Citizen’s Charter refers to a document that defines the services that a given government organization or agency provides citizens as well as the quality, availability, customer courtesy, choice, equality, and reciprocity, responsibility, and reporting that will accompany the service.

How Citizen Charters enhance public service delivery:

-Improved Service Quality: Policies also play vital roles in increasing service delivery as it strengthens providers’ charters to standardize their offer to citizens.

More Responsibility By proactively defining some of the standards and outlining where to report a complaint, charters make people capable of demanding service provision accountability as well as promote people’s problem-solving action.
Citizen Empowerment Charters make citizens powerful based on information and tools which enhance citizens’ agency to push for improved service delivery and responsiveness from service delivery institutions.

-Reduced Corruption: Mmm..by so doing, they enhance the degree of accountability, that will in turn minimize incidences of corruption and overall enhance the degree efficiency and effectiveness in delivering people’s services.

Challenges to effective implementation of Citizen Charters:

-Lack of Political Will: Unfortunately for the success of the Citizen’s Charter, there is much needed political will and commitment from every tiers of government officials.

-Resistance to Change: Employees within the government organizations do not embrace change of the existing systems and practices and embrace new culture of operation.

-Lack of Awareness and Understanding: This implies that majority of the citizens do not even have an idea to do with the rights and provisions of the Citizen’s Charter.

-Inadequate Monitoring and Evaluation: It is important to then ensure the provider of the services is in compliance with the charter by the use of the proper monitoring and evaluation tools.

-Lack of Resources: Both financial and human resources are very important especially when it comes to the implementation of the Citizen’s Charters.

-Cultural Barriers: They may also limit the degree of interaction between citizens and service providers since different cultures imply different ways of perceiving things and behaving.