Data on Citizen Satisfaction with Public Services (CI0041)

Brief description of the commitment

This commitment aims to document feedback from users of public services through an annual citizen satisfaction survey on the delivery of public services in education and financial inclusion. Education: - The online assignment and orientation process for students admitted to the 6th and 10th grades; - The production and distribution of textbooks to students in CP1 and CP2; - The deployment of the biometric attendance control system for students assigned by the State in private secondary schools. Financial inclusion: - The use of the TrésorPay / TrésorMoney application for the collection of revenues and the payment of Treasury services; - The use of the financial services comparator and the complaint management platform put into service by the Observatoire de la Qualité des Services Financiers (OQSF).

Definition of the problem

1. What problem is the commitment intended to address? This commitment aims to document user feedback by collecting their perceptions, expectations and opinions regarding the delivery of public services.

1. What are the causes of the problem? The lack of data on user satisfaction with public services is due to the absence of regular surveys of citizens. Indeed, the practice of satisfaction surveys by actors involved in the delivery of public services is not institutionalized, so that it is not widespread. Similarly, the involvement of OSCs in independent monitoring of public policies is still marginal, in particular due to insufficient mastery of methods and tools for collecting objective data on the expectations and opinions of public services users.

Description of the commitment

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem? Joining the Open Government Partnership process or the creation of the Public Service Observatory (OSEP) has allowed the implementation of information and accountability mechanisms such as the miliê portal and the national open data portal (data.gouv.ci), in order to improve the interaction between the State and the citizens. However, these initiatives are insufficient to document citizen feedback on public service delivery.

2. What solution do you suggest? In order to sustainably address the issue of the availability of data on the level of citizen satisfaction with the delivery of public services, the PPRC will: - Train civil society actors in conducting satisfaction surveys; - Support trained actors in conducting an annual citizen satisfaction survey on the delivery of public services. With respect to education, the survey will cover the following services: - The online assignment and orientation process for students admitted to the 6th and 10th grades; - The production and distribution of textbooks to students in CP1 and CP2; - The deployment of the system of biometric control of attendance of pupils assigned by the State in the private establishments of secondary education. With respect to financial inclusion, the survey will cover: - The use of the TrésorPay / TrésorMoney application for the collection of revenues and the payment of Treasury services; - The use of the financial services comparator and the complaint management platform put into service by the Observatoire de la Qualité des Services Financiers (OQSF). Data collection will be done face-to-face by (i) administering satisfaction questionnaires and (ii) conducting individual and/or group interviews: - The administration of the questionnaires to the users/beneficiaries of the services concerned will target a representative sample of the national population by gender and region of residence. - The interviews will involve the actors involved in the delivery of the services concerned by the survey. The active participation of civil society organizations in conducting the surveys is a key dimension of this activity. Indeed, 50 civil society actors from the 14 districts of Côte d'Ivoire will be trained to conduct surveys and will carry out the data collection. They will then contribute to the processing and analysis of the data, with a view to writing and disseminating the survey report. Throughout the process of implementing the activity, a firm will provide technical support for the facilitation of training sessions, data collection, processing and analysis, and the drafting of the survey report.

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment? At the end of this activity: - 50 civil society actors are trained to conduct satisfaction surveys; - 2 annual user satisfaction survey reports on the delivery of public services are popularized; - The annual level of satisfaction of users of public services is determined.

Commitment analysis

How will commitment promote transparency? The achievement of this commitment responds to the need to improve the documentation of feedback, through the conduct of annual user satisfaction surveys regarding the delivery of public services. This commitment will help improve citizen access to information and data on two levels: - On the one hand, the involvement of OSCs in the survey process will allow them to have easier access to information on the delivery of the public services concerned; - On the other hand, the publication of the survey reports will make it possible to popularize information on the public services concerned as well as the expectations, perceptions and opinions of the users of these public services to institutional actors, OSCs as a whole and the population.

How will commitment help foster accountability? Two (2) ministries are involved in the implementation of the activity, as the ministries responsible for the delivery of the services concerned by the survey: - The Ministry of National Education and Literacy, for education services including (i) the online assignment and orientation process for students admitted to the 6 th and 2 nd classes; (ii) the production and distribution of textbooks to students in the CP1 and CP2 classes; and (iii) the deployment of the biometric attendance monitoring system. - The Ministry of Economy and Finance, through the General Directorate of the Treasury and Public Accounting and the Observatory of the Quality of Financial Services, for financial services, in particular (i) the use of the TrésorPay / TrésorMoney application for the payment of service receipts and (ii) the use of the financial services comparator set up by the Observatory of the Quality of Financial Services (OQSF) These ministries, as well as their relevant departments, will be included in the Monitoring Committee responsible for supervising the process. The results of the survey will also be forwarded to them. In addition, within the framework of the Governance Improvement Project for the Delivery of Basic Services to Citizens (PAGDS), a project co- financed by the State of Côte d'Ivoire and the World Bank, an objective of improving the rate of satisfaction of users of public services by 5% per year, over the period 2022 - 2025 has been assigned: - The 2022 survey will make it possible to define a benchmark satisfaction rate; the results of this first survey will make it possible to identify the relevant interventions to improve the quality of the services concerned; - For the following surveys (2023, 2024 and 2025), it will be necessary to evaluate the achievement of the objectives and to identify areas for improvement. Satisfaction surveys are an accountability mechanism, in the sense that they allow for the collection of information and feedback from citizens on the public services provided. In addition, the co-construction of survey tools and the involvement of civil society actors in data collection and analysis will strengthen the "open" character of the monitoring-evaluation process of the delivery of public services concerned. Similarly, repeating the surveys and publishing the results will create a feedback loop through which OSCs and citizens can verify the effective implementation of recommended solutions from year to year.

