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MANILA, PHILIPPINES - ADB and ADB Institute today launched two e-learning toolkits to improve transparency and accountability in the delivery of public services in Asia.

The toolkits – Citizen Report Card (CRC) and Continuous Improvement and Benchmarking (CIB) techniques – were designed and developed by the Public Affairs Centre of Bangalore, India, and the Australian Continuous Improvement Group in Melbourne, Australia, with technical and grant support from ADB and the Tokyo-based ADBI.

Attending the launch today at ADB's Manila Headquarters were about 60 representatives from service providers, academics, training institutions, and development agencies, among others.

"Making services work for the poor – particularly the poor and the historically disadvantaged groups – is one of the major challenges that confront developing countries worldwide," Bindu Lohani, Director General of ADB's Regional and Sustainable Development Department, said at the launch."

"Over the years, service delivery has been weighed down by a host of factors such as weak regulatory frameworks, institutional rigidities, poor public accountability systems, leakages in resource management, and lack of a capable workforce."

The e-learning toolkits will enable users to develop basic skills using self-paced learning modules to understand the conceptual, technical, managerial, and operational details of CRC methodology and CIB techniques, he said.

CRC methodology is based on the premise that feedback on service quality, collected from communities through a sample survey, provides a reliable basis for communities and local governments to engage in partnerships to improve the delivery of public services.

Countries that use CRC include Bangladesh, People’s Republic of China (PRC), India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Argentina, Peru, and Ukraine.

CIB is a combination of two techniques - continuous improvement and benchmarking. Continuous improvement is a systematic method to improve service delivery in terms of access, timeliness, quality, cost, community satisfaction, and affordability. Benchmarking compares services with others and obtains information about “best” service practices in order to raise service standards and, ultimately, to improve quality of own services.

CIB has enabled service delivery improvements in many government institutions and private organizations in many countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, PRC, India, Indonesia, Fiji Islands, Kyrgyz Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, and Vanuatu.

Mr. Lohani said the launch of the e-learning toolkits is part of a bigger initiative being supported by ADB through technical assistance project to develop regional knowledge and capacity to improve service delivery. "The initiative includes disseminating the e-learning toolkits to different stakeholders and to use them in teaching, training, and, more importantly, actual programs and projects to improve access to and quality of public services," he said.

See Citizens Report Card.

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