Public Service Dashboard (AM0045)

11.Dashboard: Citizen feedback on public services
Commitment Start and End Date Start date of the commitment: January 2019
End date of the commitment: August 2020
Lead implementing agency Prime Minister Office
Person responsible from lead implementing agency Sargis Khandanyan
Title, Department Deputy Chief of Prime Minister Staff
e-mail: sargis.khandanyan@gov.am Phone (+37410) 51-57-06
Other actors involved Other state actors involved The bodies of State Administration of the Republic of Armenia
Civil society, private sector UNDP Armenia, IT companies and CSOs
Issues subject to regulation Public services are rarely designed in citizen insights in mind. Citizens are neither entitled to provide conceptual feedback on the quality of the services nor suggest improvements. Feedback windows in government websites do not serve the purpose of collecting user perspective on such services. Moreover, there is no channel for processing the feedback and informing decision-makers to develop policies based on the accumulated knowledge and information.
Allow citizens to evaluate their public services with the help of simplified feedback, as well as make suggestions about them, which will contribute to more effective participation and improvement of the quality of public services. Evaluation is carried out both by quantitative and qualitative criteria (how long does it last and how satisfy is the citizen)?
It is important to secure every user’s active participation in different phases of service development and assessment for improving service quality. The crowd sourcing of users’ opinions does not only foster improved public participation but also in short time allows the executive to improve public services based on the constant feedback loop results.
Accountable and participatory public administration, as the key factor for democratic governance and economic development, does not only correspond to the principles of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, but also to the principles of the European Neighborhood (EN) policy.
It is of vital importance to secure citizen’s participation in public administration, particularly in public service development and delivery to ensure accountability. SIGMA in cooperation with EN has defined in details each of the key sectors of public administration in “Public Governance Principles: a framework for ENP countries” document.
This document puts emphasis on the direct participation of the citizens in public services evaluation and feedback provision and will be the key guideline to evaluate RA public services in the upcoming years.

Main objective Commitment has two aspects: firstly, the citizen receives an accessible direct democracy tool to evaluate public services; secondly, the executive gets a complete picture of citizens’ rating and raised issues through visualized data, which allows to be more informed and make evidence-based decisions.
The executive gets responsibility for responding and providing appropriate solutions to the raised issues and public opinion related with public services.
The list and the volume of the services to be rated will be clarified through research that will be developed in the initial phase of the commitment.
Brief Description of Commitment Launch an public services online feedback platform which will allow to collect, sort and analyze citizens' assessments and recommendations.
Develop a human-oriented and user-friendly interface which will encourage citizens to participate in the design and evaluation of public services. Combine quantitative and qualitative feedback channels. Integrating / creating a tool for collecting, sorting and analyzing citizens' assessments on one of the current online platforms.

Increasing the public trust, promoting public participation
OGP challenge addressed by the commitment Participation, accountability, promotion of innovation
Relevance to OGP values The commitment allows creating a direct communication platform for the first time to collect the citizens’ perceptions and ratings of public services, to elaborate and to use those in the evidence-based policy-making planning.
Ambition
Promotes efforts for implementation of SDG Goals or Targets 16.6.2: Proportion of the population satisfied with their last experience of public services
16.7:Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels

Verifiable and measurable criteria for performance of commitment
Start Date
End Date
1.Study of the international examples of public administration with focus on public participatory, co-creative and citizen-centered cases 2019թ.
January 2019
June
2. A set of high-level suggestions on public services provision quality assurance methodology based on the ratings collected from citizens (including, responsible bodies, frequency, monitoring frequency, results-based executive system).
Ensure transparency and tracking of the citizen’s application process. Provide an application response management mechanism for all service providers.
2019
July 2020
March
3. Creation of the collection model for requests, complaints and ratings, which can co-exist with other existing solutions (e-gov.am, Igov) 2020
January 2020
August

4. Launch of the mechanism, with the participation of the public and through public raising awareness campaign 2020
January 2020
August

11. Public Service Dashboard

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan: [101]

Brief description: Launch a public services online feedback platform which will allow to collect, sort and analyze citizens' assessments and recommendations.

Develop a human-oriented and user-friendly interface which will encourage citizens to participate in the design and evaluation of public services. Combine quantitative and qualitative feedback channels. Integrating / creating a tool for collecting, sorting and analyzing citizens' assessments on one of the current online platforms.

Milestones

11.1 Study of the international examples of public administration with focus on public participatory, co-creative and citizen-centered cases.

11.2 A set of high-level suggestions on public services provision quality assurance methodology based on the ratings collected from citizens (including, responsible bodies, frequency, monitoring frequency, results-based executive system). Ensure transparency and tracking of the citizen’s application process. Provide an application response management mechanism for all service providers.

11.3 Creation of the collection model for requests, complaints and ratings, which can co-exist with other existing solutions (e-gov.am, Igov).

