Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

Good Practices and InnovATIONS in Public Governance
Asia and the Pacific
India
2008 Category 3 Winner
Programme of Communitisation
of Public Institutions and Services
Government of Nagaland, India
Description
Empowering local communities to manage essential public social services through
the Programme of Communitisation of Public Institutions and Services established
by the Government of Nagaland in India.
Summary
This programme has significantly improved public service delivery in essential services,
such as health, education and electricity, through an imaginative empowerment of users
at the community level by adopting an innovative legislative framework. It is also playing
a key role in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
The Problem
Prior to the implementation of the Communitisation Scheme in Nagaland (the initiative),
public social and utility services including health services, education, and electricity
were scarce, and very badly managed. The public institutions responsible for
those services were ineffective and dysfunctional. A strongly felt and unmet need was
how to revitalize the service delivery network and bring about systemic improvement.
The Solution
In order to improve the management of public services so that they would be responsive
to the needs of the population, the government of Nagaland introduced a new
concept of service delivery. The citizens themselves were to be responsible for the
delivery of public services and be directly involved in the collection of the fees and
payments necessary to keep them running.
The former Chief Secretary of the Government of Nagaland, Mr. R.S. Pandey conceptualized
the initiative and coined the term “communitisation” as a more effective
means of conveying the concept underlying this initiative rather than using “decentralization”.
Various discussions at the local level were initiated and a concept note
was issued and discussed by the government that decided to institutionalize the communitisation
of services in the state of Nagaland. After the government’s decision,
rules for the communitisation of different sectors – namely, education, health and
power supply – were finalized by different committees constituted for this purpose.
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