Public Service Delivery: Role of Information and Communication Technology in Improving Governance and Development Impact

Bhatnagar, Subhash Working Paper Public Service Delivery: Role of Information and Communication Technology in Improving Governance and Development Impact ADB Economics Working Paper Series, No. 391 Provided in Cooperation with: Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila Suggested Citation: Bhatnagar, Subhash (2014) : Public Service Delivery: Role of Information and Communication Technology in Improving Governance and Development Impact, ADB Economics Working Paper Series, No. 391, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila, https://hdl.handle.net/11540/4206 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/128524 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK AsiAn Development BAnk 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines www.adb.org Public Service Delivery: Role of Information and Communiation Technology in Improving Governance and Development Impact The paper discusses the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for improving governance in the delivery of services to the poor. It provides examples from Asean countries where ICT use has improved efficiency, accountability, transparency, and has reduced bribery in service delivery in a variety of sectors such as health, education, food security, and issue of certificates/licenses. Learning from the examples, the paper identifies critical success factors for wide-scale deployment of ICTs in service delivery. About the Asian Development Bank ADB’s vision is an Asia and Pacific region free of poverty. Its mission is to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people. Despitethe region’s many successes, itremains home to two-thirds of the world’s poor: 1.7 billionpeople who live on less than $2 a day, with 828million struggling on less than $1.25 a day. ADBis committed to reducing poverty through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Based in Manila, ADB is owned by 67 members, including 48 from the region. Its main instruments for helping its developing member countries are policy dialogue, loans, equity investments, guarantees, grants, and technical assistance. PuBlIC SeRvICe DelIveRy: Role of InfoRmATIon AnD CommunIATIon TeChnoloGy In ImPRovInG GoveRnAnCe AnD DeveloPmenT ImPACT Subhash Bhatnagar adb economics working paper series no. 391 march 2014 ADB Economics Working Paper Series Public Service Delivery: Role of Information and Communication Technology in Improving Governance and Development Impact Subhash Bhatnagar No. 391 | March 2014 Subhash Bhatnagar is an honorary adjunct professor at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). He was a Chair Professor, member of Board of Governors and the Dean at different times in his 30-year tenure at IIMA. ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK Asian Development Bank 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines www.adb.org © 2014 by Asian Development Bank March 2014 ISSN 1655-5252 Publication Stock No. WPS146348 The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. By making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area, or by using the term “country” in this document, ADB does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. Note: In this publication, “$” refers to US dollars. The ADB Economics Working Paper Series is a forum for stimulating discussion and eliciting feedback on ongoing and recently completed research and policy studies undertaken by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) staff, consultants, or resource persons. The series deals with key economic and development problems, particularly those facing the Asia and Pacific region; as well as conceptual, analytical, or methodological issues relating to project/program economic analysis, and statistical data and measurement. The series aims to enhance the knowledge on Asia’s development and policy challenges; strengthen analytical rigor and quality of ADB’s country partnership strategies, and its subregional and country operations; and improve the quality and availability of statistical data and development indicators for monitoring development effectiveness. The ADB Economics Working Paper Series is a quick-disseminating, informal publication whose titles could subsequently be revised for publication as articles in professional journals or chapters in books. The series is maintained by the Economics and Research Department. CONTENTS ABSTRACT v I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. PAYMENT OF PENSIONS AND WAGES THROUGH ELECTRONIC BANKING 3 A. Organizational Components of the System 4 III. INDIA’S UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION PROGRAM 6 IV. COMPUTERIZED MANAGEMENT OF LAND RECORDS 8 V. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY USE IN EDUCATION AND HEALTH PROGRAMS 10 VI. PROMOTING CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT THROUGH INFORMATION SHARING 14 VII. EMPOWERING FARMERS AND FISHERS: SHARING KNOWLEDGE AND PRICE INFORMATION 16 VIII. EMPOWERING THE “UNBANKED” THROUGH MOBILE BANKING 18 IX. KEY LESSONS FROM SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS 19 A. Holistic Solutions 20 B. Focus on Mobile Technology 21 C. Public–Private–Non Government Organization Partnership Critical for Operating in Rural Areas 22 D. Emphasize Content: Do Not put the cart before the horse 22 X. CONCLUSION 23 REFERENCES 25 ABSTRACT The focus of this paper is on improving governance through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the delivery of services to the poor, i.e., improving efficiency, accountability, and transparency, and reducing bribery. A number of papers recognize the potential benefits but they also point out that it has not been easy to harness this potential. This paper presents an analysis of effective case studies from developing countries where the benefits have reached a large number of poor citizens. It also identifies the critical success factors for wide-scale deployment. The paper includes cases on the use of ICTs in the management of delivery of public services in health, education, and provision of subsidized food. Cases on electronic delivery