A Citizens' Report Card (CRC)

CHALLENGE

Provision of services such as health, education, water and sanitation and transport are important determinants of the standard of living and of social welfare. In developing countries these services are typically provided by the public sector and the efficiency of public service delivery has been constantly criticized. Public service delivery agencies are seen as overstaffed, under-resourced, corrupt and indifferent to the needs of their clients. Reforms are clearly called for, but need to be backed by diagnostic tools to pinpoint the nature of the problems.

APPROACH

A Citizens' Report Card (CRC) is one such diagnostic tool. It consists of gathering information on several aspects of these services, via an objective survey of the users and intended beneficiaries. A CRC is a valuable means of highlighting the problems in service delivery and can at the same time identify approaches to addressing these problems. In addition, it can benchmark the quality of public services and help monitor changes over time.

In collaboration with local partners, PROFOR sponsored a pilot CRC in the Indian state of Jharkhand. 400 rural families were asked to respond on the quality of five services provided publicly: forestry, primary education, drinking water, health and rural credit.

FINDINGS

Not surprisingly, the survey found relatively low overall levels of satisfaction with these services, but a rather large variation in satisfaction across services. Read full report for more information.