Enhancing Governance in Hong Kong: A Study of Civic Engagement in Public Policy Making

The objective of this study is to examine how best to engage with civil society actors and organizations in Government’s policy making process, in order to enhance the quality and effectiveness of governance. The study covers four major public policy areas including arts and culture, environment, planning, and social welfare.

The study involves analysing the current patterns of Government-civil society engagement in the above-mentioned four public policy areas in Hong Kong, and surveying the associated patterns and institutional arrangements in other parts of the world, with a view to coming up with a set of practical recommendations to improve such engagement in future public policy making in Hong Kong. Research methods include literature review, documentary analysis and interviews with Government officials and civil society actors and organisations.

The Centre for Civil Society and Governance of the University of Hong Kong has been commissioned to carry out the study, with Dr Peter TY Cheung as the team leader. Commencing June 2006, the study is expected to take about eight months to complete.

The Convenor of the Study Group for this project is Mr WK Lam.

Please click here to view the report.