The PGRG forms one of the three important domains of PAC. The niche until recently was in providing user perspectives on service delivery through Citizen Report Cards (CRCs). The CRC is PAC’s unique flagship product that uses user feedback on public services as a research-led reform tool to be used by civil society to demand better services, and the service provider to diagnose gaps and initiate or strengthen reform measures. The niche now will be extended to include involvement of all relevant stakeholders towards achieving the goal of service delivery improvement through participatory governance.

Carry out CRCs with current partner NGOs, government departments and other funding agencies willing to fund the CRC by providing on-site / off-site support. Network with the other teams at PAC and forge more partnerships along the same lines

• Comparison of findings with standards and norms
• Activity mapping
• Comprehensive reports
• Active partnership internally with the other core teams on various programmes/projects
  

4. Conduct workshops to train different stakeholders such as NGOs, Government officials, funding agency representatives etc in the use of the CRC approach.

In the next five years, PGRG’s strategic plans involve enhancing the scope of research work that can and should be carried out under governance and service delivery. Some of the projects that have been planned include:

• A Citizen Report Card of Greater Bangalore’s public services
• Carry out CRCs that would create benchmarks in new settings and with new stakeholders
• Sector-related projects with incorporation of other social accountability tools
• Periodic stock taking exercises with partners to assess CRCs and other social accountability tools used
• National-level CRC of five services as a stock-taking exercise of the state of public services after 10 years with nation-wide dissemination of findings.
• Preparation of revised e-learning courses, toolkits, manuals based on past experiences
  

• Wider acceptability of the CRC due to expanded scope and incorporation of more tools, and
• Knowledge generation on other social accountability tools

PGRG is currently run by the following team members:

Dr Meena Nair - Head, Participatory Governance Research Group;

Ms. Prarthana Rao – Programme Officer, Participatory Governance Research Group; and

Dr. Prabhakar Kollapudi – Research Officer, Participatory Governance Research Group

For more information on PGRG's work please contact Meena Nair at Meena@pacindia.org