Bringing Citizens Back In:

In recent years a great deal of international research attention and development practice has focused on the potential role citizens can play in demanding accountability from public sector, service-focused organisations in developing countries. Yet, surprisingly limited attention has been paid to explaining exactly how citizen voice /demand for accountability can led to measurable improvements in service delivery performance. The following book aims to address this gap through examining two public sector organizations in Andhra Pradesh State, Southern India the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metro Water) and the Department of Registration and Stamps which undertook a series of customer-focused service delivery reforms in the late 1990s/early 2000s. An important finding from this research is that consistent demand for accountability from citizens provided new sources of performance information to senior managers, which they could then use to hold frontline workers to account for responsive service provision. A key lesson from the Metro Water case, which has immediate implications for service-focused, public sector reform in developing countries.

Autorentext

Jonathan Caseley, DPhil. (IDS, Sussex), MEd, (Harvard GSE), MFA (CalArts), -- experto en gobernanza independiente, gestión y desempeño del sector público y demanda ciudadana de rendición de cuentas con más de dieciséis años de experiencia en desarrollo internacional.

Klappentext

In recent years there has been considerable research and development practice attention focused on the role of citizens in demanding accountability from public sector organisations in developing countries. Yet, limited attention has been paid to explaining exactly how citizen "voice"/demand for accountability can led to measurable improvements in service delivery performance in these organisations. The following book addresses this gap through examining two public sector organisations in Andhra Pradesh State, Southern India the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metro Water) and Department of Registration and Stamps which undertook customer-focused, service delivery reforms at the end of the 1990s. An important finding from these cases is that consistent demand for accountability from citizens provided new sources of information to senior mangers which they could then use to hold front-line'' workers to account. A key lesson for service-focused, public sector reform in developing countries, is that transparent, cost-effective, and accessible citizen-based accountability mechanisms can lead to long-term organisational transformation and sustained improvements in service delivery performance.