Policy development and capacity building for geo-information provision
These basic premises of traditional public goods theory have recently been severely questioned for their lack of relevance and practicality in today’s globalised world by several researchers in the international development scene. See e.g. Kaul et al (1999), Kaul and Ryu (2001), Kaul (2001a,b), Stalgren (2000), Ferroni (2000). They argue that the “tectonic shifts that have affected in the recent past what is public and private force us to question the core dimensions in the standard definition of the public good”. These recent critiques can be summarised as follows:
- The lines between “public” and “private” are blurred and constantly changing. “Public” and “private” are not anymore fixed but time-variable properties of goods. Although some researchers suggest to abandon the public-private distinction altogether, others argue forcefully that a good’s properties should be made explicit- even though they may be of a temporary nature – because they determine the provision strategy for the good and affect actors’ decisions to reveal their preference and level of demand. They assert that the good’s “publicness” is a social construct. And that the public or private nature of a good is not a given but a matter of policy choice.
- The role of non-state actors in the provision of public goods is increasing, locally and globally. The state is not the only policy response to public goods provision. Civil society and private business can be active promoters and shapers of public goods. However it is recognised that although civil society and business can press for change in norms and adopt voluntary standards, only national governments can translate these demands into binding law and make agreements stick.
- Publicness in consumption does not mean positive utility for all. People enter market arrangements voluntarily. But in the case of a public good they may not have an avenue for criticism or an exit opportunity. They may be compelled to consume the public good (or bad). Therefore, it is important to ascertain whether a good’s publicness in form goes hand in hand with publicness in substance.
Kaul (2001a) proposes therefore an expanded definition (Fig. 1) for public goods that characterises them in terms of their:
- Publicness in consumption or inclusiveness: Inclusiveness originates in: (i) deliberate public policy to place or to keep the good’s benefits in the public domain, (ii) non-excludability of the goods benefits due to economic and technical reasons
- Publicness in provision: based on a fully participatory decision making and design. All key actors should have a fair opportunity to help shape the good in question, monitor its production, assess its impact and recommend, if necessary adjustments in its design.
- Publicness in the distribution of benefits.
Public goods theory has been national in focus for decades. However, in today’s rapidly globalising world, (formerly considered as pure) national public goods are becoming firmly interlocked across borders as they create cross-border, spatial spill-overs (externalities). We are also becoming cognizant of new, global public goods (and bads) through advances in remote sensing technology. Global public goods tend towards universality in the sense that they benefit all countries, generations and population groups. Examples of global public goods are the curbing of global warming, biodiversity and basic research. Examples of regional public goods and bads are (effective) transboundary water management and desertification respectively.
Recent research by and for international development agencies interprets many of today’s crises as a case of under-provision of regional and global goods. Recent research also deplores the fact that policy making has not kept pace with the challenges we are now confronting. See Kaul et al (1999) for a comprehensive review of global public goods (and bads) and a new policy agenda for their provision in the 21st century.
In addition to new insights regarding the spatial spill-overs of public goods (and bads), researchers now classify them also according to the aggregation mechanism that determines how individuals, organisations and countries contribute to their provision. See Sandler (1998) and Stalgren (2000). They distinguish four aggregation mechanisms: summation, best shot, weakest link and weighted sum. The summation mechanism is the classical mechanism of provision of public goods. Each contributed unit adds equally to the overall level available. Controlling desertification is an example of a summation mechanism. For a best-shot mechanism, the overall level of the public good is determined by the contribution made by the actor making the largest contribution. International norms and standards is an example. Since the chances of success are positively correlated with the resources available, “best shooters” are often rich countries. Weakest link aggregation is characterised by the fact that the smallest contribution made by an actor sets the effective level available for the entire group. Transboundary water management is an example. In the weighted sum mechanism, weights are applied to the individual contributions before summing them.
Geospatial Data Infrastructures through the lens of (global) public goods
Following Groot and McLaughlin (2000), we define a Geospatial Data Infrastructure (GDI) as encompassing the networked geospatial databases and data handling facilities, the complex of technological, institutional, organisational, human, and economic resources which interact with one another and underpin the design, implementation and maintenance of mechanisms facilitating the sharing, access to, and responsible use of geospatial data at an affordable cost for a specific application domain or enterprise. National GDI, enterprise GDI or regional GDI have often different specifications in terms of data standards, information policy aspects etc.
We attempt a new taxonomy of some core components of a Geospatial Data Infrastructure through the perspective of the recent developments of public goods theory. We follow the recommendations of Stalgren (2000) and Ferroni (2000) and adopt practical, “means definitions” of public goods as opposed to “goal-oriented”, or “policy-outcome” definitions. According to these authors, means definitions of public goods, involve the provision of intermediate public (or private) goods such as resources (data, information, knowledge, technology), best practices in given fields, policies, processes and institutions for achieving policy outcomes with public good characteristics, such as allocation and management of natural resources, public safety etc.
If we look at some GDI resources through the lens of Kaul’s definition of public goods, it becomes evident that there are discrepancies in their various dimensions of publicness as well as various aggregation mechanisms in place for their provision.