United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

The new initiative of Shri Shivraj singh Chauhan,Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in the name of Basic Services Monitoring Programme (BSMP) has moved away from the conventional annual monitoring to concurrent monthly monitoring. There are about more than 52000 villages of the State of Madhya Pradesh were covered under this programme. The collected information contains both quantitative and qualitative data. BSMP has helped in decreasing the response time to mitigate the problems that arise from the various villages. Earlier when it took more than a year for the administration to respond to the problems of the villages, now it is being done within one month of the receipt of the observations from the field. This is making the people in the villages come forward to discuss the problems faced by them. As their responses are heard and actions are taken to bring about solutions, the nodal officers (Responsible for collecting information) coming regularly to their villages are being respected and recognized.
The regular reporting of various information such as neo-natal deaths, malnutrition which requires immediate response to contain epidemics has resulted in the improved neo-natal and immunization services.
The Public Distribution System that has been not very efficient in providing regular ration to its people has started distribution of kerosene, wheat to the needy and the deserving. This has helped in improving the nutritional status among the people.
BSMP has helped in streamlining the delivery of basic services in the state. A few years back teachers were not receiving regularly, their monthly salary. As these observations were coming up through this monitoring system, regular payment of salary to the teachers has become a reality in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The BSMP monitors mid-day-meal, Schools, distribution of kerosene, grains, sugar etc., Immunization of children, services pertaining to animal husbandry and health services to citizens residing in more than 5200 villages. It monitors 359944 hand pumps, 45621 Anganwadis (Child care centre), 147070 electric transformers, 7167 community health centres in the State.This initiative moved away from the conventional annual monitoring to concurrent monitoring. There are about 25000 such officers to cover more than 52000 villages of the State of Madhya Pradesh. The collected information contains both quantitative and qualitative data. These officers are assigned to monitor about 2 to 3 villages near to them and the data is entered at the block level in a software programme designated for monitoring. This system ensures the cross verification of the data that has been provided at various levels. Data provided by the respective individual at block, district and state will be validated by the senior officials when visiting a sample of villages. If at any level it has been found that the correct information has been not provided then the respective persons will be taken to task. The generated reports are used by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & Development Officer at the block level to monitor the respective departments and to action on the same. Similar monitoring exercise is conducted at District by the District Magistrate and at State by Chief Secretary and Chief Minister.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Mr.Shivraj Singh Chauhan has assumed office of chief minister in November 2005. Immediately after assumption of charge, in the month of December 2005, he instructed his secretariat to devise a system of feedback so that delivery of Government system is improved . The secretariat took stock of the existing system of feedback & 11 point programme. A series of deliberations took place with Head of the Departments and District Collectors from December 2005 to April 2006 . The secretariat proposed a new system named as Basic Service Monitoring Programme (BSMP) & a circular was issued to implement the BSM Programme in May 2006. A web based software was developed & installed in all 313 blocks of State .for entry and processing of data collected at field level in the month of June 2006 . The implementation of Programme started in July2006 . The monthly data base is available at state head quarter beginning from July 2006 to this month.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Government of Madhya Pradesh has long recognized that access to minimum level of social infrastructure facilities must be an integral part of a strategy for improving the quality of life of the people and for eradicating poverty. Over the last decade, considerable progress has been made in improving access to primary health care facilities, primary education, safe drinking water and shelter as reflected in an expansion of coverage and also improvements in the indicators of human development More than making a policy, its implementation at the grassroots level, the realization of its objectives at the village level requires more effort and planning. This will be successful only when it is interwoven with regular and systematic monitoring. To this effect Government of Madhya Pradesh has been making consistent efforts since 1996 with Gram Sampark Abhiyan wherein, all the elected representatives and government officials visits the villages in a particular month of the year to understand /resolve the problems faced by the people living in the village. While this continued for a few years, the State started looking for more consistent efforts to show accountability to its citizen. In 2001, the State devised an 11 point programme, which consisted of monitoring on basic 11 services that was provided at the village level. Learning from the past experiences and to strengthen the existing monitoring system a comprehensive monitoring system was conceptualized by the State and designed Basic Services Monitoring Programme (BSMP) in May 2006. This consisted of regular monitoring of these services by collecting information/feed back through nodal officers, who are independent and not responsible for providing their services but belong to Government machinery.. Comprehensive formats for assessing the performance of the selected services were formulated for the purpose of monitoring. Total 13 services were selected . This initiative moved away from the conventional annual monitoring to concurrent monitoring. There are about 25000 such officers to cover more than 52000 villages of the State of Madhya Pradesh. The collected information contains both quantitative and qualitative data.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The purpose with which BSMP was conceptualized was to ensure the efficient functioning of the system for delivering the basic services to its citizens. It intended to decrease the response time to mitigate the problems faced in the implementation of the programme at the grassroots level. The programme was designed to capture some of the basic services that are needed to be efficiently delivered at the village level. The programme was designed to bring up the information as to what are those services that require immediate attention to increase the quality of life of the people.