IDG Highlight: Service Improvement Action Plans (SIAPs)

SIAPs: A performance management tool that integrates target-setting, performance measurement, and budgeting to get measurably better services

IDG, October 2010 - Strengthening public service delivery often does not only require strengthening the capacity of local institutions and officials, but typically also requires creating governance systems that ensures that citizen preferences and feedback are taken on board as part of the planning and service delivery process.

The Urban Institute developed the Service Improve Action Planning approach (SIAPs) in 1999 to help local governments identify priority problems, select the right outcome indicators, set targets, and measure results. The SIAP approach has subsequenly been used by UI to improve public services in hundreds of local governments in over a dozen countries, using low-cost data collection for sustainability and for building habits of consultation and accountability into citizen-state relations.

Since improving the responsiveness of the public sector cannot be done in a one-size-fits-all manner, the SIAP approach has been customized by UI to fit the specific needs of the different countries, sectors, and local contexts in which it has been applied.

For instance, a SIAP-driven survey helped Novozalesnovsky, a Russian rural settlement in Perm oblast, identify trash as a major problem and motivated change based on clearly enunciated targets. The result: Data on the demand for regular trash removal and the consequent volunteered labor led to clearing of dumping grounds, a new hauling service, a landfill site, and vastly improved appearance of the town.

Similarly, in 2008, the Tehsil Municipal Administration of Talagna, in Punjab, Pakistan, developed an action plan for its urban roads and street sector, using focus group discussions to identify priority issues in the sector and a household survey to measure performance and collect data on service quality, coverage, and sanitation conditions. The result: Eighty-seven changes -worth 23.2 million Pakistan rupees- were incorporated into the annual development plan for 2008, approved by the city council, and implemented.