Modernising Government Programme

Almost all the Governments in the world are in strive for bettering its performances, especially in citizen services. Various good governance initiatives are either in the process of planning or at various stages of implementation throughout the world. A classic example, having higher potential for research, is *Modernising Government Programme (MGP) of Government of Kerala State, India. It is having greater academic interest in the context that it had planned a sequence of massive and interrelated changes in almost all the vital sectors of Government through a single programme.

The programme was funded by the **Asian Development Bank under the title 'Modernising Government and Fiscal Reforms Programme, Kerala'. The project has aimed at a mutually supportive modernizing government plus fiscal reforms activities. The programme has defined following five themes as the five pillars on which the all-round reform initiatives would be mounted;

· Ensuring Assured Levels of Basic Services to the Poor (Minimum Needs Programme)

· Building an enabling environment for growth

· Fiscal Sustainability- State and Local

· Enhancing effectiveness and efficiency of core Government functions

· Efficient, Effective and Accessible Local Self Governments

Through extensive consultations with all kind of stakeholders and experts, 96 General initiatives were identified for implementation through 19 Government Departments. These general initiatives were for bringing in substantial policy changes including simplification of rules and procedures in all departments as making their functions more people friendly.

As part of the programme the State Government has also adopted a people centric service delivery project and a training policy for government officials. This also framed in a mutually supportive nature.

Another facet of the programme was Service Delivery Project (SDP). Main component of the project was infrastructure building to support the policy changes and for providing sustenance.

The programme has also largely depended on a Programme Performance Monitoring System (PPMS), developed utilizing open source technology, for monitoring and managing the implementation.

Documents related to the programme are

· Strategic Document

· Strategic Implementation Plan

· Schematic Outline of Detailed Implementation Plan

· Detailed Implementation Plan

· Service Delivery Project

· Service Delivery Policy

· Training Policy

• All the above documents and further details are available at http://www.keralamgp.org , the website of the project.
  • Related information available at http://adb.org/projects/project.asp?id=31328 of Asian Development Bank's official website.