Research Summary 19, Blocked Drains and Open Minds: Multiple Accountability Relationships and Improved Service Delivery in an Indian City.
Abstract
This case study provides insights into how to improve public service delivery, in a difficult environment. It concerns the Hyderbad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metro Water), a semi-autonomous agency in Hyderbad City (Andhra Pradesh, South India). Metro Water was able to implement significant organisational transformation, as well as sustained improvements in service-delivery, following a series of customer-focused reforms at the end of the 1990s. Metro Water's success is largely attributed to the way in which the reforms established multiple, formal accountability relationships between external actors (the most prominent of which were local citizens), and Metro Water staff (namely frontline workers and senior managers).
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Citation
Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, 2 pp.
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