Demand Responsive Services to Desert Settlements
The Project will analyse
the service delivery system, identify critical issues and
strategies that provide leverage for change, design
technology-based models and service delivery models with the
potential to improve the system, and then trial, monitor and
evaluate their success. By tackling problems at the interface
between demand and supply of services to desert settlements, the
Project will seek to improve consumer access to these services, and
to achieve better outcomes for service providers.
The project is unique in its scale, operating over four regions in
four different jurisdictions: Western Australia, Queensland, South
Australia and Northern Territory. It will work across the many
levels of the service system from heads of governments to end
consumers, including people working in state government
departments, regional offices, private sectors providers, and
Aboriginal organisations.
The research team consists of 16 experienced researchers and three
PhD students from eight different universities and research
centres. As partnerships with Aboriginal organisations and
government departments gain strength, Aboriginal leaders and
service providers will also be drawn into the research team. There
is also a steering group, composed of a mixture of researchers,
Aboriginal leaders and services providers.
There are two phases to the Project, and four components. Phase
One, encapsulating Components 1 and 2, will position researchers on
the demand and supply sides of the interface between consumers and
service-providers. Phase One will generate data to inform
technology options (Component 3) and governance options (Component
4) for development under Phase Two. Integration of Phases One and
Two and the development of a theoretical framework will be
undertaken by a small cross-jurisdictional team of experienced
researchers. The integration team will provide a coherent
methodological and analytical framework for the project.
The project must bring together three different types of knowledge:
the local knowledge of residents of desert Australia; the
scientific knowledge of academic researchers; and the
administrative knowledge of service providers. The greatest
challenge for the project is to develop a project structure for
robust research, which is responsive to the expressed needs and
priorities of competing users and interests groups.
The broad purpose of the project is to improve livelihoods in
desert settlements from better access and effectiveness of
services. The five questions all research must respond to are:
- What are the perceptions, definitions and indicators of the
interface between the demand and supply sides of services, which
satisfy both consumer needs for access, and service-provider needs
for outcomes?
- What are the conditions that permit productive interpersonal
relationships and successful practice to develop between consumers
and service-providers?
- What are the preferred functions at which scales for services
to desert settlements, in satisfying both demand and supply based
criteria?
- What are the service type and delivery style priorities of
consumers within a restricted budget framework, and what is their
capacity to benefit from, and willingness to contribute to
services?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of different technologies
and governance options for desert settlements, and what are the
critical issues and strategies that can provide leverage for
change?
Benefits for remote settlements
Benefits start right away …
• Community members will be trained and paid to do
research
• Easy-to-understand maps of services will help local people
to understand services and what they do, and don’t do
• Plans for how to get better services will help local people
speak up strong to service providers
• Strong stories about successes and good new ideas will be
shared
... and get better down the track:
• Less paperwork for local leaders and council
employees
• Technology and management systems that improve the way that
services are provided
Too much ‘Service Business’
Services to desert settlements come from governments, Aboriginal
organisations and private companies. Services cover every aspect of
life: housing, water, phones, power, roads, rubbish, health,
education… and many more. The wide range of different
services and providers make this system hard to understand.
Community members, leaders, local employees, and service providers
all agree that it could be a lot better.
Almost all the
decisions about services are made far away from the community, in
regional centres and capital cities. Local people have little say
in what services they get and how they get them.
We want to know more about the local (or 'demand') side of
services. When people in settlements say what they want, does this
change what actually happens?
What this project will do
Many experts have tried to improve the system, but
most of them come from the supply side. Not much has changed, only
the mountains of paperwork have grown every year.
We think that better solutions can be found in settlements, where
community members and service providers work together. We will find
out whether services would work better if the people supplying them
listened and responded to their customers.
This does not mean that people will be encouraged to develop a
‘wish list'’. It also does not mean that
service-providers should react to political or other pressures,
without thinking. To be practical, the project must work within the
limited budgets available for services to remote settlements.
The
project will give the demand and supply sides of services equal
weight. The research team will work closely with consumers and
service providers, to find out what is happening from both sides,
and what new approaches could work better. It will also follow a
process that can change and learn as it goes.
How the project will work
We will work with community members and service providers in
remote settlements at four different sites, in desert regions of
Queensland, Northern Territory, South Australia and Western
Australia. We will paint a picture of the services that come into
settlements, who makes the decisions and how they are used.
We will do one-on-one interviews and run workshops in
settlements. We will also interview the workers and the bosses of
service providers, in regional centres, in capital cities and
Canberra.
The project will run for at least three years. In the first year
we will work in desert settlements to understand what is going
right and wrong. Then we will work with the local community and
service providers to find better technology and management
systems.
Some questions we will ask
The project will start by asking questions about household
services like housing, power, water, phones, roads, health and
education:
• What do people think about all of these services and
service providers?
• How much or how often do they use these different
services?
• How much do they get out of using these services and how
much do they want to get out of using them?
• How does that fit in with what the service providers want
to achieve?
• When people have to choose between services because there
is not enough money – which services do they chose?
Council and other local organisations can also be service
providers. We will ask questions about how these local
organisations deal with community members. We will also look at
what works well here and what doesn’t.
What the project will not do
• We will not ask about family, private or secret
business
• We are not part of any native title, Indigenous Land Use
Agreement (ILU) or land purchase business
• We are not a government policy initiative
But we DO want the project to help governments make better
decisions about service delivery in the future.
