World Bank Document

 

Opportunities for engagement 

 

4. 

The engagement of citizens in government efforts to improve service delivery will need 

focused support, but is in line with government priorities. Global and regional evidence proves 

that community engagement is a crucial element of improved service delivery through more informed 

decision-making that reflects the needs of users and better monitoring of the performance of public 

and private service providers. In conjunction with efforts to enhance transparency and improve citizen 

access to information, action plans should be developed in targeted sectors to ensure citizen, user 

and/or beneficiary engagement in project identification, preparation, as well as the successive stages 

of implementation. Entry points have been identified in four key sectors: 

 

 

Education: To transform the levels of student and parent engagement in schools, 

mechanisms for communities/users to engage in decision-making and feedback can be tested 

as part of the Ministry’s efforts to strengthen information and information management. In 

higher education, there are opportunities to test student feedback mechanisms to improve 

dialogue in higher education institutions. 

 

Water supply and sanitation: Improving communications between consumers and 

service providers is essential for improved service delivery. Water authorities need to inform 

consumers about water supply schedules and establish systems for receiving and responding 

to consumer feedback (e.g. complaints about water quality, broken pipes, etc.  

 

Energy: Similarly, energy sector reforms should be based on consultations with 

consumers and include efforts to assist them in organizing to engage in a more structured 

manner. Project initiatives related to introducing metering of electricity and/or gas should be 

accompanied by mechanisms that enable consumer feedback and effective supplier action.  

 

Irrigation: There is significant scope for better performance monitoring of local 

irrigation water governance, including water user engagement and the local factors that 

influence this engagement. To build trust, efforts are needed to encourage water measurement 

that reflects actual consumption based on need (rather than preferred crop allocation 

preferences), to disclose data regularly to users, and to engage users in monitoring and 

evaluation.