Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 17th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Panel on Health Care, Reforms and Implementation Author(s) James Bjorkman Institute of Social Studies The Hague Netherlands James Warner Björkman Title Health sector reforms in comparative perspective - An unending quest? File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Abstract Given the problematic nature of attempts to reform national delivery systems for health care, the paper reviews the logic of NPM (New Public Management) in the service sector. After a background on approaches to building capacity for social policy and on three generations of public sector reforms, it examines the reforms applied to the delivery of health services and suggests strategies for reform that take capacity into account. In particular it considers public-private partnerships that are often advocated to alleviate deficiencies in public health systems as well as to reduce financial stress on governments and on those who seek services from a largely unregulated private health sector. It concludes by discussing the role of governance in social policy and development.