of government services, such as providing certificates and licenses to rural populations, which in turn provide entitlements to the poor for subsidized food, fertilizer, and health services are also included. ICT-enabled provision of information to enhance rural income is also covered. Keywords: e-governance, ICT for development, service delivery, anticorruption, transparency, process reform JEL Classification: D73, H11, O3, O57 I. INTRODUCTION The focus of this paper is on improving governance through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in delivering services to the poor, i.e., improving efficiency, accountability, and transparency, and reducing bribes in delivery of services. Large number of case studies have been published by different multilateral organizations, suggesting that ICT can be used in diverse applications to accelerate information dissemination, improve efficiency of public services, increase the transparency and accountability of government administration, to reduce corruption, and facilitate citizen participation in local governance.1 However, there are few analytical studies or impact assessments that confirm that such benefits have been delivered in large-scale projects (Bhatnagar and Singh 2010). A recent book on fighting corruption (Bhatnagar 2013) recognized the important role of ICT in reducing corruption, but points out that it has not been easy to harness this potential. In assessing the status of e-governance (i.e., ICT use in delivering government services) the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) survey of 2012 noted that, while it is important to continue with service delivery, governments must increasingly begin to rethink in terms of e-government and e-governance. The scope of e-government should be widened for a transformative role of the government toward cohesive, coordinated, and integrated processes and institutions. Since the e-governance activity in developing countries in Asia is at best at a moderate level,2 there is scope to expand the deployment of e-governance. It is important to understand the full potential of deploying ICT to improve the delivery of services. It is equally important to understand the challenges in harnessing this potential by identifying the critical success factors for wide-scale deployment. There are many ways in which the potential benefit of deploying ICT within organizations has been conceptualized. The ability of ICT to improve the asymmetry in access to information and thereof better manage the principal–agent problem (Gurubaxani and Whang 1991) is one such benefit. Similarly expanding access to markets and suppliers, efficient processing of transactions with all types of stakeholders and enhancing access to knowledge through electronic publishing are other benefits applicable to all types of organizations. Figure 1 presents all of the above types of uses in the context of activities and processes that directly impact the rural and poor populations. The first type of application consists of ICT intervention in an existing program of delivering public services, for example in health. In a pilot in Karnataka state in India, beneficiaries were given smart cards that hold their data and allow instant updating by the field workers upon delivery of a service by using a handheld device. The management information system reports generated by the workers in the new system are based on beneficiaries saying they have received a service rather than a worker saying that service was delivered. The local public health officials are better able to monitor service delivery, evaluate beneficiary experience, identify service delivery gaps, and respond promptly to concerns such as supply shortages, lack of community involvement, and needs for further training.3 In an experiment in Ethiopia, mobile phone-based tools are being used by community health workers 1 For some examples, see case studies on empowerment at World Bank’s PovertyNet website http://povlibrary.worldbank.org/library/topic/10143/13942/ and in Bhatnagar and Schware (2000). 2 In the E-Government Development Index (ranging from 0 to 1), East Asia’s was 0.6334 and South Asia’s 0.3464 against a world average of 0.4872. See United Nations E-Government Survey 2012: E-Government for the People at http://unpan3.un.org/egovkb/. 3 See Beneficiary Verification and Feedback Empowers Access to Health Services in Karnataka at http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:23301220~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~the SitePK:4607,00.html?cid=3001_7. 8 | ADB Economics Working Paper Series No. 391 sector is unacceptable to many people. Moreover, media reports suggest that there is some confusion regarding the acceptance of the Aadhaar as proof of address by the banking system in India. There have been major obstacles that the Aadhaar has had to overcome. Even as the Aadhaar was being rolled out, the Census Commissioner of India had proposed a parallel program of issuing smart identity cards to the entire population of India (Times of India 2011). With the strong backing of the ruling party, some of the problems have been resolved. The Aadhaar began with the promise of making delivery of government services to the poor efficient, convenient, and corruption-free. With so many implementation challenges and turf battles, such a promise may be harder to keep than originally anticipated. Even in a technologically advanced country such as the Republic of Korea, the early attempts to create a unique citizen identification were not very successful. Unlike the Aadhaar’s proposed developmental use, the Republic of Korea’s 13-digit resident registration number (RRN) for every adult citizen was implemented for a different objective—to deny access to electronic services to noncitizens.15 The RRN could profile a citizen in terms of age, place of birth, and gender. In its early non-biometric implementation, there were a number of instances of identity theft. IV. COMPUTERIZED MANAGEMENT OF LAND RECORDS Nearly 15 states in India have implemented an e-governance project to manage land records and issue copies of the record of ownership. Among other uses, this document is required for obtaining crop loans from banks. This service