11.4 Launch of the mechanism, with the participation of the public and through public raising awareness campaign.

Start Date:  January 2019

End Date: August 2020

Context and Objectives

Each ministry and most state agencies in Armenia have feedback windows on their websites. However, these windows are rarely used by citizens. Further, there is no channel for processing feedback to inform decision makers in the development of policies. [102]

This commitment aims to create a dashboard for citizens to evaluate public services through specific tools using simplified a feedback mechanism. The feedback mechanism provided through the dashboard will help citizens identify problems with specific service providers. It would also help the government collect suggestions on public service delivery and administration in order to improve relevant policies and procedures. In contrast to the existing feedback windows and hotlines provided by most state agencies, the proposed public service dashboard will allow the government to gather all public feedback in one place. It will provide the government with quantitative indicators and qualitative feedback. According to a representative of the Staff of the Prime Minister responsible for this commitment, the creation of a special analytical department within the Staff of the Prime Minister is being discussed. This department would review and analyze all available feedback on state services and provide policy recommendations based on the analysis. It is expected that the main findings of the data analysis dashboard will be publicly available on the same platform. [103]

The commitment is relevant to civic participation, as it could improve citizens’ ability to provide feedback on available services that would inform decision makers. It could also serve as a tool for accountability in case there are well-developed mechanisms for holding an agency responsible for violations.

The proposed tools for providing feedback are not clearly defined in the commitment. A stakeholder representative suggested that the commitment involve several channels used for collecting feedback, such as SMS survey, feedback in place immediately after receiving the service, or web platform. [104] According to the representative of the Staff of the Prime Minister, users will need ID cards to log in to the system and provide feedback. Generally, the primary target group of the platform includes users of electronic services provided by the government. [105] This reflects a small segment of the population, but the use of these services is on the rise.

This commitment could have a positive impact on the government’s practice. Feedback collection, and monitoring and evaluation of services are already practiced by government agencies. However, the dashboard could create a new opportunity for systematic collection and analysis of public feedback. On the other hand, the feedback channels are not clearly specified in the commitment, and the expected target audience may be limited to users of online services. Thus, the potential impact is assessed as minor.

Next steps

The commitment could serve as a channel for enhanced public participation in service design and delivery and for holding public servants accountable when grievances are reported. To improve the public service dashboard’s impact, the IRM researcher recommends the government:

• Provide an opportunity to give feedback not only for online services, but also for the whole spectrum of public services—and allow feedback to be given in an anonymous mode;
• Clearly define the channels and mechanisms of citizen feedback and consider an SMS feedback option and usage of social media channels. At a July 2019 meeting of the OGP Working Group, the IRM researcher learned that the government changed the approach to include all types of state-provided services in the system. Alternative mechanisms for providing feedback, such as by phone and by email, were also discussed. [106]
• Establish a clear mechanism for gathering and analyzing the data, channeling the data into the policy development and implementation process, and using it to hold public servants accountable;
• Provide mechanisms to respond the citizens, offer feedback on how their comment or suggestion was used, and publicly communicate on the application of relevant measures in response to violations; and
• Provide details on and statistics of the accumulated feedback in an open data format for the use of researchers and interested stakeholders.

A successful example of collecting citizen feedback is the LAPOR platform in Indonesia. The platform allows citizens to submit reports on public services through several channels, including the LAPOR website, SMS messages, and a mobile application. Users can register in the system to facilitate their access, but an optional anonymity mode is provided. In contrast to the dashboard planned in this commitment, LAPOR allows users to report on any issues related to public services—for example, damaged roads or changes in the provision of subsidies. The reports pass a verification test and are channeled to the responsible government institution. The issue is investigated, and the informers receive notification about the actions done. [107] This system can be challenging in terms of dealing with a large volume of complaints and the associated workload of the managing agency. However, it can serve as an effective tool of dialogue between the state and citizens, increase transparency and effectiveness of public service delivery, and contribute to the accountability of state institutions.

fourth action plan. According to the point of contact, the human resources of the OGP task force are limited, and impact assessment requires significant time and professional work. [108] Similar to the last progress report, stakeholders emphasized the importance of evaluation and impact assessment. They also stressed the need to review the implementation of commitments in earlier action plans to assess their effectiveness, identify and address gaps, and provide relevant feedback and updates to the public.

11. Public Service Dashboard

Completion: Substantial

The e-Governance Infrastructure Implementation Unit (EKENG CJSC), in coordination with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, set up the new public service dashboard platform, which has operated as a pilot since August 2020. [50] By the end of the action plan period, the pilot dashboard covered only a few state-provided services, but the government plans to extend it to all public services. After receiving the service, the users get a note providing the service ID and the platform address and urging them to provide feedback in the platform. The assessment questionnaire covers service quality, duration, cost, treatment by personnel, and other indicators. [51] No public awareness activities have been conducted yet.