ABOUT THIS SITE

This site is a practical place for public sector women to exchange ideas. Public sector women around the world are dealing every day with big challenges. They do a wonderful job making the most of the resources they have and dealing with unending demand and making hard choices.

I have spoken to many hundreds of public sector women and have been amazed at their knowledge and skills. In our conversations we have swapped ideas about practical ways to solve problems and to improve policies and services. I have written down some of the things I have learned just to get the conversations started.

It is not a commercial site and is written by public sector women (with help from a few good men). .

It will grow as more women contribute. It will

• Capture wisdom
• Provide a body of knowledge
• Put out problems to the universe to see if others have tackled similar issues
• Provide a collection of papers
• Encourage conversation
• Review books and papers

Because the editor is Australian and draws most of the experience in this first edition from the Australian context, it is limited. The problems our colleagues have in the rest of the world are different in scale and urgency. As one African woman said to us "You worry about such little things!". We will add more relevant content as it comes in.

There are many challenges we have in common. The protection of citizens; developing proposals for governments to consider; responding to political urgency; managing organisations and budgets and a deep concern to make a difference to the world we live in. Whilst the context will always be very different, there will always be something we can learn from each other.

Sue Vardon