Changing citizen expectations require governments to put citizens at the centre of their policy design and service delivery.
Citizens now want to be empowered, and prefer to be involved in the process of developing and improving services. With the high standard of services expected, citizens are also greatly concerned about the experience they receive.
Citizen participation in service delivery makes the users aware of necessary minimum levels of public services to function well, and gives them voice. The capacity for collective action empowers citizens to improve social accountability.
Citizen engagement can help public officials deal with such complexity in a number of ways.
Citizens may have a better idea than public officials about the kinds of services they need, so they can help service providers better understand their requirements and identify solutions.
They may become directly involved in the design and delivery of services, a process referred to as problem solving collaboration.
Additionally, civil servants may use citizen engagement to stimulate specific indigenous knowledge to help them tailor public services to the specific needs of the community.
Citizen engagement can also be a powerful source of ideas and inspiration for social innovation and
Citizens may be better positioned to assess the relevance and effectiveness of services, so they can contribute to the evaluation of programmes and services.
Faced with funding constraints, public officials can mobilise additional funds from citizen contributions.
Citizen engagement can provide a platform for inclusive deliberation, consensus and collective wisdom, which has been found to lead to better decision making.
An engaged citizenry working alongside and enabling public officials, can help transform public services and give people the effective, honest and responsive public institutions they deserve.
