Citizens feedback on public services in Laos

The United Nations Public Service Day is observed each year on June 23 and is a day to reflect on the importance of services rendered by public servants.
The day is also marked to highlight the principles of good governance and to recognise the contribution made by public sector officials to the development process.

A resident of Kham district in Xieng Khuang province receives healthcare.

This year’s public service day focuses on the role of public institutions and public servants in building back better from Covid-19 in light of the 2030 agenda and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
 It is important for Laos’ public sector to monitor compliance with target 16.6 of the SDGs (enhancing the effectiveness, transparency and accountability of public institutions) and to what extent public services are reaching Lao citizens and especially the vulnerable groups who face multiple barriers in accessing public services.
UNDP in Laos in partnership with the Ministry of Home Affairs recently released a report on the second Service Users Feedback Survey (SUFS) 2021.
The key objectives of the survey were to collect feedback from citizens on six main public services, namely primary education, primary health care, water supply and sanitation, public works (roads and bridges), agricultural extension services, and civil registration. 
The feedback obtained through the survey was analysed on the basis of governance dimensions such as access to services, quality of services, and transparency in service provision.
It is interesting to note that more than 50 percent of respondents stated that there was need for improvement across all the six services in terms of access.
With regard to the quality of services, the health sector recorded the highest level of satisfaction with 44 percent of respondents stating that they were satisfied. The education and health sectors scored higher than other services in terms of transparency with a score of 56 percent. However, what should be noted is that there is still a considerable percentage of citizens expecting improvement across all six basic services.
Persons with disabilities, who comprise 15 percent of the global population, are also citizens with disabilities in their respective countries. 
One of the notable features of the two rounds of the SUFS (2019 and 2021) conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs was inclusion of persons with disabilities as one of the target groups, to record their level of satisfaction with the six public services being provided at the local level.
It is interesting to note that the WHO Brief Model Disability Survey conducted in Laos in 2019 indicated that the prevalence of moderate disability among the adult population in Laos was 56 percent and the prevalence of severe disabilities was 23 percent. 
The second round of the Service Users Feedback Survey collected feedback from a small percentage of citizens with disabilities. This was largely due to lack of awareness amongst local authorities and enumerators of the survey on what constitutes a person with disabilities under the national disability law.
Village leaders play a crucial role in identifying persons with disabilities and in ensuring that they have access to basic services, so enhancing their awareness about people with disabilities is critical.
The three top services identified for improvement by citizens with disabilities were roads and bridges, water and sanitation, and education. It should be noted that the survey results indicated barriers faced by children with disabilities in accessing education. 
Citizens with disabilities also expressed their views about staff competency. Through the survey they indicated that public works, water and sanitation, and health sector staff need to enhance their competencies.
Since health services are widely utilised by persons with disabilities, there is general expectation that health department staff need to increase their level of engagement (attentiveness) towards persons with disabilities.
Registering complaints with the Village Leaders Office is the widely used mechanism for grievance resolution by persons with disabilities.
Once again, it is vital to ensure that this office accords priority to addressing complaints by people with disabilities in accordance with the relevant legislation.
A very small percentage of persons with disabilities participate in village development meetings, which could be largely due to environmental barriers. 
Efforts to build back better remain incomplete without making governance inclusive for persons with disabilities.
So also, the principle of ‘Leave no one behind’ will remain as rhetoric unless development partners make sincere efforts to include persons with disabilities in their respective development policies and programmes. 
Laos has seen remarkable growth in the capacities of organisations assisting people with disabilities and their role in taking forward the agenda for inclusive development.
Engagement with representative organisations of persons with disabilities is highly desired so that their needs and concerns are appropriately addressed by public service providers and partners working in the development sector. 
–Source: UNDP

By Lamphone Pasanthong
(Latest Update June 24, 2022)