is used by millions of rural landowners within the span of a year. For example, nearly 10 million copies are issued in Karnataka every year. A study16 commissioned by the Department of Information Technology (DIT) of India to ascertain the directly measurable and perceived impact of e-governance applications on citizens in the service delivery from seven key departments across ten states of India showed that computerized delivery reduced the citizens’ cost of accessing such services by Rp100 per service transaction. A common measurement framework was used in the study, in which the costs to the citizen of accessing a service (number of trips to the delivery point, waiting time at the delivery point, and payment of bribes) were measured directly through a survey. Nearly 700 citizens distributed over 24 locations within a state were surveyed to capture their experiences of using each service before and after computerization. The impact on key dimensions in the land record project across 10 states is given in Figure 3. Results indicate a poor state of delivery of services in the manual system. On average, users needed to make 3–4 trips to government offices, wait for 2 hours or more (up to 6 hours in some states) during each trip, and pay frequent bribes (20%–90% of all transactions) to obtain the service. Figure 3 indicates that post computerization, a rural landowner experienced significant improvement in service delivery on all three parameters. Overall, the number of trips to offices was reduced by 1 from an average of 2.7. Computerization reduced waiting time by 30%. In five out of ten states, there was a significant reduction in the proportion of transactions in which a bribe was paid, suggesting that e-governance has the potential to significantly reduce corruption. 15 Some details are available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_registration_number 16 Full reports are available at Government of India (2008). Public Service Delivery | 9 Figure 3: Impact of Land Record Computerization HP = Himachal Pradesh, MP = Madhya Pradesh, TN = Timilnadu, WB = West Bengal. Source: Government of India, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Department of Information Technology. 2008. Impact Assessment of e-Governance Projects. E-governance can help reduce corruption in a variety of ways. It takes away discretion from the government functionary, thereby curbing opportunities for arbitrary action, which often results in corruption. For example, in land records computerization in Karnataka (Bhoomi), a first-in first-out (FIFO) discipline is imposed on the order of processing applications for changes in records in the workflow system established to handle the task. Government employees cannot help anyone jump the queue. The date and time are automatically stamped on service requests and they cannot be rejected arbitrarily, as a reason must be recorded if an application is rejected. Biometric log-in by operators and audit trails make it possible to track and link any corrupt operator making illegitimate changes in data through wrongful acts. By making rules simple and more transparent, e-government emboldens citizens and businesses to question unreasonable rules and procedures and their arbitrary applications. Through kiosks, websites, and their mobile phones, citizens can check the status of their service request as well as highlight any error. Unlike the traditional system, reduced physical contact with government officials protects the vulnerable classes from bribe seekers. Manual Computerized Percentage of Respondents Paying Bribes to Complete the Transaction Delhi 100.00 90.00 80.00 70.00 60.00 50.00 40.00 30.00 20.00 10.00 – 10.00 9.00 8.00 7.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00 – Gujarat Haryana HP Orissa Rajasthan TN Uttarakhand MP WB Delhi Gujarat Haryana HP Orissa Rajasthan TN Uttarakhand MPWB Delhi Gujarat Haryana HP Orissa Rajasthan TN MPWB Waiting Time in Minutes per Trip 400.00 350.00 300.00 250.00 200.00 150.00 100.00 50.00 – Number of Trips to Delivery Point To Complete the Service 10 | ADB Economics Working Paper Series No. 391 Projects like Bhoomi demonstrate that well-designed ICT-enabled service delivery projects with process reforms that enhance transparency and accountability, reduce discretion vested with civil servants, and enhance efficiency can lower corruption. However, the DIT study showed a great deal of variation in project impact across states post-computerized delivery. In a few states, performance worsened after computerization. Further analysis suggested that different states were not following any best practice. The service delivery processes were neither standardized nor reengineered before computerization. Implementation of ICT-enabled reforms is a long-drawn exercise that takes multiple years to deliver full value. The short tenure of project champions makes the implementation shortsighted. The success of the Bhoomi project can be traced to the 6-year tenure of the project leader. The second phase of the project has seen many deep reforms. The three agencies processing land transactions— the subregistrar’s office, revenue department, and survey department—were integrated through sharing of information. Any registration of a land transaction in the subregistrar’s office automatically triggers a mutation process in the revenue department’s database. In registering a deed, the details of owners of a land parcel are automatically picked up from the land record database, preventing fraudulent registration. A private partner has established nearly 1,000 cybercafes in rural areas to offer a basket of services including online land-related services. ICT-enabled improvement in service delivery and transparency may deliver different levels of benefits to different stakeholder groups. An analysis of the survey data collected for impact assessment of Bhoomi indicated that 94% of the small and marginal farmers preferred the Bhoomi system over the earlier manual system. On the other hand, among the large peri-urban farmer group, 39% preferred the manual system, perhaps because it allowed them to manipulate the data (Bhatnagar and Chawla 2007). An unintended consequence of Bhoomi was the ease with which land sharks could acquire large tracts of land on the periphery of urban areas as the ownership details are in the public domain. V. