1. Improving Economic Governance of Government Service Delivery ICT-enabled Investment Climate Reform: Leveraging Technology to Improve Regulatory Governance in the ECA region A Peer-to-Peer Workshop for Reform Practitioners June 4-6, 2013 Courtney S. Roberts, Advisor, ICT Team Abeer Shalan, Associate Operations Officer, IFC Amman

2. What Can Technology Do? Bangladesh Business Registry Before Automation

3. Improves Front and Back Office Operations Bangladesh Business Registry After Automation

4. ICT applications can support improved economic governance by: ♦ Increasing transparency, thus reducing information asymmetries for business ♦ Reducing corruption opportunities by reducing human intervention in interpreting procedural and regulatory requirements ♦ Increasing accountability of government staff through private sector feedback on service delivery What Else Can Technology Do? 4

5. The Power of Mobile

6. The Promise of Mobile ♦ New Tools: Apps ♦ Cheaper Devices: Microsoft-Huawei’s 4Afrika smartphone, Datawind’s Ubislate ♦ Evolving OSs: 1996-Palm; 2000-Symbia; 2002-Windows and Blackberry; 2005- Maemo; 2007-Apple iOS; 2008-Android, 2011-Mego (Linux); 2013? Mozilla ♦ Networks Expanding: Roughly every 18 months, bandwidth in developing countries doubles and is expanding into rural areas. ♦ Widespread Use: 30 billion apps downloaded in 2011

7. ♦ WBG supporting “App Labs” and collaborative development models (e.g., hackathons) to address specific development needs in several sectors ♦ Benefit: Rapid development of low cost technology solutions; scalability of successful models Innovative Approaches to Design & Development 7

8. ♦ WBG engaging beneficiaries in participatory/”agile” design ♦ Benefit: Higher acceptance of more tailored solutions; replicability beyond pilot 8 Innovative Approaches to Design & Development

9. ♦ ICT-enabled reform increases Access, Quality of Service, and Efficiency ♦ Mobile Technologies Provide Opportunity for Increased Involvement of Private Sector But What Does It Mean for Reforms?

10. ICT-enabled Feedback Mechanisms ♦ Most initial efforts focused on gathering consumer feedback on service delivery or reporting service requests – Indonesia and Singapore early adopters in the region ♦ Builds upon existing benchmarking surveys (e.g., Doing Business, Global Competitiveness Report) to provide for more timely and specific feedback from the business community. ♦ Two main types of G2B feedback mechanisms initially emerging: 1.Immediate beneficiary feedback on government service delivery experience (e.g., business inspection) 2.Public comment on proposed new business laws and regulations, prior to enactment.

11. 1. Direct beneficiary feedback on G2B service delivery experience ♦ Feedback can be provided through a web interface or mobile devices ♦ Mobile apps offer the opportunity to collect more structured information (e.g., ratings, average waiting time), as well as summarize feedback to be more useful to management ♦ Use of management dashboards show – Time series information on service delivery by “product” (e.g., specific license) or location (e.g., customs border post) – Benchmarking against peer group or defined service standard – Anecdotal information on service delivery problems or examples of exceptional service provision

12. 1. Direct beneficiary feedback on G2B service delivery experience Prerequisites for success: ♦ Easily accessible by users through appropriate technologies ♦ Established and announced service delivery standards ♦ Active solicitation of feedback at point of service delivery ♦ Evidence that Government is actually listening

13. 2. Public comment on proposed new business laws and regulations ♦ Several successful examples exist: – Regulations.gov in the US; all proposed regulatory actions must be posted in advance for public comment – REACH in Singapore facilitates PPD on new legislative measures ♦ Efforts in developing countries planned or recently implemented – Uganda: IFC-supported web portal to collect private sector feedback on proposed business licensing reforms – Azerbaijan: IFC-supported web portal collects feedback on proposed legislative measures affecting business – Similar efforts under discussion in Egypt and other client countries

16. 2. Public comment on proposed new business laws and regulations Prerequisites for success: ♦ Web site managed by government or recognized business advocacy organization (Private Sector Foundation in Uganda) ♦ Strong mandate from government, ideally legal mandate to solicit feedback ♦ Evidence that feedback is analyzed and taken into account before regulations or legislation formally enacted (e.g., summary of public consultation feedback posted online)

17. Feedback Mechanism for Business Inspection in Jordan

18. Feedback Mechanism: Challenges ♦ No established systems for collecting feedback from businesses ♦ No single point of contact at inspectorates/ministries to receive feedback and it may not be channeled to the right person/unit ♦ Some inspectorates do solicit feedback on their services in general, but not specifically for inspection ♦ Inability to generate reports on private sector satisfaction since feedback in most cases is collected manually (e.g. formal letter, paper-based questionnaire, or verbally)

19. Inspectorates under Scope National Inspection Reform Program Agricultu re Municip alities Tourism Environm ent Energy Food & Drugs Social Security Amman Municipal ity Civil Defense LaborHealth 3 inspectorates selected for pilot

20. Proposed Feedback System QuestionnaireDashboard -Visit duration/frequency - Inspector’s attitude -Inspector’s fulfillment of expected role -Awareness of procedures -Satisfaction with visit results Available through: -Smartphone Application -Inspectorates’ websites -SMS survey -Maximum of 10 questions -Multiple choice with ability to add comments

21. Design Considerations ♦ User authentication – Business ID/registration number – Mobile number – Creation of usernames / passwords Would businesses provide feedback if requested to identify themselves? ♦ Promotion of positive feedback in addition to negative feedback – Incentive scheme – Awareness campaign System is expected to be launched in September 2013

22. Design Considerations ♦ System ownership – Hosting and management of the application – Access to dashboard and reports – Ownership of Apple account (in case of a shared application) – Involvement of a third party ♦ Transparency of the process – Processes to act on the feedback – Need to demonstrate outcomes to those surveyed

23. THANK YOU! Contacts: Courtney S. Roberts, croberts@ifc.org Abeer Shalan, ashalan@ifc.org