The vision

OPI works for a world where people can rely on their governments for security, justice, good education and high-quality healthcare. The challenge of improving public sector performance is both great and urgent if people, particularly the poor, are to get the public services they need.

Moreover, unless public sector performance improves, charitable contributions to vaccines, medicines, bed nets and battery powered laptops are likely to be wasted because it will be difficult to scale up these innovations without a public sector able to deliver them.

The strategy

OPI is building a unique bridge between rigorous academic research and the people who make public policy and manage public services. One end is grounded in OPI’s own research and in its international, world-class intellectual assets; the other in its global network of senior government officials, opinion-formers, business leaders and non-governmental organisations. The bridge is constructed from local and international `practitioner-research communities’ (PRCs) that form around problem-solving research projects.

OPI’s scope is global but its focus is precise. Its multi-disciplinary, cutting-edge research distinguishes between the ideal and what will work locally by analysing and comparing the institutions and incentives that motivate and restrain the behaviour of politicians, government bureaucrats, firms and households in different settings. This research approach is part of a rapidly growing field of academic endeavour which has yet to be applied widely in an international comparative context.

OPI delivers value by involving practitioners, as well as academics, in identifying the problems and in the search for feasible solutions. This, together OPI’s low-cost `virtual’ business model and its use of state-of-the art ICT, places it in a unique position to influence the way public services are organised and delivered.

OPI needs your support

OPI has entered a phase of intensive development. Over the next five years it will assemble world-class research teams, expand its research portfolio rapidly and create a supportive intellectual and administrative infrastructure for its practitioner-research communities.

We are looking for partners who share our vision and can help us turn it into a reality. Contact Roger Hay at rhay@opi.org.uk for more information.

OPI at a glance

OPI development plan