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY USE IN EDUCATION AND HEALTH PROGRAMS There are a large number of initiatives that are using ICT in an attempt to improve the quality of school education. Whereas, children in urban areas have greater access to laptops and the internet in schools and at home, children in rural areas are faced with a severe digital divide. In an attempt to bridge the divide, there are many initiatives that distribute laptops to poor children and rural schools. First, it was the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program whose objective was to ship millions of $100 laptops to developing countries (Quelch and Knoop 2008). In the beginning, OLPC only took orders in lots of 1 million, hoping to cut production costs on the basis of large volumes. However, developing nations did not cooperate. Some found the proposed content to be unsuitable to tackle their primary problems. With prices raised and order lots significantly lowered, there were not many takers. The laptops that were distributed malfunctioned or had no technical support, resulting in disuse. In Uruguay, “27.4 percent of machines were out of commission in a recent poll, or more than 100,000 out of the 400,000 in the country” (Warschauer and Ames 2010). India decided to develop its own less expensive “akaash tablet,” which at $60 per tablet did not remain so inexpensive at the stage of actual production. With no tablets in the market, the akaash project too was deemed a failure. A Public Service Delivery | 11 number of states in India have laptop distribution projects17 to promote the government as pro-poor and tech-savvy. Experiments with ICT use in education that have focused on improving the teaching–learning process have met with partial success in many pilots. The Digital Study Hall (DSH) initiative is a usergenerated video-sharing system intended to overcome the shortage of qualified teachers in poor and remote rural schools.18 DSH digitally records live classes by the best grassroots teachers, stores them in a large distributed database, and disseminates them to schools in rural and slum areas. Over 2,000 videos covering the curriculum in schools have been collected. Beyond the curriculum, videos also address issues of gender equity by covering topics such as child marriage, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. These videos have reached out to 3,800 adolescent girls from underserved communities in 41 schools. The project works on a hub-and-spoke principle, with four hubs in Lucknow, Kolkata, Pune, and Nepal serving over 6,000 students in more than 100 schools. DSH is also running a capacity-building project with 70 district institutes of education and training in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India with around 140 teacher educators and 140,000 teacher trainees. In contrast to the approach of earlier “wire-the-schools” projects, DHS is conducting pilots in many states and countries to understand the cost structure and demonstrate concrete value by building systems that solve end-to-end education problems, developing technology and pedagogy in harmony with each other. In other uses, ICT-enabled monitoring and incentives to reduce absenteeism have been tried. In chosen schools, teacher attendance was strictly monitored using cameras and their salaries were made a nonlinear function of attendance. Impact assessment of such initiatives through randomized experiments showed that teacher absenteeism fell 21 percentage points relative to the control group and children’s test scores increased by 0.17 standard deviations (Duflo, Hanna, and Ryan 2012). Based on case studies of ICT in teacher education compiled from more than a dozen countries in Asia and the Pacific (UNESCO 2007), an important lesson is that success of ICT use in education depends largely on teachers and their level of skill in integrating ICT into the teaching process and in utilizing ICT to provide learner-centered, interactive education. Therefore, training teachers to be able to use ICT and integrate ICT into teaching is crucial for achieving improved educational outcomes. While many projects aim to use ICT to improve the “quality of education,” it is recommended to go beyond such terms and identify more specific goals so as to help clarify project objectives and better align monitoring and evaluation. It is important, however, to ensure that the specific targets are appropriate in terms of the overall aim of the project and that the targets are achievable within the given time frame, budget, and other constraining factors. In a workshop organized by the World Bank19 for Jordan and Indonesia, Jordan’s education minister provided a succinct set of practical lessons and guidance for senior policy makers on the use of ICT in education systems: 17 See http://uplaptop-tabletdistribution.in/ 18 See http://www.digitalstudyhall.in/ and http://www.studyhallfoundation.org/ 19 See Trucano (2009). 12 | ADB Economics Working Paper Series No. 391 • There is need for patience; it takes time to profit from ICT introduction. • ICT cannot fix a bad education system. • ICT in education is not about purchasing computers for schools but upgrading skills and knowledge of teachers. • Education systems have to develop e-content materials. If no e-content is developed, it is like building roads without cars on the road. • Change management is needed at the school level. Involvement of the school principal in training and all aspects of ICT integration is very important. Recognizing the growing penetration of mobile phones among health workers and the population at large, many of the recent ICT initiatives in health have been in m-health. Examples of mobile technology in the health sector for administration and care delivery are well documented (UNDESA 2007). Interestingly, such initiatives have focused on empowering the field health worker by providing mobile phone-based aids to collect and manage client data efficiently, so as to spend less time on generating reports and enable systematic planning of field activities. That improvement in these areas could vastly