Title: Reforming Public Services in India: Drawing Lessons from Success
1Reforming Public Services in India Drawing
Lessons from Success
- Vikram K. Chand
- The World Bank
- February 2, 2005
2Objectives of the Report
- The report documents 25 cases of success in
improving public services across sectors/states. - Cases were chosen on the basis of three criteria
(a) Substantial institutional reforms introduced,
(b) Documented success in improving outcomes
through user surveys, objective indicators, and
external recognition, and (c) initiatives in
existence for at least two years. - The main objective was to draw lessons on how to
improve public service delivery across sectors.
3Success in a Difficult Environment
- These reforms took hold, despite serious systemic
obstacles to improving public delivery systems. - These systemic obstacles include
- Overstaffing.
- Frequent transfers of public servants.
- Weak anti-corruption enforcement mechanisms.
- The need for electoral financing reform.
4The Enabling Environment
5The Role of Political Leadership
- Vision Counts The political leadership
influenced the kinds of reforms pursued in
several states, like AP, MP, and Karnataka. - Bipartisan consensus across party lines
facilitated reforms to improve program delivery
in Tamil Nadu. - Electoral incentives motivated political leaders
to support change in Tamil Nadu and Madhya
Pradesh.
6An Empowered Civil Service
- Stability of tenure crucial to empowering civil
servants spearheading reform initiatives. - Managerial autonomy for decision-making.
- Political support and signaling.
- Civil Servants when empowered by political
leaders can be an effective instrument for
innovation in service delivery.
7The Role of Civil Society
- Civil society and media as source of pressure for
change. - MKSS in Rajasthan.
- Civil society as partner in implementation
- The Bangalore Agenda Task Force
- Several initiatives actively sought to spark
demand for change. - Delhis Public Grievances Commission
8INSTRUMENTS FOR REFORMING PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY
9Simplifying Transactions Cases
- Report examined several cases using e-governance
to simplify transactions. - One-stop-shops E-Sewa and Friends
- Government Certificates Bhoomi
- Rural Card in Andhra Pradesh
- Computerizing Inter-state Check-posts in Gujarat.
10Simplifying Transactions Lessons
- High-level political support key to overcoming
resistance. - Stability of tenure for administrative champions
necessary. - Importance of Public-Private Partnerships in
E-Governance - Low levels of citizen awareness in rural areas an
obstacle to change. - No jobs lost in any of these initiatives Win-Win
Reforms.
11Restructuring Agency Processes Cases
- State-Wide Agencies
- Maharashtras Registration Department
- The Karnataka State and Road Transport
Corporation. - City-Wide Agencies
- Transforming City Agencies in Bangalore
- Reforms in the Surat Municipal Corporation
- Making the Hyderabad Water Supply and Sewerage
Board more responsive.
12Restructuring Agency Processes Key Lessons
- Business process re-engineering needs to
accompany computerization. - Centralized monitoring systems can empower senior
management in relation to front-line staff and
junior management. - Inter-agency coordination needed to break down
silos. - Restoring Performance Incentives in Agencies.
- More Effective Linkages with Civil Society
Needed.
13Promoting Competition Cases and Lessons
- Cases
- Telecom Reform in India, 1980-2004.
- Opening up Rural Marketing in MP.
- Lessons
- Conventional wisdom borne out Competition
benefited consumers in telecom and farmers in MP.
- Rent-seeking by vested interests curbed.
- Strong action at highest-levels needed to push
reform - PMO push reform in the Telecom case.
- MP government amend Mandi laws to allow for
greater private participation.
14Decentralization Cases and Lessons
- Cases
- Surat After the Plague, 1994-2005.
- Decentralizing Teacher Management in MP.
- Lessons
- Decentralization in Surat freed the municipal
commissioner to focus on policy issues and
empowered zonal commissioners, on the ground, to
deal with a fast-changing situation. - Decentralizing teacher control to PRIs in MP
lowered teacher absenteeism and reinforced
accountability. - Use of para-teachers made it possible to extend a
decentralized model of teacher management in MP
that boosted school enrollment in a
fiscally-constrained setting.
15Building Political Support for Program Delivery
- Comparing HD Outcomes in Tamil Nadu and
Karnataka. - Both States possess similar human development
outcomes in 1981 By 2001, Tamil Nadu had jumped
to third place while Karnataka remained in
seventh place, despite similar rates of economic
growth. - Gap is now narrowing, but the question remains
why TN was a superior performer in the 1980s and
1990s on the whole. - Key difference is the role of the Tamil Nadu
government in fashioning a set of public policies
and interventions to boost human development
beyond what might have been expected by growth
alone.
16Welfarism and Politics in Tamil Nadu
- DMK and AIDMK share similar ideology rooted in
the thought of Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy. - Food crisis in the late 1960s led to the end of
the Congress hegemony in Tamil Nadu Both DMK and
AIDMK learned early on the importance of social
programs for electoral success. - Both parties engage in one-upmanship to extend
social programs, including the adoption of a
universal PDS system, a midday meal scheme in
1982, effective family planning and nutritional
interventions.
17Political Support Spurred Tamil Nadus Civil
Service into Action
- Programs effectively implemented by Tamil Nadus
civil service. - Collector in TN a senior officer unlike many
states TN also have no divisional commissioner
system to dilute the collectors power and
Secretaries possess tradition of autonomy in
implementation in the state. - Karnataka lacked an entrenched welfarist ideology
to push social programs Mid-day meal scheme in
the state, for example, not launched until 2002
northern Karnataka remains behind the rest of the
state.
18Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms Cases
- Reducing Frequent Transfers in Karnataka.
- Report Cards in Bangalore, 1994-2004.
- Right to Information Rajasthan and Delhi.
- Strengthening Anti-Corruption Institutions
- The Central Vigilance Commission
- The Karnataka Lok Ayukta
- Public Interest Litigation and the Courts.
19Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms
Premature Transfers
- Karnataka reduced premature transfers through
quantitative caps, computerized counseling in
education, and public reporting of transfer
numbers. - New approaches might involve the creation of
statutory civil services boards to restrict
transfers, legal minimum tenures, and a stability
index to track transfers.
20Aggregate Transfers, Karnataka, 2000-05
21Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms Report
Cards
- Report cards prod agency heads into action, and
mobilize public pressure for change.
22Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms Other
Lessons
- Anti-corruption Institutions need to focus more
on corruption in service delivery the media can
be an important ally when prosecution is
difficult. - Access to information laws work best when appeals
processes are simple and pressure from below
encourage their use. - The role of the Courts in improving delivery has
been positive Need to guard against risk of
supplanting administrative initiatives to reform
services.
23Tactics of Reform
- Justifying reform by invoking past traditions
- Dealing with employees (e.g. accommodating
potential spoilers, guaranteeing no job losses
upfront, improving working conditions). - Activating constituencies that gain from reform
against opponents of the process - Sequencing is critical for Success
- All reforms were incremental in nature the big
bang approach in the rare cases where it was
tried did not deliver results. Vested interests
were overcome in many cases.
24Sustaining Reforms
- Popular reforms usually survived political
transitions. - Bipartisan consensus helped sustainability.
- Grounding reforms in law made them harder to
reverse. - Sound revenue models facilitated sustainability.
25Transplanting Reforms
- Not a mechanical process reforms are often
highly context-bound. - Competition between agencies, cities, and states
help spread of ideas/innovations. - NGO networks facilitate transmission of knowledge
about good practices. - GoI can play an important role in facilitating
cross-state/agency interactions establishing an
overarching monitoring system and structuring
incentives for reform.