Island Benchmark - Key Benefits

PUBLIC SECTOR

Key benefits of island benchmarking and the identification of best practice for the public sector are:

·        By noting how and which islands have successfully implemented a range of major initiatives, island governments can avoid incurring unnecessary expenditure by adopting similar well planned processes from the start.

·        By assessing how effective a particular problem is being tackled in one island community, another island community can decide to follow the same or an alternative, more appropriate course of action to meet an identical challenge.

·        Even if an island is not yet in a position to move forward with certain strategies (e.g. because of a lack of funds, etc), just by being able to monitor island best practice trends elsewhere over an extended period will help that island to refine these draft strategies and policies right up to the point when they can be put in place. 

·        Risk is an increasingly important area for island governments to address and by being aware of how other islands are successfully managing risk, better systems can be put in place at the outset to minimise such risk and optimise the use of scarce resources. 

·         By noting what common external issues are impacting on islands around the world, island governments can apply more effective strategic planning to meet those issues whether they are potential opportunities or threats.

PRIVATE SECTOR

Primary benefits of benchmarking and the identification of best practice to the private sector are:

·        Islands when viewed as a single market can present significant business opportunities to organisations in terms of economies of scale or pinpointing specific islands in which to concentrate resources.

·        Potential contractual work on a range of island infrastructure projects and services can be more easily identified.

·        Island economic, social and environmental audit and impact assessments in terms of whether or not to proceed with an investment decision can be undertaken quickly and effectively.

·         Competitor initiatives can be monitored.

·        The involvement of the private sector is becoming increasingly important in a range of island public sector projects and services.  By demonstrating that best practice is being applied, confidence in such a partnership approach should be enhanced.