improve the outcomes of public health programs had been recognized 3 decades earlier. However, the computational tools necessary for implementing the ideas were not available. As computers—desktops and laptops—became less expensive, many pilots were launched to improve the management information system and activity planning of health workers. Mobile phones, because of their low cost, easy maintenance, and non-dependence on electricity provide the ideal computational device to assist health workers. The fact that mobile phones allow health workers to communicate with their supervisors in case of emergencies improves the outcomes of many health activities. The Rural Extended Services and Care for Ultimate Emergency Relief (RESCUER) pilot project in eastern Uganda used a VHF radio and mobile walkie-talkie to enable a network of traditional birth attendants to partner with the public health service centers in order to deliver health care to pregnant women. RESCUER led to a reduction in maternal mortality from 500 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1996 to 271 in 1999 (Bhavnani et al. 2008). In some experiments being conducted now, the ability of mobile phones to store and display video images and textual data is being exploited as an interactive training tool for health workers. A few such experiments in developing countries are discussed briefly. In 2010, Dimagi20 launched the CommCare Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) project, which deploys an open source software product to send short messaging service (SMS) reminders to ASHA21 workers for visits to clients and provides educational materials to improve the effectiveness of the workers. Given varied literacy rates among ASHAs and those of their clients, a variety of prompts such as prioritized checklists, danger sign monitoring, and educational prompts with multimedia clips provide the ASHA with tools to engage and educate clients. In Bangladesh, Dimagi and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee developed short, interactive audio courses that can be taken over the phone by pressing numbers on the keypad to answer questions. Each course conveys a few important points, such as the importance of clinician-assisted births, proper hand-washing techniques and dangers, or HIV-transmission knowledge. Each course builds on prior courses to create an audio soapopera with a consistent story and characters. There is a short quiz at the end of each call. As an incentive to take the courses, if the caller passes the quiz, free airtime is delivered to their phone which can be used to make personal calls.22 20 See http://www.dimagi.com/ 21 The National Rural Health Mission in India is training over 750,000 ASHA workers who have demonstrated the potential to substantially improve health outcomes in areas of extreme poverty, notably in maternal health. 22 See http://www.dimagi.com/ivr-mobile-education/. Public Service Delivery | 13 In a similar use of mobile phones for purposes of supporting the ASHA worker, IntraHealth International has developed mSakhi, which is a multimedia interpersonal communication tutorial application designed to improve ASHA workers’ knowledge in critical maternal and newborn health issues through access to health messages that aid in retention of maternal and newborn care practices.23 mSakhi, which means mobile friend in Hindi, is an interactive tutorial that offers 153 key health messages on prenatal and delivery care, postpartum mother and newborn care, immunization, and nutrition, using a combination of text and audio messages, all contextualized with localized illustrations and dialects. Preliminary results from mSakhi implementation with frontline health workers reported in a workshop24 were positive with even first-time mobile users echoing strong views on ease of use and readily available and timely access to valid content. Similarly, mobile phones have been used in public health programs in many Asian countries. Bangladesh has made significant progress in health care; still, 1 woman dies every hour due to pregnancy-related complications and 15 infants die every hour due to complications within 2 days of birth. Interestingly, 80% of these deaths are preventable. Most of these deaths are due to lack of information and knowledge. The MAMA Bangladesh25 mobile information program known as Aponjon hopes to create mass awareness about good practices to contribute to the efforts of reducing maternal and child mortality. The messages delivered on a registered mobile phone will reach not only the expectant and new mothers, but also gatekeepers like husbands, mothers-in-laws, mothers, and other relatives. During the project’s pilot phase, Aponjon reached almost 1,500 mothers and household decision-makers within their families. The information is delivered twice a week in one of two forms: SMS; or short 60-second “mini-skit” voice messages, with local actors playing the roles of a doctor, pregnant woman, mother, and mother-in-law. The actors enact scenarios in an entertaining and educational format. Dialogues range from the doctor explaining the importance of iron-rich food to reminding the pregnant character that it is time for her medical checkup. In December 2012, Aponjon launched its service nationwide in Bangladesh, and women across the country are able to register. As of May 2013, there were 59,520 subscribers. The program hopes to reach 3 million subscribers. To achieve this target, the program is being advertised in print, radio, and television media. The service costs 2 taka (approximately 2.5 cents) per message and will provide the messages free of charge to at least 20% of the poorest subscribers. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the Philippines, in cooperation with Globe Telecommunications, embarked on an initiative to leverage the use of ICT to achieve better health outcomes among women and children in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas in the country’s provinces and municipalities (Africa 2012). The aim is to achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, which is the reduction of child mortality and improvement of maternal health. The program is designed to gather real-time data on mother and child health indicators using mobile phones and consolidate the data to help the local government make informed and well-planned decisions on health issues in their provinces. 