Social Innovation, an Alternative Approach to South African Local Government Service Delivery?

The use of social innovation for improving local government service delivery appears to be a lagging area in South Africa. This article illustrates how social innovation could be used to enhance citizen participation for improved service delivery by the South African local government. This is achieved through a proposed framework for local government service delivery that is predicated on social innovation. It is argued that citizen participation has become essential to local government service delivery since citizens are in a better position to come up with solutions to problems affecting them. This argument is based on a lack of citizen participation in local government service delivery, which is consistent with the traditional public service delivery cycle. Conventional public administration and governance approaches that fall short in meeting local government service delivery challenges highlight this lack. A reform, premised on social innovation, that positions citizens as central to public service delivery is highlighted in this article.

Article based on original source.