Publication: Indicators of Citizen-Centric Public Service Delivery
Loading...
Date
2018-05
ISSN
Published
2018-05
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report and the instruments it proposes aim at assisting public administrators in ensuring that their service delivery mechanisms respond to the needs and expectations of citizens. This document summarizes research undertaken under the set of activities dealing with citizen-centric governance indicators, that is, indicators that measure the capacity of public agencies to put the needs of citizens at the center of their service delivery mechanisms. The report is structured into five parts. Part I presents the conceptual framework that forms the backdrop for developing citizen-centric service delivery indicators and summarizes what citizen-centric service delivery entails. Part II introduces two complementary tools designed to assess the performance of public institutions and the quality of public services from the perspective of European Union citizens: a demand-side citizen survey and a supply-side self-assessment checklist for public administrators. These complementary instruments, assist public agencies identify gaps and areas for improvement in their service delivery mechanisms by gathering direct feedback regarding the experiences and perceptions of their users and by critically examining public sector efforts to fulfill the needs and expectations of citizens. The instruments are flexible, inspirational tools that provide an initial grid for administrations willing to move one step closer to their citizens. Part III describes options for customizing the instruments, which can be adapted to a variety of circumstances and service delivery types. Parts IV and V present the citizen survey and administrator checklist.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank Group. 2018. Indicators of Citizen-Centric Public Service Delivery. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30030 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Making Services Work : Indicators, Assessments, and Benchmarking of the Quality and Governance of Public Service Delivery in the Human Development Sectors(2011-06-01)Improving governance is central to improving results in human development. It is clear that money is not enough: improved outcomes from service delivery require better governance, including mechanisms for holding service providers accountable and appropriate incentives for performance. There is therefore a growing demand for indicators to measure how and whether these processes work, and how they affect health and education results. This paper makes the case for measuring governance policies and performance, and the quality of service delivery in health and education. It develops a framework for selecting and measuring a set of indicators and proposes options, drawing from new and innovative measurement tools and approaches. The paper proposes the adoption of a more systematic approach that will both facilitate the work of health and education policymakers and allow for cross-country comparisons and benchmarking.Publication Citizen-centric Governance Indicators : Measuring and Monitoring Governance by Listening to the People and Not the Interest Groups(2010-01-01)Governance indicators are now widely used as tools for conducting development dialogue, allocating external assistance, and influencing foreign direct investment. This paper argues that available governance indicators are not suitable for these purposes as they do not conceptualize governance and fail to capture how citizens perceive the governance environment and outcomes in their countries. The paper attempts to fill this void by conceptualizing governance and implementing a uniform and consistent framework for measuring governance quality across countries and over time based on citizens' evaluations. Using data from the World Values Survey (and other sources) we implement this framework into practice and build citizen-centric governance indicators for 120 countries over the period 1994 to 2005.Publication Burkina Faso - Improving Service Delivery at the Local Level : Challenges for Public Sector Management Reform(Washington, DC, 2002-12-16)Transition to a more democratic organization of the political environment led to the adoption of four laws in 1998 - Decentralization Laws - that provide for local governments' semi-autonomy, and define the overall context in which decentralization would occur, outlining the principles for implementation of the decentralization process. The report intends to create a platform for discussion, and consensus building in the subject of decentralization, including the preparation of a public sector capacity building program. Main findings outline the need to legally establish the number of tiers of branch offices for central line ministries, and, clearly define the roles of regional, and provincial branch offices (including the relation between branch offices) to avoid probable redundancies. Yet, insufficient management capacity within branch offices may jeopardize the vital work of identifying, and tracking resources to be transferred, aggravated by a weak personnel management concerning the appointments to be decided by the line ministry central administration. In addition, the financial management is plagued by limited ministry responsibility for its own budget, by limited responsibility given to branch offices, and, by limited planning and monitoring, all conducive to inefficient central financial control systems. The report intends to diagnose possible solutions in service delivery at the local level, highlighting public sector management reforms as its main focus.Publication Tunisia: Problem-Driven and Adaptive Approach for Citizen-Centric Service Delivery(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-02-26)The document collection focuses on GovTech case studies and equitable growth, finance, and institutions. It emphasizes citizen-centric public services that are universally accessible and supported by the GovTech Global Partnership. One of the case studies highlighted in the collection is a project that supports a government in providing equitable access to quality social protection and education services through a GovTech approach. The project aims to place the citizen at the center of the reform process and combines public sector innovations, change management, and digital technologies. The document also discusses the project's adaptive approach to rapidly respond to the immediate needs of the government, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lessons learned from this problem-driven and iterative approach.Publication Voice, Choice, and Decision 2 : A Study of Local Basic Service Delivery in Cambodia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-03)The Voice, Choice and Decision (VCD): a study of local governance processes in Cambodia (VCD1) study, conducted in 2011, led to a set of useful insights into the channels through which citizens are heard in