Centre for Public Impact

The Public Impact Gap

Public impact is what governments achieve for their citizens But there is a gap between what governments are achieving and could be achieving – this is the Public Impact Gap

At the Centre for Public Impact we’ve developed a way to measure this gap. Now you can compare how your country is performing against others in key areas of life.

We want government to close this gap. So we’re helping them identify where they are falling short, and what they can do to reach their full potential.
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Here’s how we do it

Everywhere we look, we see three things that matter most: Legitimacy, Policy and Action. These things are fundamental to public impact.

The Public Impact Fundamentals

Legitimacy, Policy and Action – three factors we have found are fundamental to public impact. The Centre for Public Impact has worked with leading practitioners and academics from around the world to develop a framework that sets out how government can improve the results it achieves for citizens

Legitimacy

Legitimacy is the underlying support for any government initiative and the attempts to achieve it. It is influenced by the level of public confidence, stakeholder engagement and political commitment

Policy

Policies differ in scope and scale but the quality of the policy is what matters. How can governments achieve this? By focusing on clear objectives, strong evidence and feasibility

Action

Without action, a policy is just a plan. Turning an idea into impact requires good management, measurement and alignment. Only then will an idea become a reality

Read the report How we assess public impact

Explore the Public Impact Observatory

You can read about how governments are working to achieve public impact from our extensive database of case studies from all over the world. It is called the Public Impact Observatory.

Using real-life stories, the observatory shows you how close a government is to achieving its full potential on each of the fundamentals.

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Our view on stories of impact globally

Our stories of impact from across the world demonstrate the extent of the problem, and how government need to change, so that the gap is closed.