Delhi: DDCD signs MoU with Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee

The Delhi government’s Dialogue and Development Commission (DDCD) on November 15, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nobel prize winners Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo’s J-PAL (Jameel Poverty Action Lab) South Asia. The MoU between the DDCD and J-PAL is to conduct real-time monitoring of the public services offered by the government. The Delhi government commenting on this project stated, “The project is aimed at improving the quality of services, identifying service delivery issues, and motivating frontline staff to perform their duties better.”

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Outbound call centre to be set up to generate reports

The government of Delhi further stated that an outbound call centre will be set up to gather data that will be monitored in real-time. The real-time monitoring of data will be done to understand the quality of the programme’s implementation. The Delhi government stated that: "The data will be collected directly from thousands of beneficiaries daily. This data will be used to generate reports for the government. The reports will contain performance reports, disaggregated at a block level, and provide clear visibility of what is happening on the ground.”

The Delhi government added, "The phone survey may cover questions related to quantity and quality of grains received. Whether a household actually received their entitlement, the waiting time in a Mohalla Clinic, the behaviour of the staff (shop owners or doctors), availability of medicines, etc. J-PAL will analyse the feedback and generate regular report cards, which will then be shared with the departments for further action."

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'Regular programme monitoring is critical for improving public service delivery'

Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia commented that this project will be implemented as a pilot programme to study the beneficiary experience in ration shops which falls under the Public Distribution System. It will further be implemented in Mohalla Clinics as well. Deputy CM Sisidoia stated, “Regular programme monitoring is critical for improving public service delivery and beneficiary experience, especially for flagship schemes such as the Ration Shops and Mohalla Clinics.”

Manish Sisodia commenting on it further stated that there no better way than getting the voices from the citizens as to how the services are being delivered. “It’s also a matter of pride that we are collaborating with a think tank led by Nobel laureates to pilot such a model across government schemes for the first time in India," Sisodia added. The Vice-Chairman of the DDCD Jasmine Shah, Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev and Executive Director, J-PAL South Asia, Shobhini Mukherjee were present at the launch of this programme. 

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