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Selection of independent Monitors: The State established independent monitors who are not part of the system implementing the various services that are being monitored to be the watchdogs of the delivery system in the state. This enabled the monitors to report the data freely to the block. These monitors visit the villages assigned to them and write the details in the format that they are supposed to fill up. These formats are completed before the 22nd of the month. Establishing Objective Monitoring System The data entries are completed by 30th of the month and the required reports are submitted to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & Development Officer at the block level. The block officials take action on the problems that has been observed by the monitors and instruct the respective department to take corrective action. The same is submitted to the District Magistrate and the various officials at the district level. Similar exercise is done at the district level. Also when these district and block officials visit the villages follow up the various observations that they have received. Increase the accountability: The state tried to implement this monitoring system to increase the delivery of services to its people. The officials at the block and district level are to visit on a sample of villages and check on the observations that they have received regarding the delivery of services in these villages. This ensures in creating more accountability to the agents of service delivery system. It also creates a pressure on them as these observations are being seen by the various officials at the block, district and state level. Similarly the accountability of the block and district officials are increased.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
BSMP has helped in decreasing the response time to mitigate the problems that arise from the various villages. Earlier when it took more than a year for the administration to respond to the problems of the villages, now it is being done within one month of the receipt of the observations from the field. This is making the people in the villages come forward to discuss the problems with the nodal officer the problems faced by them. As their responses are heard and actions are taken to bring about solutions, the nodal officers coming regularly to their villages are being respected and recognized. The regular reporting of various information such as neo-natal deaths, malnutrition which requires immediate response to contain epidemics has resulted in the improved neo-natal and immunization services. The Public Distribution System that has been not very efficient in providing regular ration to its people has started distribution of kerosene, wheat to the needy and the deserving. This has helped in improving the nutritional status among the people. BSMP has helped in streamlining the delivery of basic services in the state. A few years back teachers were not receiving regularly, their monthly salary. As these observations were coming up through this monitoring system, regular payment of salary to the teachers has become a reality in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Earlier there used to be seen many hand pumps that were not maintained in the villages. As the transformers were not repaired disruption of the available electricity was a common event in the villages. BSMP has helped in getting the hand pumps and electric transformer maintained. This has ensured clean drinking water to the villages. It has also helped in the supply of electricity to the villages enabling them to provide much needed irrigation facility for the agrarian villages.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
BSMP is a sustainable programme to improve the delivery of basic services to the people of the state. It has enabled the state to alert the key officials at the state, district and block level to the various observations being received through the monitoring programme. As the generated reports are being reviewed at block, district and state level, officials implementing the various services have become more alert in administering their duties. This three tier monitoring programme can be implemented with some modification in any developing country in the world. As the people have become aware of the established monitoring mechanism they are increasingly using the same and thereby establishing community ownership of the same. This has also enabled in mobilizing the community of improving the services available to them. The ownership of the community and the mobilization of the community members for the same will not only increase the sustainability of the services but also the monitoring programme established in the state. As BSMP is looking at the necessary services that are needed by the people, there is a gradual increase both in the demand for the same and at the same time in the continuity of the service. This will continuously help the service providers to improve the delivery of services. The state has improved the delivery of various basic services as a result of the implementation of BSMP. All the data captured in the programme has been owned by the respective departments of the state. It is a direct indicator of the performance or the efficient functioning of the respective departments. The appointment of the monitor independent of the departments providing services has brought more credibility to the monitoring programme. The earliest possible response to the problems identified has enhanced the success of the programme. This has improved the recognition of the monitors among the village community. This in turn has helped to sustain the enthusiasm of the monitors. Thus this system is not only sustainable in the state of Madhya Pradesh but is also transferable to any place or any systems in the world.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
As all the data that has been captured in the programme are owned by the respective departments of the state, it was very easy to increase their accountability and to take immediate actions. The initial success of the system has made the service delivery system to be more alert in administering their duties. This initiative has also demonstrated use of IT for benefit of common man. If the feedback received is true and unbiased, they helps district administration and consequently being taken positively by administrators.


Institution Name:		Chief Minister's Office
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Shivraj Singh Chauhan
Title:		Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
Telephone/ Fax:		91-755-2442231
Institution's / Project's Website:		91-755-2540500
E-mail:		mukeshbiley@yahoo.com
Address:		Mantralaya Vallabh Bhavan
Postal Code:		462004
City:		Bhopal
State/Province:		Madhya Pradesh
Country:		India

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information