In November 2005, Nitish Kumar became chief minister of one of India’s poorest states. The third-largest state by population, Bihar lagged behind other states in growth and development but scored high in corruption, lawlessness, and dismal service delivery. Mismanagement of financial resources, obsolete methods of data entry and reporting, a low-skilled workforce, insufficient transparency, and scarce accountability hindered service delivery. As head of state government, Kumar launched a series of reforms that applied information and communications technology to streamline operations, boost revenues, and improve the government’s responsiveness to citizens’ needs. By 2012, Bihar had earned national and regional acclaim for its technology-related gains, and the government of India recognized the turnaround through e-governance awards. Kumar’s efforts earned him the nickname Sushasan Babu, or Mr. Good Governance. Still, some reforms did not go far enough, and significant limitations remained: lack of integration among information and communications systems prevented proper coordination across departments; civil servants did not embrace all technology-related initiatives; and lack of electricity and Internet connectivity in many areas prevented citizens from taking full advantage of the services.

Juliette John drafted this case study in May 2014 while at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School on leave from the UK’s Department for International Development.  The case study was updated by Rushda Majeed and Pallavi Nuka following interviews conducted by Rushda Majeed in Patna, Bihar in August, 2014.  Three separate ISS case studies—Coalition Building in a Divided Society, Clearing the Jungle Raj, and Reviving the Administration,—outline Nitish Kumar’s broader efforts to build a coalition for reform, improve law and order, and resuscitate Bihar’s administration, respectively.

Associated Interview(s):  Anup Mukerji

In early 2008, Zubair Bhatti, administrative head of the Jhang district in Pakistan’s Punjab province, recognized the need to reduce petty corruption in the local civil service—a problem that plagued not only Punjab but also all of Pakistan. He began to contact citizens on their cell phones to learn about the quality of the service they had received. Those spot checks became the basis for a social audit system that spanned all 36 districts in Punjab by 2014. The provincial government outsourced much of the work to a call center, which surveyed citizens about their experiences with 16 different public services. The data from that call center helped district coordination officers identify poorly performing employees and branches, thereby enhancing the capability of the government to improve service delivery. By early 2014, the province was sending about 12,000 text messages daily to check on service quality. More than 400,000 citizens provided information between the beginning of the initiative and 2014. Known as the Citizen Feedback Monitoring Program, the Punjab’s social audit system became the template for similar innovations in other provinces and federal agencies in Pakistan.

Mohammad Omar Masud drafted this case based on interviews conducted in Punjab, Pakistan, in January and March 2014. Case published February 2015.

Note: This case study was previously titled "Calling the Public to Empower the State: Pakistan's Citizen Feedback Monitoring Program, 2008-2014."

Lagos State began the twenty-first century as a boomtown crippled by crime, traffic, blight, and corruption. A regional economic hub and burgeoning state of 13.4 million people, the megalopolis had a global reputation for government dysfunction. Two successively elected governors, Bola Tinubu and Babatunde Fashola, worked in tandem to set the state on a new course. Beginning in 1999, their administrations overhauled city governance, raised new revenues, improved security and sanitation, reduced traffic, expanded infrastructure and transit, and attracted global investment. By following through on their promises to constituents and forging a new civic contract between Lagos and its taxpayers, Tinubu and Fashola laid the foundations of a functional, livable, and sustainable metropolis.
 
Gabriel Kuris drafted this case study based on interviews conducted by Graeme Blair in Lagos, Nigeria, in August 2009 and by Kuris in Lagos, in October 2011 and in Providence, Rhode Island, in November 2012. Case published July 2014.

Associated Interview(s):  Babatunde Fashola, Bola Tinubu

When Mohamed Abdel Salam El-Mahgoub became governor of Alexandria in 1997, he took charge of a storied Egyptian city on the verge of collapse. Garbage and trash lined streets that were clogged with traffic. Roads, highways, water and sanitation systems required urgent repair. Corrupt municipal employees exacted costly bribes for business licenses and building permits. The city’s economy had slowed, as investors, put off by the city’s fading infrastructure and poor services, took their money elsewhere. Alexandria’s fortunes began to turn at the beginning of a nine-year period that came to be called “the Mahgoub era.” Determined to restore the city’s greatness, Mahgoub encouraged citizen participation, formed alliances with key groups, and won public support via high-visibility projects.  He made government more business-friendly by tackling corruption that inflated the price of required documents, and he lured back investors with tax incentives and improved infrastructure. During his nine years in office, Mahgoub saw Alexandria’s economy bloom, fueled by construction projects and an improved business climate. Although some reforms lost momentum when Mahgoub was promoted to a cabinet position in 2006, his accomplishments as governor underscored the value of citizen participation in Egypt’s centralized government.

