Desert Knowledge CRC Report Number 70

Made available by the Northern Territory Library via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT)."In essence, the project was developed to test the assumption that services that are responsive to user demand will be more effective as they are better aligned with user needs and behaviours. The project aimed to identify the factors that contribute to hold back the demand responsiveness of services to remote settlements of Aboriginal people. In doing so, we make observations on the mismatch between supply-side activities and demand-side realities, the gap in understanding between service providers and service users, discontinuity of planning and process, behaviours of actors within the service system and the over-reliance on individuals with particular skills and knowledge to make the system function. We build an analysis of policy and practice in engagement between service providers (especially government agencies) and Aboriginal people that underpins our responses to the research questions. The report goes on to recommend approaches to addressing issues identified through the research. These focus on the need for sophisticated processes of engagement between service providers and users. They also point to approaches to evaluation, learning, planning and monitoring of services that offer scope for further development." - Executive summaryExecutive summary -- Introduction -- Literature on remote services -- Context -- Research methods -- Service models -- Conceptual and analytical tools -- Responses to research questions -- Findings -- Conclusions -- ReferencesThe Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (2003?2010) was an unincorporated joint venture with 28 partners whose mission was to develop and disseminate an understanding of sustainable living in remote desert environments, deliver enduring regional economies and livelihoods based on Desert Knowledge, and create the networks to market this knowledge in other desert lands. The work reported in this publication was supported by funding from the Australian Government Cooperative Research Centres Program through the Desert Knowledge CRC