Country Chapters: Pakistan
Selection of Sector:
Transparency International Pakistan
decided to go ahead with the ICT project and chose the Sector for “improving delivery of Water Supply and
Sewerage” to the poor living in
Transparency
International Pakistan has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the
Gulshan Town Administration, to attempt to provide a Clean and Transparent
Government and through this ICT program benefit the Town in its endeavour to
provide and improve the transparency, quality and effectiveness of its pro-poor
delivery services.
Justification for Selection:
Despite considerable
investment, public services in most developing countries are widely perceived
to be facing several operational challenges in the effective delivery of their
services. The poor and disadvantaged in developing countries suffer in relation
to delivery of public services. Firstly, they lack access to those services due
to physical, financial, informational, political and other barriers. Secondly,
they lack effective mechanisms for feeding back their complaints, views and
requests in relation to those services. The
poor and the disadvantaged are thus particularly vulnerable as they rely
completely on the state for accessing critical services like drinking water,
health and education. There is no `exit’ option available to these users to
seek an alternative provider in case of dissatisfaction with the service provided.
(Gopakumar K et al 2002)
Research Focus:
The present project
focuses largely on access to information and the identifying ways to improve
the effectiveness of delivery of public services to the poor and vulnerable
sections and the opportunities for ICT to strengthen those mechanisms.
It is however,
important to recognise that certain applications of ICT may be relevant to
particular local circumstances.
This project intends
to identify and use the appropriate ICT to disseminate information to service
providers and users and provide an appropriate means by which the poor can
provide feedback to governments on the service provided.
End-users and Target Audiences:
The project end-users
are those poor women and men who do or could make use of services/e-services in
those cases selected for the action research component of the project. The
ultimate overall intended end-users of the project are those poor women and men
who are, or require being, recipients of public services, including e-services.
The public service
providers including all those institutions in the chain of delivery to the poor
from central ministry to local office level would comprise the target audience
for the project. Providers will benefit
from a better understanding of the views (both positive and negative) of the
poor about the services/e-services that are being provided.