Data Impact

Since SEMA started, 69% of the offices where we deploy our tools have improved their service delivery and 46% have reduced their waiting times.

SEMA not only builds a bridge between the public officers and citizens providing feedback on the services that they have received. We do this to ensure that there is a positive change in the institutions where we set up our systems. And so we measure the impact the impact of our work rigorously.

What does impact look like to us?

SEMA’s Theory of Change holds that by presenting enough citizen feedback data regularly in customized and understandable formats to citizen-facing public servants, the highest ranked policy makers, and civil society partners,, we can incentivize and advocate for concrete public service improvements and monitor the quality of public services over time.

Impact measurement consists of regular follow-ups to ensure that public officers:

 

  Have changed their attitude or behavior towards citizens

  Have shared the SEMA citizen feedback reports with colleagues

   Have used the SEMA citizen feedback reports in their meetings

Have hung SEMA citizen feedback reports on public notice boards for ci tizens to see

Have made concrete improvements to their office or services based on the SEMA citizen feedback report

These factors are recorded in the SEMA Impact Dashboard. This dashboard also tracks automatically whether citizens satisfaction and waiting times improved at an office over time, which we measure through the continuous citizen feedback systems (devices, interviews, mobile platforms). Together, these factors help us to determine whether services are improving and offices are receptive to the SEMA system. Our goal is to make and track lasting positive change at all public offices where SEMA works.

Through our time of collecting citizen feedback at the different institutions, we have received numerous comments from citizens and the public service providers.

What citizens say.

 

What public service providers say.

Common improvements in service delivery through SEMA.

Almost all the offices where we have collected citizen feedback have used the SEMA reports in their meetings, and as a result some of have made specific changes:

  • Shuffling reception staff that was taking bribes according to citizens, lead to a steep decrease in reported  corruption rates at one particular police station.
  • Adding navigation signs at a big municipality office led to increased by citizens instantly, because they were able to find the department they were looking for easily.
  • One police station used SEMA’s reports to investigate recurring problems within the Child and Family Protection Unit. As a result, the station committed to start deploying a reception for the Criminal Investigation Department to reduce backlog in cases in the CFPU.
  • A health center has greatly improved its laboratory services by changing its staff – a department which was reported by citizens to have been ‘without staff’ to help them. In fact, we have by now dozens of examples of public offices who have successfully reduced waiting times by addressing absenteeism with their staff.

In addition to this. almost all of the institutions have placed the reports on notice boards around their institutions so that citizens who visit the institution can see ho other citizens have rated the services that they have received from the give public institution. This allows for public institutions to monitor the quality of services that they provide and to be more accountable to the citizens they serve.