Service delivery workshop for Fiji officials

A delegation from Fiji, led by the  Director Social Welfare, Rupeni Fatiaki, REACH Government Focal Officer, Filipe Nayacalevu, and Reporting and Communications Specialist at the UNDP Pacific Office Ria Sen attended a workshop on “Innovations in Service Delivery under the new South to South and Triangular Cooperation” in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The workshop enabled developing and developed countries to share a platform for exchanging knowledge, experiences and expertise to harness innovations in public service delivery for socio-economic development, with an emphasis on countries in the global South.

As a side session for the workshop, the participants were provided the opportunity to visit some successful initiatives implemented by the Government of Bangladesh. One of the initiatives is providing a “One Stop Shop”, called a Union Digital Center, to provide services to the under served members of rural and remote communities.

These stationary UDCs provide services to communities in a manner similar to those provided in urban centers by the Government. It is more citizen–centric, for efficient and effective service provision at citizens’ doorstep. Operated by local entrepreneurs who charge a small commission fee for services rendered, the UDC embraces a concept of a truly private public partnership.

Currently there are 13,000 centers across the country, all within walking distance for every citizen of Bangladesh. This served as a good model for enhancing service delivery in remote and under served places of Fiji.

South-South cooperation continues to play an important role in international development cooperation and accelerating development within these countries is an important development priority in this respect.

Networking for public service innovations is crucial with the participating countries in the workshop, as it enables sharing good practices that will potentially address the delay or laxity in delivering public services.

The innovations to digitize public services have proven successful for the Government of Bangladesh, having developed the art of providing cost effective solutions and efficient service delivery for easy accessibility of information by all their citizens irrespective of their location.