23 See http://www.intrahealth.org/page/mobile-application-reinforces-frontline-health-workers-knowledge-confidenceand-credibility-. 24 Based on a presentation made at the ICT in Health for Uttar Pradesh: Opportunities and Challenges workshop in Lucknow on 20 February 2012. 25 For more details, see http://www.aponjon.com.bd/index1.php. 14 | ADB Economics Working Paper Series No. 391 The Bantul administration in Indonesia has recently launched an SMS for citizens to file complaints or suggestions regarding the public health service in Yogyakarta (Kunakornpaiboonsiri 2013). The local health authorities will use all suggestions to improve the services and become more responsive to the needs of poor citizens in shaping policies. There are significant challenges in scaling up such projects. Often, the mobile devices that have been used in the pilots are high-end and expensive—the kind of devices that health workers do not use in the normal course. To provide the functionality and speed in the application software using inexpensive devices is one challenge. Most of the pilots have not been systematically assessed for the resulting benefits. In training programs, novelty may generate interest in the short run but would the interest sustain? Will the basic human resource practices need to be changed to effectively reward those who use the mobile-based tools to achieve better outcomes? To begin with, every pilot needs to be systematically assessed after it has attained some stability. Finally, one lesson that is evident from many projects discussed in this paper is that ICT cannot be seen merely as a technology solution. It will often have to be a part of other changes that will make the entire system work more effectively. While poverty is typically the root cause of illness, and health-related information provided to clients may not produce the desired behavior change, there are some areas in which focused education can improve or even save lives.26 Mobile phones are an extremely attractive channel for social messaging, because they offer a way to easily deliver an individualized educational session to billions of people. The sheer effort required to distribute information using paper or billboards as is done in many public health systems is a substantial obstacle, and updating the information or receiving feedback is prohibitively difficult and costly. In contrast, deploying and updating automated messages on a massive scale can be fast and simple on mobile phones. VI. PROMOTING CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT THROUGH INFORMATION SHARING Citizens engage with the government on a variety of issues, both at the individual level and at the community level, to file complaints, express their anger, demand services, and influence policy. In the past, governments at various levels have tried to share information to engage with the citizens, but most experiments were not successful. In recent years, several developed country governments have created websites to distribute a portion of the data they collect. It is a concept for a collaborative project in municipal government to create and organize a culture of open data or open government data.27 Kenya is one of the few developing countries that are part of this effort and has launched the Kenya Open Data Initiative. It was expected that Kenya’s vibrant ICT community would rapidly embrace open data, that there would be a rapid outpouring of open datasets from government agencies, and that open data would drive more informed development decision-making. However, although Kenya has a strong ICT sector, skilled development professionals, high cell-phone penetration, and a relatively open media, open data uptake has been slow. Traffic on Kenya’s open data portal has been around 100,000 page views a month, mostly from Kenya. The number of datasets on the portal has doubled from 200 initially to more than 400 but still represents a tiny fraction of the data in Kenya (Finch 2013). Even if open data initiatives were to work well, they will largely serve the urban internet-savvy populations. 26 A profound example is the popularization of treating diarrhea with homemade oral rehydration therapy in the 1970s in Bangladesh. 27 A list of over 200 local, regional, and national open data catalogs can be accessed through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_data Public Service Delivery | 15 A recent report on the rule of law index places most countries of East and South Asia in the middle, between a rank of 35 and 59 among 100 countries on open government (Agrast et al. 2013, 160). Indonesia is placed at the top in the region, and Pakistan and Bangladesh are ranked in the 90s. Whereas a decade earlier, the use of IT in Indonesia tended to support the existing structure of state domination over the public, internet access in recent years is widely available to the public and relatively independent of government rules and regulations (Pendit 2003). A successful example of citizen engagement is the initiative in Chhattisgarh to involve the community in tracking pilferage of grains in the PDS. Members who register their mobile phones receive complete details of the truck carrying grains to their fair price shop. This information has helped in checking diversion of trucks (One World Foundation India 2011). A program called e-Panchayat is being implemented under the Government of India’s National e-Governance Plan, which focuses on computerizing local government functions so that information on development expenditure and performance of executing contractors can be shared with communities. This is expected to empower such communities to demand a fair allocation of development expenditure that best meets their needs Upadhyay 2009). In practice, the proportion of citizens who are willing to be constantly engaged with the Government is reportedly very small (Bhatnagar 2009). For example, Karnataka State introduced Pancha Tantra online, a robust system of double entry accounting introduced in Karnataka under the 2007 Amendment to the Panchayat Raj Act 1993 in all gram