29 July, Novograd-Volynskiy: The new project is launched by the Centre for Administrative Service Provision in Nogvograd-Volynskiy municipality (Zhytomyr region) to improve the quality of the administrative service provision and strengthen the anti-corruption efforts of the municipality. The project is co-funded by the UNDP Regional Anti Corruption Project, the UNDP Ukraine and the municipality.
In a municipality of Novograd-Volynskiy with 56’000 population, the Centre for Administrative Service Provision was created in 2009 to provide 45 administrative services and 73 administrative social services to the local citizens. However, the citizens often do not know their rights and channels to report cases of unsatisfactory service provision to the municipal authorities.
We plan to apply the ambient accountability approach to improve at least 5 most popular administrative services in Novograd-Volynskiy municipality. This innovative approach aims to improve the physical environment of the public institutions to help citizens understand their rights, monitor performance of service providers and figure out ways to take action if things go wrong. This approach has been widely used by Transparency International in its anti-corruption initiatives in USA, Korea, Mauritania, Namibia and many other countries.
Within the local initiative in Novograd-Volynskiy, we will select 5 most popular administrative services in consultation with local partners such as the condominium associations, neighbourhood organizations, school network and NGO network. To ensure the user-perspective of the service provision, 5 public monitoring committees will be organized to conduct focus group meetings and develop their solutions to improve the Centre’s office.
The estimated total project cost is 7’800 USD shared by the local partners, the UNDP Regional Anti Corruption Project and Novograd-Volynskiy municipality.
With the help of this initiative, we hope to improve the quality of at least 5 selected services provided by the Centre for Administrative Service Provision, equip its premises with additional visibility products helping citizens to know the procedures and their rights, and raise awareness of the visitors of different public institutions about the procedure of better service provision in the premises of the Centre. The idea will contribute to the broader effort of the municipality on making its administrative services more accessible and convenient to the citizens.