How will commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing and monitoring solutions? Citizen participation will be strengthened at two levels: - On the one hand, the OSCs involved in the process will contribute to monitoring the delivery of the public services concerned; - On the other hand, citizens-users will be invited to give their opinions and observations on the quality of these public services, as well as their proposals for improvement. Repeating the surveys will create a feedback loop through which CSOs and citizens can verify the effective implementation of recommended solutions from one year to the next.

Planning the engagement (Milestones | Expected results | Expected completion date)

1- Train 50 civil society actors to conduct investigations | 50 civil society actors are trained to conduct investigations | October - November 2023

2- Conducting the user survey | Survey data is collected | December 2023 - January 2024

3- Process and analyze survey data | Survey data is processed and analyzed | January - February 2024

4- Present and popularize the results of the satisfaction survey | The results of the satisfaction survey are presented and disseminated | February 2024

Additional information At this stage of the engagement, there is no specific targeting of certain marginalized groups. However, we will explore options to ensure that these groups are better addressed. The sample construction should allow for data by gender at the national level, as well as at the district and administrative region levels. Data collection will be carried out face-to-face by (i) administering satisfaction questionnaires to the users/beneficiaries of the services concerned, as well as (ii) conducting individual and/or group interviews with the actors involved in the delivery of these services. This approach was chosen to ensure that the sample of respondents was representative, because some of the services covered (especially in education) only concern specific groups (e.g., primary school students and parents for textbook distribution).

Action Plan Review

Commitment 6. Participatory public service satisfaction surveys

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest

Commitment 6: Participatory public service satisfaction surveys [Ministry for the Promotion of good governance and the fight against Corruption / Country Program for capacity Building (PPRC)]

For a complete description of the commitment, see Commitment 6 in the action plan: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/cote-divoire-action-plan-2022-2024/.

Context and objectives:

Citizen satisfaction with public services has been a Government priority since 2017. [41] The Government has made efforts to collect public feedback through mobile applications. [42] Yet the Government believes that “the lack of data on the satisfaction of users of public services is explained by the absence of regular surveys of citizens” [43] and that these surveys are not institutionalized. [44] This is why the Government, after the public consultations, proposed Commitment 6, which aims to document user feedback by collecting their perceptions, expectations, and opinions regarding the delivery of public services in education and financial inclusion.

Potential for results: Modest

During a meeting with the various heads of the Ivorian administration on September 21, 2017, the Minister of Public Service, Issa Coulibaly, urged the civil servants to make user satisfaction their priority objective. [45] This recommendation was confirmed the same year with the creation of the Public Service Observatory (PSOB) established by decree, [46] following the creation of a ministerial department specifically dedicated to the Modernization of the Administration and the Innovation of Public Service. At the launch of PSOB’s activities in March 2018, the Ivorian Prime Minister at the time, Amadou Gon Coulibaly, indicated that PSOB “should be understood as the start of a process aimed at integrating permanent dialogue between the administration and public service users.” [47]

Within it remits, PSOB must “ensure a monitoring, alert and anticipation role and assist the Government with its opinions and observations; regularly assess, through surveys, the level of user satisfaction with the quality of services provided by the public administration; receive complaints, claims, grievances, opinions, observations and suggestions from users, etc.” [48] To this end, it has developed digital tools to “strengthen transparency, traceability and accountability in administrative action.” [49] Among these tools, there is the citizen digital portal “Miliê” [50] (my thing, my property in the Baoulé language) which is an interactive platform for collecting, processing, and managing citizen concerns. There is also the mobile application called “Service Public CI” [51] which is supposed to bring the citizen closer to the public administration, thanks to which the user has access to all the information on administrative procedures and can more easily submit his requests to the public service. However, these platforms are limited because they only take into account the data of citizens who proactively seek to provide feedback through the applications.

