The survey presents a promising picture of the quality, accessibility, and effectiveness of public services provided by the federal and provincial governments.
What you should know
A nationwide survey has shown that citizens feel that public service delivery has improved in recent times. A majority of the 2,905 respondents to the nationwide survey, conducted in collaboration with Kantipur Media Group and Sharecast Initiative, said they felt that public service delivery had improved. Six out of 10 said they felt that the quality of government services had improved, a figure that is a combination of those who felt that services had improved ‘a lot’ and ‘somewhat’.
With the implementation of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, it was expected that local governments would reach the doorsteps of citizens and there would be a radical improvement in service delivery. The results of this survey can be a window to understand how much this expectation has been fulfilled and how citizens are taking government services. The survey has presented a promising picture of the quality, accessibility and effectiveness of public services provided by the federal and provincial governments in the last one year.
About 25 percent of respondents said that there has been no improvement in service delivery and that the situation is ‘the same’, while 10 percent said that the service has further deteriorated. Although the majority of respondents said that services have improved, a section of citizens still seems to be dissatisfied with service delivery.
76.2 percent of respondents who feel that there has been improvement have seen positive changes mainly in the sectors of roads, transportation, drinking water and electricity supply. Citizens consider these four pillars of physical infrastructure as the main indicators of service improvement. Of these, 32 percent said that there has been improvement in the roads and transportation, 24 percent in the drinking water and 20 percent in the electricity or energy sectors.
Respondents have suggested that more work should be done in these areas in the coming days, which shows the citizens' strong desire for physical infrastructure.
Citizens consider the sectors of roads, transportation, drinking water and electricity supply as the main indicators of service improvement. Although the majority of citizens are satisfied with the development of physical infrastructure, the satisfaction of respondents in education and health, which are considered the basic pillars of social development, is very weak. According to the survey, about four percent each said that health and education have improved. The fact that citizens do not feel improvement in these two important areas that determine the future of the nation has raised serious questions about government investment and policies.
Similarly, the group of citizens who say that there has been improvement in waste management (6.7 percent), agricultural support (4.2 percent) and law and governance (1.8 percent) is also small. This shows that the government's attention is limited only to the construction of physical infrastructure and has not been able to work effectively in the areas of good governance and social services.
It seems that the social background of citizens plays a major role in the way they view government services. The number of people who think that drinking water services have improved increases with age. 20 percent of young people aged 18-20 have seen improvements in drinking water, while this figure has reached 30 percent among senior citizens over 60. On the other hand, 12.4 percent of young people aged 18-20 believe that school education has improved, while only 2 percent of parents aged 40 and over believe that school education has improved. This shows that the younger generation is more sensitive to education and senior citizens are more sensitive to basic services such as drinking water and electricity.
Men (24.3 percent) are more satisfied with electricity and energy, while women (27 percent) have a more positive experience with improved drinking water. There is also a difference based on geography. In Gandaki Province, 39 percent have praised the improvement in drinking water, while in Karnali, 31 percent have given more importance to improving electricity supply. In Bagmati Province, some improvement has been seen in the field of waste management and sanitation.
A unique and contradictory aspect of the survey is the road and transport sector. On the one hand, it is considered the sector that has improved the most, while on the other hand, those who think that services have deteriorated also put it at the top of the list. Of the approximately 10 percent of dissatisfied respondents, 22.7 percent said that roads and transportation have deteriorated the most. The main reasons for this are the construction of roads but not completing them on time, environmental pollution generated during construction, and poor quality of roads. The difference between citizens' expectations and the quality of services received seems to be that the same service has become a 'boon' for some and a 'torment' for others.
Respondents participating in the study have also expressed concerns about the security and legal system. Approximately 22.4 percent of respondents who said that services have deteriorated have experienced the situation of law, governance, and security as worse than before. The very low percentage of this area in the group that feels that it has improved and the high percentage in the group that feels that it has deteriorated indicates that there is a problem in the legal presence of the state and the perception of security. In addition, citizens have also pointed out that the situation is still deteriorating in areas such as agriculture, waste management and health. This confirms that there are still obstacles in the process of citizens receiving democratic dividends.
This is how the survey was conducted
In the survey on ‘Citizens’ perceptions on contemporary social, economic and political issues in Nepal’, about 2,905 people from all over the country were interviewed in person. While selecting the respondents participating in the survey, the number of respondents (sample) has been distributed based on the proportion of the number of households in all seven provinces. Members who have been living as members of a single household in the same house for the past 6 months and eating in the same kitchen have been counted as a household.
While distributing the number of households and respondents participating in the interview, it has been distributed based on the proportion of the total number of households living in rural municipalities, municipalities and metropolitan cities. The selection of districts and municipalities for the survey has been done based on the PPS (Probability Proportion to Size) method.
116 wards have been selected for the survey from 102 municipalities in 45 districts. When selecting households, after reaching the selected ward, a chowk was randomly selected and the houses on the right side of that chowk were selected. A list of 90 households in the rural municipality, 120 households in the municipality, and 150 households in the metropolitan city were prepared from the selected tole. To determine which households to interview, only 25 households within the selected ward were interviewed, which is the number of households divided by 25.
A list of potential respondents was prepared only for Nepali citizens aged 18 to 70 who had lived in the selected households for at least 6 months and who could hear, understand, and respond to what the enumerator said. The ‘kiss grid’ method was used to determine which household members to interview. Interviews were conducted only with the prior consent of the members selected through this method. Interviews were not conducted with the members found at home or with people they met on the way. Only members selected through the scientific method of research were interviewed.
