Research

Global Government Forum offers an end-to-end research and dissemination service, using our unparalleled access to a global audience of civil service leaders to gather information on their views, interests and needs, then analysing the results and producing authoritative and insightful reports. These may be retained by the client for market intelligence, or distributed via our website, emails and social media channels.

Our clients have various business needs, and over the years our Research Director Chris Punch has led projects – amongst other things – to position clients as thought leaders; to gather officials’ views on particular policies or agendas; to assess officials’ views of suppliers; to support arguments for reform or change; and to demonstrate the value of suppliers’ work.

To achieve these goals, the team applies a wide range of techniques including:

• • • • Identifying target audiences and generating lists of contacts;
      • Tracking down hard data on the structures, shape and nature of government bodies and workforces;
      • Running surveys, which typically gather more than 1,000 responses;
      • Conducting one-to-one research interviews with officials, using local languages;
      • Analysing quantitative and qualitative data to draw out trends and conclusions;
      • Producing reports and white papers explaining the results and findings;
      • Gathering quotes and input from senior officials to help assess and publicise the research;
      • Distributing the results to our audience via globalgovernmentforum.com;
      • Gathering leads via a system of free white paper downloads;
      • Holding launch events, seminars and round tables to examine and publicise research findings;
      • Stimulating interest and discussion via social media.

Case study: Global Public Sector Women Leader’s Index

As part of EY’s global work to promote and champion the role of women in leadership, Global Government Forum was commissioned to produce an index showing the proportion of senior civil servants who are women in each of the G20 countries. We carried out desk research to gather and verify figures for each country, then compared that data to information covering previous years and other cohorts – parliamentarians, ministers, private sector board members, and the wider public sector. We then carried out analysis of the data, and worked with EY staff to generate written materials for distribution at a global level.

Meanwhile, working with the UK arm of EY, we compared the UK women leaders data to other relevant datasets – examining departmental information on the proportion of women leaders and on pay gaps, and tracking progress over time. Then we carried out interviews with senior UK serving and former civil servants, producing both a draft report for EY and a supporting feature published on our website: interviewees included the former cabinet secretary, the UK government’s former chief legal adviser, and three serving permanent secretaries.

On publication, the EY report and the accompanying www.globalgovernmentforum.com feature attracted significant public interest, along with media coverage in the Independent, The Guardian, The Courier, The Scotsman, The Herald, Civil Service World, www.politicshome.com, The HR Director, Public Finance, Public Finance International and other titles. Links to the reports were tweeted by the then cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, and Clare Moriarty, permanent secretary of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.