of
twelve critical areas of concern.
National machineries for the advancement of women
were initially conceived at the World Conference
on the International Women’s Year held in Mexico
City in 1975 and since then have been considered
systematically by world conferences on women in
Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985), and Beijing
(1995), as well as the sessions of the Commission
on the Status of Women. The twenty-third special
session of the General Assembly in Beijing reiterated
the significant role that national machineries play
in promoting equality between women and men,
gender mainstreaming, and monitoring of the
implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action as
well as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination against Women.
There has been a long-standing need for a volume to
bring together discussions on theory and practice
as well as comparative analysis and in-depth case
studies of national machineries; this book responds
to that need.
2007, 318 pages, 6 x 9”
1-4128-0570-8 / 978-1-4128-0570-4
paper $36.95 CRO
Monitoring Performance
in the Public Sector
Future Directions from
International Experience
John Mayne and Eduardo Zapico-Goni
A host of promising public
sector reform efforts are
underway throughout the
world. In governments
challenged by budget
deficits and declining
public trust, these reform
efforts seek to improve
policy decisions and public
management. Along the
way, program efficiency
and effectiveness help
rebuild public confidence in government. Whether
through regular measurement of program inputs,
activities, and outcomes, or through episodic oneshot
studies, performance monitoring plays a central
role in the most important current reform efforts.
Monitoring Performance in the Public Sector, now
available in paperback, is based on experiences
derived from comparative analysis in different
countries. It explains why there is interest in performance
monitoring in a given setting, why it has failed
or created uncertainties, and identifies criteria for
improving its design and use.
The contributors address a number of themes: the
critical importance of organizational support for
performance monitoring and making it consistent
with the organizational culture, the need for active
and effective leadership in defining criteria and
implementing practical performance monitoring, and
the value of linking ongoing measurement with more
than the traditional, strictly quantitative aspects of
public sector performance.
As we gain experience with performance monitoring
and its uses, such systems should become more
cost effective over time. This book will be of deep
interest to public managers, government officials,
economists, and organization theorists, and useful in
courses on public administration.
2007, 293 pages, 6 x 9”
1-4128-0632-1 / 978-1-4128-0632-9
paper $36.95 CRO
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