The implementation of Commitment 6 has been conferred to the Country Capacity Building Program (CCBP), a program of the Ministry for the Promotion of Good Governance and the Fight against Corruption. The CCBP is receiving financial support from the World Bank through the Governance Improvement Project for the Delivery of Basic Services to Citizens (PAGDS) to conduct a national citizen satisfaction survey on the delivery of public services by civil society actors. According to the representative [52] of the commitment holder, this survey is the continuation of a first pilot survey conducted in 2022. According to the agreement between the CCBP and the World Bank, these surveys will be conducted until 2025 and will now cover the entire country, unlike the pilot phase.

This commitment has the potential to strengthen the transparency and accountability of the public administration and to offer greater citizen participation in the management of public affairs. The implementation of the survey will change the usual practice of analyzing user satisfaction in isolation. Indeed, the Government does not have national studies that cover all public services or specific social services. Some institutions, such as the State Treasury [53] or the Public Procurement Department, [54] launch online satisfaction surveys on platforms that are limited to their field of activity. Taking into account the opinions of citizens throughout the national territory provides the guarantee of inclusiveness advocated by the Government. According to the Head of Studies at CCBP, [55] these surveys were funded for the specific areas of education and financial inclusion. But their ambition is that these policy areas will set a basis upon which surveys in additional policy areas will be funded.

The Government wants to involve civil society in conducting the surveys by training 50 actors from 50 civil society organizations in conducting the surveys and collecting data. The training session [56] has already been carried out in February 2023. This choice is justified, according to the CCBP representative, by the Government’s desire to have “reliable and truthful data,” [57] based on the principle by conducting themselves the surveys, citizens will be objective. The commitment has the potential to increase the level of citizen participation if civil society is fully involved throughout the process not only in the collection of data but also in the analysis and proposal of subsequent recommendations from the survey results as well as in the follow-up of the implementation of these recommendations.

It is not clear from the action plan how PSOB will be involved in the implementation of the commitment. The CCBP National Coordinator [58] indicated that “PSOB is not directly involved in the survey” but “they will share the results of this targeted survey with the PSOB in order to involve them in the follow-up of actions to be undertaken to improve the quality of services delivered.” [59] Nevertheless, the commitment offers considerable potential in the short and medium term for strengthening transparency, accountability, and citizen participation in the management of public administration. The commitment is assessed as having a modest potential for early open government results since, as currently written, it falls short of activities that ensure the Government will respond and act on the survey results to improve government services. Moreover, the commitment is currently limited to surveys of the financial and education sectors and the reform’s continuation after the World Bank project ends is not guaranteed. If these limitations are addressed during implementation, that will be taken into consideration in Results Report assessment.

Opportunities, challenges, and recommendations during implementation

Both administration and civil society members hope for positive results from the implementation of this commitment. They support the Government’s desire to prioritize the satisfaction of public administration users. [60] The creation of the PSOB and the multiple platforms for measuring user satisfaction builds towards ambitious reforms in the long run. Civil society views their participation in the survey process as evidence of the Government’s determination to move towards a more open administration. As an example, Côte d’Ivoire can look towards the Philippines, where reformers have strengthened citizen participatory audits across action plans, yielding better quality public services for education. [61]

An important element of this commitment to be clarified is how government institutions will consider and respond to the recommendations drawn from survey results. Although this is not clearly defined in the action plan, the CCBP representative states that all components of civil society will be invited to the validation workshop that is planned for the restitution and validation of the data. Other dissemination workshops will also be organized in the different regions to disseminate the results of the surveys, according to him. For the purpose of accountability, the Government plans to review and document the consideration of the “problems to be solved” identified during the surveys year after year. Sustainability of the practice also remains a challenge. It is not yet clear whether the practice will continue over the years, but the CCBP representative believes that it will be perpetual even after the partnership with the World Bank ends. However, the fact that these surveys are tied to a project may limit their long-term impact. Looking ahead, the IRM recommends that implementers consider the following:

● Facilitate information sharing and activities across the various government bodies responsible for promoting citizen participation to improve public services. The Government states that a committee will be formed to follow up on the survey findings and recommendations that will include the CCBP, PSOB, ministries covered by the survey, civil society, and others. [62] CCBP is encouraged to share information and align similar efforts among the relevant actors during implementation of the surveys as well.

● Investigate opportunities to institutionalize the practice of participatory surveys to encourage continuation after the project period. This could include amending the decree establishing PSOB, as citizen satisfaction surveys are a part of its core mandate. Formalization of surveys could help to confirm their frequency, scope, and budget.

● Expanding the areas covered by the surveys to all key sectors of public administration such as health, access to water, justice, telecommunications, state-owned water and electricity companies’ services, the energy sector, civil status, etc.

● Increasing civil society participation throughout the process, i.e., data analysis, restitution and validation of the study, and data dissemination. Civil society could also collaborate with government bodies to address gaps in user satisfaction with public services. The Government notes current efforts to expand civil society’s capacity to participate in the survey process at all levels of government. [63]

● Strengthening accountability by creating a system for monitoring the implementation of the survey recommendations, including civil society, through communication/feedback on the adjustments made by the public services following the survey recommendations through platforms such as the media.