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About the Accenture Global Cities Forum
Accenture Public Service Value Governance Framework
Executive Overview
City Reports
Return to the Accenture Global Cities Forum home page to access the Flash site   The Accenture Institute for Public Service Value conducted the Accenture Global Cities Forum in five world cities in 2008. Our goal: to explore people's perspectives on the role of government. What follows is a high-level summary of what the people of Toronto told us. (You can also read the Executive Overview 2009 for a summary across all 13 cities completed to date.)
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What is the Accenture Global Cities Forum?
The Global Cities Forum is an ongoing study into how members of the public define “public value” and what they expect of government. The Accenture Institute for Public Service Value designed the study as a series of citizen panels in world cities. Each Forum includes around 70 local residents randomly selected to represent the city’s demographics—providing strong, qualitative insight into what people think about government and public services and how they judge public value. What issues are on Toronto residents’ minds?
Participants in the Toronto Forum said they view their city as an excellent place to live, describing it as “friendly,” “clean,” “vibrant,” “exciting” and “diverse.” However, they also told us that government is falling short of their expectations in a number of key areas. Among their top concerns: health, public safety, employment and ease of transport. How do Toronto residents define public value?
During the Forum, we asked participants to think and talk about public value from three different points of view: that of service user, taxpayer and citizen. In their discussions and role-playing activities, they acknowledged the tensions among those perspectives. But through deliberations, they were able to agree on the general principles of public value that they believe should guide government in improving quality of life for all Toronto residents. Those principles are a long-term outlook; coordination and communication; transparency and accountability; equality and fairness; and efficiency and value for money. How can government address today’s most pressing issues?
Thinking specifically about health, ease of transport and public safety, Toronto Forum participants provided clear “to-do’s” for government: - Ensure quick, convenient and fair access to health care for all Toronto residents regardless of where they live, the treatment they need or their ability to pay; increase system capacity; focus on preventing ill health; and improve efficiency, reduce bureaucracy and increase resources on the front line in health care organizations.
- Improve the accessibility and reliability of the transport system, adopt goals and plans for the city’s long-term growth, and make sure organizations are held accountable for offering taxpayer value for money.
- Invest in initiatives to prevent crime, rehabilitate criminals and address the root causes of crime, improve police effectiveness in enforcing the law, introduce stricter sentences for violent crime and ensure that all of Toronto’s residents are equally well served.
How should government respond to the challenges of the multi-polar world?
The multi-polar world is characterized by multiple centers of economic power and business activity. It’s a world in which the old “rules” no longer apply. We asked participants to think about three global issues in today’s multi-polar world—the environment and global warming; the movement of people; and the rapid development of information technology and the collection of personal data. We also asked them how government should respond to the challenges and opportunities these issues present: - Toronto Forum participants believe that environmental degradation is having a noticeable effect on the city but believe their local and federal governments can do little about the damage caused by the “big economies” of India, China and the United States. Even so, they called for government to develop strategies for addressing environmental degradation and to implement tactics that encourage more eco-friendly behavior.
- Toronto participants believe their city and country have benefited enormously from immigration and tourism but argued that government could do more to address some issues around integration and assimilation of immigrants. They want immigrants to receive better language training. They also want government to expand capacity—in health care and education, for example—to meet swelling demand.
- Participants enthusiastically asserted that the growth of IT has, in general, significantly improved quality of life. However, they have reservations about how their personal data is collected, stored and used. They called for government to implement more disciplined information security—including developing a standard authorization process around the collection and use of such data.
What is the Accenture Public Service Value Governance Framework?
The Accenture Public Service Value Governance Framework reflects all Global Cities Forum participants’ principles of public value and their desire to be more engaged citizens. It illustrates how to strengthen the relationship between people and their government through: - Outcomes—Focusing on improved social and economic outcomes.
- Balance—Balancing choice and flexibility with fairness and common good.
- Engagement—Engaging, educating and enrolling the public as co-producers of public value.
- Accountability—Clarifying accountability and facilitating public recourse.
While all four components of the governance framework are important to citizens, we found that they warrant very different emphases depending on the issues with which citizens are concerned and the values that they hold in relation to each of the issues in the different cities. When it comes to health, learning and education, and public safety, which components of the framework are most important?
We asked Toronto Forum participants to think about the framework components as they relate to health, learning and education, and public safety: - When thinking about health, participants indicated that government’s primary focus should be accountability, which is linked closely with outcomes. Participants believe government should address balance by offering equality of access and care. And they view engagement as another means of improving accountability.
- When thinking about learning and education, participants argued that government should focus on outcomes, followed by accountability and then engagement and finally accountability.
- When thinking about public safety, participants asserted that government should emphasize both accountability and outcomes, followed by engagement and then balance.
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