Citizens’ Feedback on Service Delivery For Acceleration of the Millennium Development Goals Minar Pimple Regional Director, Asia and the Pacific UN Millennium Campaign

Why Citizens’ Feedback? The review of the past 10 years of progress indicates the following.  Policies, strategies, and systems are in place in support of the MDGs in many countries.  BUT! the delivery of essential services at the local level needs to be improved.  There is a need for more accountability and transparency throughout the service delivery systems. Primary beneficiaries of service delivery (i.e. citizens) need to monitor and track the MDG progress at the local level. CITIZENS’ FEEDBACK” “CITIZENS’ FEEDBACK”

What is it?  A tool that allows ordinary people to directly provide real-time feedback (good or bad) to government on MDG service delivery and receive immediate corrective response.  A tool that gives government first-hand feedback on felt needs from the ground.  A technological platform facilitates the feedback and response flow, mainly using SMS and Internet.  The feedback is built around the entitlements given to citizens through government programs and schemes overlapping with the MDG objectives.  The collected data are accessible to the public, media, and elected representatives, for policy advocacy.  There is a potential for addressing corruption from the bottom end of service delivery.  Media and communication to help amplify the voices

Key Actors Public Awareness Motivation /Promotion Advocacy Provide SMS and Internet related technology support Action / response to peoples’ concerns People’s feedback on social service delivery Manage info, analyse and report results Citizens & CSOs Government Media Technology Partners

Pilot in India – SAMADHAN 2 pilot locations: Koraput (Orissa) & Sehore (MP) Ensuring government ownership by integration into the government’s grievance redressal mechanisms. CSO partners (Samarthan, VSO/SOVA) managing the implementation. Technology platform developed and launched in Koraput.

Pilot in the Philippines – TINGOG pilot locations: Albay Province & Agusan del Sur Province MOU was signed among Governor, Mayor and CSO partner. CSO partner (SWP) managing the implementation. Technology platform is being developed. 3 major mobile companies agreed to allocate “2015” for Tingog, applying a lower rate for incoming SMS.

Pilot in Africa – HUDUMA

M&E and Knowledge Management  M&E system to document outputs & outcomes:  changes in service delivery outcomes relative to the benchmarks in the intervention sites  citizen satisfaction with service delivery  factors associated with citizen satisfaction and with service providers’ response  Improvements in service delivery - increased availability and access to services and information at the community level  Citizen empowerment - increased citizen’s demand for responsive and accountable governance  Levels of government buy-in & responsiveness to citizens’ needs and demands  Improvement in state-citizen interaction and dialogue  Enabling factors’ contribution; policies, political climate etc.  Learning and sharing  Knowledge management products  Web-based sharing of outcomes, experiences & lessons

Success Factors for Upscaling & Replication  Ownership of the Government – both Central and Local  Integration into the existing government schemes  Establishing back-end workflows to ensure timely responses  Ownership and empowerment of citizens  Accessibility and user-friendliness of the technology tool  Awareness raising and incentivization  Help transform the existing power relations by generating bottom-up pressure for change  Adaptability and replicability  Proof of concept  Open source technology

Thank you for your attention