panchayats of the state. Under the traditional system, the gram panchayat would maintain accounts manually. The Pancha Tantra enables the government to electronically monitor and evaluate the work undertaken at the panchayat level. It also enables the public to view a variety of comparative performance reports of their panchayat.28 However, the impact of such disclosure has been disappointing. While there are a dozen articles exalting its value, there is hardly any discussion of its contents in the media.29 Such experiments fail to yield the participation of the community in the process of planning and monitoring of work in rural areas unless an NGO actively catalyzes action within a community. The harnessing of ICT to meeting human development goals could be undertaken by combining them with community development initiatives (Banuri 2004). For example, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan has recently organized a series of combined public hearings and grievance redress camps30 in Rajasthan. These “Right to Hearing” camps were held in four panchayats to look at the delivery of services by 16 government departments. Government officials were present to receive complaints related to services and/or entitlements, such as health benefits, pensions (old age, widow, disability), MGNREGA, PDS, and electricity supply, and answer queries related to nonpayment or nondelivery of a particular service or entitlement. In Rajasthan, the government has started a scheme by which the state departments are bound by law to receive complaints and give dated receipts. This is the first important step for a grievance redress mechanism as it represents the right of a person to be heard. The “Right to Hearing” camp hopes to take this government initiative forward by increasing awareness about the grievance redress mechanism and to provide a public platform where there can be participation in holding government accountable. Such camps provide a space where immediate action could be taken to right actionable 28 See http://stg2.kar.nic.in/gpportal/rpt_summary.aspx 29 See One World Foundation India (2012). 30 Camps were organized in Saarot, Taal, Kushalpura, and Barar panchayats of Rajsamand District in Rajasthan on 27 December 2012. 16 | ADB Economics Working Paper Series No. 391 wrongs, correct flaws in the system, and charge corrupt officials. The camp is an exercise in making the system work from the bottom up, creating a space where people have the individual and collective power to demand their rights and push the state to deliver. The Citizen Report Card is another initiative across many South Asian countries in which citizens are engaged in monitoring the performance of local bodies with the help of NGOs.31 With 60 million Facebook and 16 million Twitter users in India,32 social media has emerged as a powerful platform for forming an opinion as well as generating mass support in urban India. It remains an urban phenomenon with limited potential for impacting rural citizens in any positive way. Like in other countries, its visible impact as a mobilizing force has recently been felt in India on two occasions, both representing a confrontation between citizens and the government (Singh 2012). The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (2012) has prepared guidelines for using social media by government agencies for constructive citizen engagement. Government agencies are likely to use social media as a means to put forth their own point of view, rather than to seek feedback on policy and performance. A mindset change is needed within the upper echelons of government to become more accepting of any kind of feedback, whether positive or negative. Government policies on regulating the use of the internet and social media have to be consistent with international practices and need to take a balanced view. Every type of communication media and the content being delivered can have a positive and a negative impact, which is often subjective. Therefore, any government intervention to curb the free flow of information has to be in the rarest of the rare cases when national security is at risk. The overriding consideration should be to encourage communication among stakeholders on social issues. VII. EMPOWERING FARMERS AND FISHERS: SHARING KNOWLEDGE AND PRICE INFORMATION Throughout the developing world, mobile phones are playing a significant part in trade and commerce. For example, the Kenya Agricultural Commodity Exchange sends a functionary to visit the Nairobi market, collect prices from the local traders, and then send them back to the office via SMS. The database of prices of fresh produce can be accessed by farmers through their mobile phones through SMS or a call center. Similarly, fishers in Kerala, India, use their mobile phones (operational within 6 kilometers from the shore) to check fish prices, ensuring that they land their catch at the most profitable quayside market. These simple uses of mobile technology create a high economic impact on individual producers by eliminating the intermediaries. Many tradespeople have doubled their income by simply using a mobile phone through which their services can be requisitioned directly by the consumers in a 24–7 time frame.33 In an initiative using the internet called e-Choupal started in 2000 by ITC, a large agri-business private sector firm, farmers are being empowered by sharing price information and improving the handling of procured food grains (Kumar 2004). Due to lack of information on prevalent prices for 31 See Citizen Report Cards and Surveys: Asia Cases http://www.worldbank.org/socialaccountability_sourcebook/ Regional%20database/crcas.htm. 32 See http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/india. 