As the Philippines’ local government units (LGUs) transition to full devolution of services, the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) trained eight participants from the Meycauayan City Government and Misamis Oriental Provincial Government during the Designing Citizen-Centered Public Services workshops held from 15 to 19 August 2022.
Ms. Beatrice Francesca A. Orante, Associate Project Officer from the DAP Center of Excellence on Public Sector Productivity (COE-PSP), instructed the participants in the use of a structured and human-centered process for analyzing service issues and designing solutions. She also guided them through activities where they applied their learnings while developing service improvements.
At the end of the sessions, the LGUs produced proposals and action plans that they will implement after the workshops. They will carry out these tests with additional coaching and project incubation activities from the DAP before presenting their progress in November.
Putting citizens at the center of innovation
The workshops and activities also introduced a more citizen-centered approach to service delivery and productivity, especially in the local context. They drew from clients’ pain points and emotions to identify issues and opportunities while also designing solutions and implementation strategies that considered desirability and overall alignment with stakeholders’ expectations, interests, and needs. Lastly, they ran tests with their target users to gather feedback to improve their projects.
Lectures provided additional context as to the principles of citizen-centered service design and their role in the innovation process and productivity improvement as a whole. The discussions also featured exemplary services from the Philippine local governments, other countries, and the outputs of past participants.
