Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

2010 Category 3: JAPAN
Asia and the Pacific
Japan
2010 category 3 – 1st Place Winner
Collaboration Testing
Saga Prefectural Government
Description
This initiative presents a process whereby the Saga prefectural government openly
discusses public-service delivery and collaborates with the private sector to better
meet citizens’ needs.
Summary
The Saga prefectural government devised Collaboration Testing as a means of improving
public-service delivery through knowledge sharing and collaboration with
civil-society organizations (CSOs) and private businesses. The government’s Core
Reform Team initiated the programme design in 2006. Collaboration Testing involves
three steps: (1) the government discloses how it delivers public services and
calls for proposals on how and to what extent CSOs and the private sector could
outperform the government; (2) proposals are fully discussed and assessed; and (3)
services are outsourced or agreements are made for public-private partnerships unless
it is clear that the government can do the best job.
The ultimate objective of conducting Collaboration Testing is to enhance citizens’
satisfaction. To achieve this objective, Collaboration Testing has changed the common
mindset in the Japanese public administration.
The Problem
In the past, public-service delivery in Japan was handled primarily by the public
sector. It was the central government or local governments that designed, funded
and provided services to citizens. Recently, however, a large and growing number
of CSOs have become active in various public-service areas, such as nursing
care for the elderly, child care, environmental preservation, climate change
awareness building, community safety and lifelong-learning initiatives. At the
same time, more and more private companies have also gotten involved in such
activities, adopting the concept of corporate social responsibility as a key management
principle.
Until this project was conceived, however, the government, CSOs and the private
sector did not work together collaboratively in an efficient and effective manner to
combine their unique resources for better public-service delivery. In the context of
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