33 See a film on How Mobiles are Helping Farmers and Fishermen, exclusive Telecom TV Report from Kenya and India filmed on 13 March 2009 as part of the Mobile Planet Project, in partnership with the GSMA. Available at http://web20.telecomtv.com/comspace_videoDetail.aspx?v=3261&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10. Public Service Delivery | 17 their produce, farmers end up being exploited at the hands of intermediaries operating in traditional markets. ITC has set up 6,500 e-Choupals across eight states of India to procure 13 commodities including oilseeds, grains, and coffee.34 Farmers visit the e-Choupals located in a nearby village and operated by one of the local farmers on behalf of ITC. They can get cost-free information on weather, prices in agricultural markets, and expert advice on agricultural practices. By bringing a sample of their produce to e-Choupals, they can also find out the price that ITC will offer. If ITC offers a competitive price for their produce, they choose to sell their produce to ITC instead of the government-controlled mandis. Over time, ITC has developed a loyal set of farmers who sell their produce to ITC and earn higher incomes through competitive prices, a transparent procurement process, and lower logistics costs. They have increased yields, improved the quality of their produce, and reduced their transaction costs. Over time, these farmers have converted into customers of ITC-produced consumer goods and agri-processed goods sold by large ITC shops adjoining the warehouses. ITC further expanded its basket of services to include soil testing, tractor maintenance, medical services, and even a restaurant at its warehouse complexes. All these services are offered at a price that allows ITC to recover costs but does not include a profit margin. ITC then began to aggregate demand for other consumer goods and agricultural inputs and to supply such items at a competitive price and assured quality. It earned commissions from the suppliers of such goods and services. Currently, e-Choupal services reach more than 4 million farmers in about 40,000 villages. A number of lessons can be drawn from the ITC experiment. The success of e-Choupal is attributed to the provision of free access to information and knowledge to the farmers; streamlining of logistics of procurement, which minimizes handling and transport costs of the farmers; and provision of complementary services to farmers so that ITC is seen as a one-stop shop for all major needs of the rural community. In an interesting contrast, the State of Madhya Pradesh computerized the operations of nearly 200 mandis to capture in real time the results of auctions of grain produced by farmers to traders in the mandi. The data are uploaded to a website in great granularity with the hope that farmers will access the data to make decisions on time and place for selling. Farmers use mobile phones and other ways to find out about prices. Except for introducing technology, no other changes were made in handling food grains. Poor weighing equipment and lack of transparency in testing quality continue to lead to wastage of grains and losses for the farmers. Unlike e-Choupal, the Digital Green system35works with the existing agriculture extension system to improve cost-effectiveness and broaden community participation. Digital Green partners produce 8–10-minute segment videos capturing improved agricultural practices, market linkages, and government schemes. Videos are shot by community members using pocket cameras and then vetted by domain experts. The videos are screened to groups of 10–12 farmers using battery-operated pico projectors in which memory cards with the films can be inserted. The real value of this initiative does not come from the fact that farmers may cooperate just for the thrill of appearing onscreen, but the fact that farmers interact with experts of their own kind around the issues captured in the videos. Local social networks are tapped to connect farmers with experts. The Digital Green system has produced 2,600 videos and screened them to 150,000 viewers across six states in India. Supporting these activities, the Digital Green team includes 22 core team members, 102 partner staff, and 524 community intermediaries. 34 For a more detailed discussion, see http://www.echoupal.com/. 35 A list of partners and investors and a description can be accessed from http://www.digitalgreen.org/ projectprogress10. 24 | ADB Economics Working Paper Series No. 391 Many valuable suggestions were made by a working group37 on support for innovations in e-governance services and scaling up of such innovations and content development to disseminate knowledge that will empower the poor. A number of initiatives to define pro-poor ICT policies and strategies for Asia and the Pacific have been taken in the past (Sayo, Chacko, and Pradhan 2004). Many ideas have been floated across developing nations in terms of deploying ICT for development. 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ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK AsiAn Development BAnk 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines www.adb.org Public Service Delivery: Role of Information and Communiation Technology in Improving Governance and Development Impact The paper discusses the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for improving governance in the delivery of services to the poor. It provides examples from Asean countries where ICT use has improved efficiency, accountability, transparency, and has reduced bribery in service delivery in a variety of sectors such as health, education, food security, and issue of certificates/licenses. Learning from the examples, the paper identifies critical success factors for wide-scale deployment of ICTs in service delivery. About the Asian Development Bank ADB’s vision is an Asia and Pacific region free of poverty. Its mission is to help its developing member countries reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their people. Despite the region’s many successes, it remains home to approximately two-thirds of the world’s poor: 1.6 billion people who live on less than $2 a day, with 733 million struggling on less than $1.25 a day. ADB is committed to reducing poverty through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Based in Manila, ADB is owned by 67 members, including 48 from the region. Its main instruments for helping its developing member countries are policy dialogue, loans, equity investments, guarantees, grants, and technical assistance. PuBlIC SeRvICe DelIveRy: Role of InfoRmATIon AnD CommunIATIon TeChnoloGy In ImPRovInG GoveRnAnCe AnD DeveloPmenT ImPACT Subhash Bhatnagar adb economics working paper series no. 391 march 2014