Duration: 4 November 2021 to 9 December 2022
Status: Completed
Funder/ Partner: The World Bank Group
Effective delivery of government financed public goods is often constrained by last mile implementation challenges due to various factors including weak capacity and lack of accountability of service providers at various levels, including at the district and sub-district levels. The objective of this study is to analyze the factors that impede or facilitate service delivery chain with a focus on human resource issues, such as block and panchayat level staff and their capacity. For the purpose of this study, Jan Aadhaar, a service delivery platform of Rajasthan state government has been identified as an initiative that has used technology to improve service delivery at the last mile.
While the focus of this study will be on last mile service delivery, it will also address challenges along the delivery chain, namely capacity of administrative units at the state and district levels, lack of coordination within and across departments and sectors, institutional weaknesses for managing human resources, funds and data, among others. The study will focus on identifying schemes using the Jan Aadhaar platform and undertake a formative assessment of end-to-end service delivery process. It will examine the need for reforms in the delivery chain of these schemes, in order to reap greater performance/effectiveness from frontline staff and ICT innovations. It will also document lessons from Rajasthan’s experience of using Jan Aadhaar service delivery platform which could serve as an example for the other states interested in setting up similar systems.