A once proud city, Bogotá was on the verge of ruin by the late 1980s. Its government was corrupt and dysfunctional, and the Colombian city regularly ranked among the worst places in the world in which to live. In 1986, then-president and former Bogotá Mayor Virgilio Barco lamented that “of that booming city that I governed, today all that is left is an urbanized anarchy, tremendous chaos, immense disorder, a colossal mess.” Beginning in 1992, however, Bogotá enjoyed a string of mayors who succeeded in turning the city around. The first of these mayors, Jaime Castro (1992-1994), fought to establish the financial and political framework that would empower the mayor’s office to function as a nucleus of reform. Castro’s successor, Antanas Mockus (1995-1997 and 2001-2003), built on that legacy, consolidating gains in the face of entrenched opposition on the city council and bringing tangible benefits to the population in the form of exemplary public-service delivery. By 2002, the United Nations had selected Bogotá as a “model city” to be emulated across Latin America and by early 2010, Mockus had emerged as a front-runner in Colombia’s presidential elections.

Matthew Devlin and Sebastian Chaskel drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Colombia during October and November 2009.

Associated Interview(s):  Jaime Castro Castro,  Liliana Caballero, Maria Isabel Patiño

GENERAR Y CONSOLIDAR UNA VUELTA DE PÁGINA: GOBERNABILIDAD EN BOGOTÁ, 1992-2003

SINOPSIS: La otrora ciudad imponente, hacia fines de los años '80 Bogotá se encontraba al borde de la ruina. El gobierno distrital se caracterizaba por la corrupción y el mal funcionamiento, y la capital colombiana frecuentemente se ganaba un lugar en el ranking mundial de los peores lugares para vivir. En 1986, el antiguo alcalde de la capital y por ese entonces presidente Virgilio Barco se lamentó, "De la ciudad vibrante que yo goberné, hoy sólo queda una anarquía urbana, un caos tremendo, un desorden inmenso, un desastre colosal." Sin embargo, a partir de 1992 Bogotá tuvo la suerte de tener una serie de alcaldes que consiguieron pasar la página en la historia de la ciudad. El primero de aquellos alcaldes, Jaime Castro (1992-94), luchó para establecer la infraestructura financiera y política que le otorgaría a la Alcaldía el poder para funcionar como un núcleo de reforma. El sucesor de Castro, Antanas Mockus (1995-97 y 2001-03), siguió construyendo sobre los cimientos legados por su predecesor, y así consolidó victorias a pesar de la oposición profundamente arraigada del Concejo de la Ciudad, trayendo beneficios tangibles para la población en la forma de mejoras en la prestación de servicios públicos. Al llegar el año 2002, las Naciones Unidas habían seleccionado a Bogotá como una ciudad modelo a ser emulada a través de Latinoamérica, y para comienzos del año 2010, Mockus había surgido como un candidato formidable a la presidencia colombiana. Matthew Devlin y Sebastian Chaskel redactaron este estudio practico basado en entrevistas que se llevaron a cabo en Colombia, en octubre y noviembre del 2009. El caso fue publicado en diciembre del 2010. Melina Meneguin-Layerenza tradujo este estudio en febrero de 2013.

Matthew Devlin y Sebastian Chaskel redactaron este estudio practico basado en entrevistas que se llevaron a cabo en Colombia, en octubre y noviembre del 2009. El caso fue publicado en diciembre del 2010. Melina Meneguin-Layerenza tradujo este estudio en febrero de 2013.
 

Inaugurated as mayor of Medellín at the beginning of 2004, Sergio Fajardo inherited a city roiled by decades of violence and corruption. During his four years in office, the charismatic former university professor turned Medellín around. He broke up clientelistic political networks, raised tax receipts, improved public services, introduced transparency fairs, established civic pacts, and restored citizens’ sense of hope. Fajardo left office at the end of 2007 with an unprecedented approval rating of nearly 90%. Though Medellín still faced significant challenges, the city was later identified as an exemplary case of good public administration by cities across Latin America and the Inter-American Development Bank. By 2010, Fajardo had been named the vice-presidential running mate of former Bogotá mayor Antanas Mockus in that year’s presidential elections.