Better basic services for Indonesia<\/p>\n
Menno Pradhan
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Indonesia's citizens deserve better services. Many Indonesians
\nlack access to basic services and this impacts human development
\noutcome. Three percent of primary school age children, that is
\nalmost 900,000 children, do not go to school; 25 percent of
\nbirths, that is almost 900,000 births per year, are not attended
\nby a health professional; and 21 percent of households, that is
\nabout 11,6 million households, do not have access to drinking
\nwater from a closed well or pipe.<\/p>\n
When services are delivered, they often lack quality. A
\nrecent survey revealed that 18 percent of teachers and 42 percent
\nof doctors in public facilities are absent during operating
\nhours.<\/p>\n
The supply driven approach of providing services that has been
\napplied in the last decades is not always appropriate for dealing
\nwith today's problems. Indonesia can claim remarkable
\nachievements in service delivery. Child immunization against
\nmeasles, through a centralized managed program of delivery,
\nincreased from 58 percent in 1991 to 72 percent in 2002.<\/p>\n
This one-size-fits-all approach is however not appropriate to
\nreach those who remain without access to services, such as the
\nvery poor, people living in remote areas and socially excluded
\ngroups. Improving quality of service requires more than
\nreplicating existing models. Now that the low hanging fruits are
\ntaken, new approaches for dealing with the remaining problems are
\ncalled for.<\/p>\n
What is needed is a system where providing good services is
\nrewarded. The tailor made solutions that are needed will only
\narise if innovation is rewarded. The principle holds on many
\nfronts. Central government needs to provide space for district
\ngovernments that are successful in improving services, and
\nclosely monitor those that do not perform.<\/p>\n
Local governments need to reward doctors, teachers, and
\nregulators that excel, and give penalties to those who do not.
\nBut most of all, those who use these services need to be
\nempowered to demand better services. There are structural issues
\nthat hinder implementation of this principle.<\/p>\n
Civil service regulations on hiring, firing and promotions
\ninsufficiently allow for rewarding good performance. Since many
\nservices are managed or delivered by civil servants, this
\ndirectly impacts service delivery. Civil servants are often not
\nrewarded for serving clients well, and equally, face few
\nconsequences if they don't. Whereas those working in the private
\nsector receive more clients and higher pay if they perform well,
\nworkers in the public sector lack such incentives.<\/p>\n
Promotion within the civil service is too dependent on
\nseniority and relations within the bureaucracy and too little on
\njob qualification and satisfaction of clients. School principals,
\nfor instance, are key to innovation of teaching practices in
\nschools.<\/p>\n
But selection of a school principal is conditional on the
\nnumber of years of service making it very difficult for young
\nbright teachers to be promoted. As a result, innovators do not
\nget into positions of power and the public delivery system
\nperforms below capacity.<\/p>\n
Government financing of services provision is very complex
\nmaking it difficult to hold service providers accountable. Good
\nperformance is the best available service given an available
\nbudget. If the budget is fuzzy, so it becomes hard to define
\nperformance.<\/p>\n
An average government health clinic has eight sources of cash
\nincome and 34 operational budgets, many of which are provided in
\nkind by central or local government. With so little autonomy to
\nmanage its operations, it is not clear who should be held
\naccountable if services fail.<\/p>\n
Similarly, pharmaceuticals for local clinics and salaries of
\nteachers for public schools appear both on central and district
\ngovernment budgets, creating ambiguity over who is responsible
\nfor delivering these basic services. With such complexity, it
\nbecomes very hard for service providers and policy makers to
\nplan, for the public to monitor and easy for corrupters to hide
\ntheir tracks.<\/p>\n
Public resources and policy are still very much oriented
\ntowards the public sector while many of the poor obtain services
\nfrom the non-public institutions or through community provision.<\/p>\n
In urban areas for instance, many of the poor obtain water
\nfrom local vendors while in rural areas, community, or self-
\nprovision is the norm. A multi-provider strategy that builds upon
\nthe relative strengths of community, local entrepreneurs and the
\npublic sector is needed. Working with local entrepreneurs and
\ncommunities is not the same as leaving it all to the market.<\/p>\n
Public financing can be directly channeled directly to users,
\nthrough for example vouchers or block grants to poor communities.
\nGovernment needs to monitor service quality of private providers
\nand prevent block grants channeled to communities being captured
\nby local elites.<\/p>\n
Sometimes a combination of public and private sector service
\ndelivery works best, where a public provider contracts locally
\nwith private providers to deliver services that stretch beyond
\nits immediate reach.<\/p>\n
Now is a good time to address these structural issues in
\nservice delivery. Reforms such as these take many years and are
\nbest initiated in the beginning period of a government
\nadministration.<\/p>\n
Indonesia needs a healthy and educated population. Access to
\nbasic services is an intrinsic part of human welfare. The
\nGovernment's commitment to tackle the issue has been encouraging.
\nHopefully the debate during the conference on making services
\nwork for poor people on April 27-28 in Jakarta will contribute to
\nbringing better services to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Menno Pradhan is Senior Poverty Specialist at the World Bank
\nOffice in Jakarta and a fellow at the Amsterdam Institute of
\nInternational Development. Before joining the World Bank, he was
\na researcher at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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