commune level decision-making. It presented the formal and informal framework for, and constraints to, citizens' voicing issues, and the overall downward accountability framework of commune and sangkats in Cambodia. The findings of this exploration provide policy makers, development partners and other stakeholders significantly more detail and in-depth understanding of commune decision-making processes and the engagement of citizens, informing both quantitative studies and the very extensive literature on decentralization reform. Voice, Choice and Decision: local basic service delivery: (VCD2) aims to generate better understanding of the platform for citizen and user voice in basic service delivery by considering, in detail, the nature, scope and role of local agents (committees, institutions, individuals) established to implement sector policies, and to identify any other informal channels for the voice of citizens and users of services. In its final form, the study focuses on developing an understanding of voice and accountability in three sectors, health, education and rural water supply. The research and documentation adopted a common framework to the extent possible, considering, in the first instance, what was intended by policy (the arena, organizations, roles and relationships), and comparing this with the reality on the ground in each of the sectors. This final paper then considers the cross cutting themes, identifying the commonalities and differences between these sectors.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Design Thinking for Social Innovation(2010-07)Designers have traditionally focused on enchancing the look and functionality of products.Publication Government Matters III : Governance Indicators for 1996-2002(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-08)The authors present estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 199 countries and territories for four time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. These indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 25 separate data sources constructed by 18 different organizations. The authors assign these individual measures of governance to categories capturing key dimensions of governance and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators in each of the four periods. They present the point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of errors for each country for the four periods. The governance indicators reported here are an update and expansion of previous research work on indicators initiated in 1998 (Kaufmann, Kraay, and Zoido-Lobat 1999a,b and 2002). The authors also address various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of errors.Publication Breaking the Conflict Trap : Civil War and Development Policy(Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003)Most wars are now civil wars. Even though international wars attract enormous global attention, they have become infrequent and brief. Civil wars usually attract less attention, but they have become increasingly common and typically go on for years. This report argues that civil war is now an important issue for development. War retards development, but conversely, development retards war. This double causation gives rise to virtuous and vicious circles. Where development succeeds, countries become progressively safer from violent conflict, making subsequent development easier. Where development fails, countries are at high risk of becoming caught in a conflict trap in which war wrecks the economy and increases the risk of further war. The global incidence of civil war is high because the international community has done little to avert it. Inertia is rooted in two beliefs: that we can safely 'let them fight it out among themselves' and that 'nothing can be done' because civil war is driven by ancestral ethnic and religious hatreds. The purpose of this report is to challenge these beliefs.Publication Governance Matters VIII : Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators 1996–2008(2009-06-01)This paper reports on the 2009 update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) research project, covering 212 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance between 1996 and 2008: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. These aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from 35 data sources provided by 33 different organizations. The data reflect the views on governance of public sector, private sector and NGO experts, as well as thousands of citizen and firm survey respondents worldwide. The authors also explicitly report the margins of error accompanying each country estimate. These reflect the inherent difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data. They find that even after taking margins of error into account, the WGI permit meaningful cross-country comparisons as well as monitoring progress over time. The aggregate indicators, together with the disaggregated underlying indicators, are available at www.govindicators.org.Publication Governance Matters IV : Governance Indicators for 1996-2004(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-06)The authors present the latest update of their aggregate governance indicators, together with new analysis of several issues related to the use of these measures. The governance indicators measure the following six dimensions of governance: (1) voice and accountability; (2) political instability and violence; (3) government effectiveness; (4) regulatory quality; (5) rule of law, and (6) control of corruption. They cover 209 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. They are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 37 separate data sources constructed by 31 organizations. The authors present estimates of the six dimensions of governance for each period, as well as margins of error capturing the range of likely values for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. In fact, the authors give examples of how individual objective measures provide an incomplete picture of even the quite particular dimensions of governance that they are intended to measure. The authors also analyze in detail changes over time in their estimates of governance; provide a framework for assessing the statistical significance of changes in governance; and suggest a simple rule of thumb for identifying statistically significant changes in country governance over time. The ability to identify significant changes in governance over time is much higher for aggregate indicators than for any individual indicator. While the authors find that the quality of governance in a number of countries has changed significantly (in both directions), they also provide evidence suggesting that there are no trends, for better or worse, in global averages of governance. Finally, they interpret the strong observed correlation between income and governance, and argue against recent efforts to apply a discount to governance performance in low-income countries.