Publish : 08 May, 2014 00:00:00

Governance Innovation Unit

Developing citizen-centric public administration
Mohammad Navid Safiullah
There has been a paradigm shift from traditional hierarchical bureaucratic public administration
to a citizen-centric modern public administration. This has happened due to globalisation, rapid
technological advancements, rising expectations of the citizens from the public servants in terms
of better service delivery and fiscal pressures to deliver services at reduced cost. All these factors
have compelled today's civil service to change its profile significantly. Almost all developing
nations have realised that to cope with the challenges of the 21st century and also to meet the
demands and expectations of the citizens, reinventing the public sector is essential. The
Government of Bangladesh through its Vision 2021 reflects these realities.
It is difficult to improve public service delivery overnight. An effective public service essentially
nurture innovation for improving performance over time, increasing responsiveness to changing
conditions and also overcoming social challenges through partnership. To promote and
encourage innovative undertakings in accomplishing governance reforms effectively and
improving public service delivery, the government of Bangladesh in 2012 established the
Governance Innovation Unit (GIU) in the Prime Minister's Office. Empowering citizens is at the
core of this entity.
GIU's key partners are the Pathfinder Ministries (PFMs) that have the most direct interaction
with citizens. These are: Ministry of Agriculture, Education, Health and Family Welfare, Home
Affairs, Land, Primary & Mass Education, Local Government Division and the Ministry of
Disaster Management & Relief. The Focal Points (FPs) of the PFMs are responsible for
maintaining the momentum and liaise with their clients. The Work Improvement Teams (WITs)
of the PFMs are assigned to bring qualitative changes to the work culture of the civil servants
through encouraging and motivating peers, making suggestions for cutting red tape, improving
service delivery and identifying success stories.
The Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners are the major players of GIU's
communication strategy. Divisional Commissioners are instrumental in ensuring the outcomes of
good governance and innovative initiatives. The Deputy Commissioners maintain liaison, rapport
and coordination with the representatives of private sector organisation, NGOs (nongovernmental organsations), academia, civil society, business community, women entrepreneur
and media to implement the policy suggestions of the GIU. Both Divisional Commissioners and
Deputy Commissioners are putting their best endeavours to disseminate GIU's role towards
improving service delivery through innovative approaches at the grassroots level. Their proactive
role in implementing some of the GIU's recommendations such as ensuring formalin free food
for the citizens, introducing mid-day meal programme in the Primary schools, restraining early
marriage, ensuring foolproof security measures at the field level are truly commendable.

As part of Liaison and Outreach programme, GIU is networking with various Training Institutes
including Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (BPATC), Bangladesh Civil Service
(BCS) Academy, Foreign Service Academy, Police Staff College, and NAEM. International
Organisations such as UNDP, USAID, JICA and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government are
also its partners.
The Unit has made a robust effort to identify innovations that have been successful at the local
level and are ready for scaling up. GIU has undertaken its search through three main initiatives:
REFORM PROPOSALS FROM PATHFINDER MINISTERS: Governance Innovation Unit
held meetings with the secretaries of the PFMs. In addition, it organised a series of interactive
meetings with the FPs and WITs of the PFMs. These ministries have been identifying and
nurturing different reform initiatives.
USING CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS AND TRAININGS TO DISSEMINATE
INNOVATIVE IDEAS: GIU in collaboration with the CSCMP, MoPA has so far conducted
divisional workshops in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna and Rangpur. It organised two
workshops titled "Citizens' Charter Implementation & Service Process Simplification Methods
and Techniques" in Sylhet and Bogra. The rationale was to disseminate the concept among the
public servants that fast, efficient, hassle-free service to the citizens at reduced cost and also
within the existing legal framework is possible through innovations. In addition, GIU has
conducted a number of field visits for exploring the ideas and their implementation.
This Unit has organised Executive Education Programme on "Strategic Leadership for
Innovation in the Public sector" tailored to the needs of the senior and mid-level civil servants.
The programme was conducted by Dr. Jorrit de Jong and Dr. Linda Kaboolian, renowned
governance specialists from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. The purpose was to
equip them with the skills to identify pragmatic solutions approach to social challenges that
confront the public sector. The core groups comprising 28 officials identified seven individual
cases (Ministry of Relief & Disaster Management was inducted afterwards as a new PFM) as
Innovation Challenge Proposals for implementation.
GIU has also organised a Training Programme on Innovation Concepts & Practices of
Government Officials for the public servants of Bangladesh. Around 720 government officials
participated in this three month long training course. The purpose was to instill a culture of
innovation among the civil servants.
CONDUCTING NATIONWIDE SEARCH FOR INNOVATIVE PROPOSALS: Since inception,
Governance Innovation Unit has been compiling successes and best practices on creativity
enhancement of the government activities. To this end, it has sought success stories and
proposals from all public sector organizations emphasizing on novelty, effectiveness,
significance, replicability, sustainability and service process simplification with a view to

improving service delivery, reducing costs or transforming agency performance. To date, GIU
has received numerous innovative proposals from various public sector organizations. These are
being meticulously reviewed by the officials with due importance. It has already sent some of the
proposals to the concerned ministries for proper implementation. Moreover, GIU has received a
number of success stories from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Agriculture, Home
Affairs, Education, Primary & Mass Education and Land. Some of the innovative proposals are
nearing completion.
OTHER ACTIVITIES: GIU has assigned the Pathfinder Ministries to formulate Innovation Plans
to implement their proposals in an efficient and time-bound manner. To date, this Unit has
arranged Stakeholder Consultation meetings on Ensuring Formalin-free food to the citizens,
Simplification of Passport Delivery Service and Restraining Early Marriage. A Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) was recently signed among the Governance Innovation Unit (GIU), the
Public Administration Department of Dhaka University and the Civil Service Change
Management Programme (CSCMP) of the Ministry of Public Administration. As per the
agreement, final-year students of the Public Administration Department have been provided with
two consecutive orientation sessions on the concepts, ideas and practices of Public Service
Innovation jointly conducted by the faculties of Public Administration Department, GIU officials
and the CSCMP personnel. The officials of GIU shared the mandate and vision of the GIU as
well as its role and responsibility in Public Service Innovation during these orientation sessions.
In addition, a small group of final year students has been selected as interns in the GIU. Under
this internship programme, they will participate and contribute in relevant research and studies,
in cooperation with GIU and the Path Finder Ministries. The areas for joint research will
encompass issues relevant to Public Service Innovation. If properly implemented, this
Programme will definitely create a platform for the academics and the practitioners to share their
views on citizen centric service delivery.
With a view to encouraging and inspiring the public servants to improve citizen satisfaction with
services,
GIU
intends
to
formulate
a
Recognition
Policy
in
near
future.
The writer is Director, Governance Innovation Unit, Prime Minister's Office.