The first of its kind in Fiji, this innovation was developed following the national parliamentary elections held on 17 September 2014. These elections marked the re-establishment of parliamentary democracy after the 2006 coup, and created an opportunity for building inclusive and effective democratic governance. This was the first UNDP project signed on by the Prime Minister of Fiji following this period, demonstrating the faith in the endeavour for “reaching the furthest behind first” in the country.

In the context of the Pacific region, a cross-sectoral mobile public service delivery approach such as G2C in Fiji does not exist, making the innovation particularly unique. Furthermore, promoting an approach of interconnectedness and interdependency between public sector entities is a fresh way addressing the challenge of meeting citizens’ needs in remote locations – making this novel modality ripe for adapting and replication across the 13 Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

We have developed an internal project-specific Knowledge Management Strategy, as of August 2017, for engaging with relevant ‘innovation for public service’ channels and networks. This enriches our work by learning, nurturing the feedback loop between citizens, government service providers and the project implementing the initiative, as well as for sharing our frank experiences to inform related initiatives at regional and global levels – with the underlying motivation to develop a public service delivery model replicable across Pacific Island Countries.

The Government of Fiji, through the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, is the key partner for the Japan-funded Rights, Empowerment and Cohesion (REACH) Project, being implemented by the Access to Justice, Rule of Law and Human Rights Programme at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pacific Office.

During “lessons learned” exercises following pilots in December 2016 and July 2017, feedback was collected from Project partners involved in public service delivery. The need for this innovation was affirmed, and insights provided for informing its future implementation and roll-out using cross-sectoral public service delivery teams. Challenges were determined, and ways to address them discussed and collected through post-consultation feedback (detailed in “Project Reflections”).

Bearing in mind Fiji’s population is just under 900,000 people, key results from September 2016 – August 2017:

1. a) 7034 people (3480 women, 3205 men and 349 children) benefited from mobile awareness-raising and service delivery.
2. b) 403 communities (67 districts across all 14 provinces of Fiji) across Central, Eastern, Northern and Western Divisions of Fiji received mobile awareness-raising and service delivery.
3. c) 7195 services (covering 4138 women and 3057 men) immediately provided by Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation; Legal Aid Commission; Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission; Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Medical Services, iTaukei Affairs, Justice, and Youth and Sports; Fiji Bureau of Statistics; Provincial Government; Fiji Police Force.

Expected results and impact:

• Strengthened networking and integrated working approaches across public agencies.
• Greater accountability in data collection.

• Empowered communities through awareness of rights.

1. Reaching remote, including maritime, areas. Response: Flexibly adapting mission travel modes and schedules (by boat, foot, living in communities etc.) using multiple advocacy tools (portable projector and generator, videos etc.).
2. Operating across 3 spoken languages in Fiji (Hindi, iTaukei and English). Response: Multi-lingual teams engaging with communities during outreach and service delivery.
3. Public sector agencies operating in silos with limited coordination. Response: Fostering cross-sectoral public service delivery. After successful demonstration, more public agencies engaged.
4. For S2F, not everyone owns a mobile phone. Response: During prototype testing, it came to light that those without personal mobiles do have relatives/friends with phones.
5.  Tropical Cyclone Winston (Category 5) delayed project implementation in 2016.

The innovation must continue to be actively championed and supported by leadership in public agencies. This enables public service staff to also adapt and acquire skills and knowledge required. It is anticipated that this “demonstration effect” can secure upper-level mentorship for such initiatives and scale-up across other Ministries/Departments in Fiji, and ultimately across Pacific Island Countries, especially the 13 Pacific SIDS. Another factor is motivation and investment of time/efforts by citizens for outreach activities, and public sector commitment in quality delivery of services. For operational specificities, it is expected that the complete maintenance, functioning and upkeep of mobile units and outreach continues satisfactorily – critical for sustainability. With S2F, willingness to engage with the system and acquire related skills will be important for creating a user-friendly system. Linking with international examples and learning from peers will also be imperative.

While recognizing specificities and challenges of the Pacific Island Countries, there are common public sector service delivery related challenges which can be acknowledged. Specifically, meeting public service requests through the G2C cross-sectoral mobile service delivery model in Fiji has potential for scaling up – owing to unique geographies of the Pacific Islands. This G2C model also has demonstrated results, which makes the case for replicability in the Pacific Islands’ context stronger. Global interest has also been attracted, and in a recent knowledge exchange in South Africa in 2017, early interest was conveyed in adopting this service delivery approach. In respect to S2F, we anticipate it will be relatively easy to modify and adapt this system-supported mobile app to different Pacific Island Country contexts; especially as the rights for future use and dissemination will lie with the REACH Project, together with ownership of the intellectual property.

What seems to be working well in the G2C model is engaging closely with public sector partners in the country, and developing their institutional capacity. The cross-sectoral approach of working across Government agencies has been exceptionally successful in effectively ‘reaching the furthest behind first’ in Fiji. Data has consistently been collected on types of service delivery requests, by whom, and their location to better meet the needs of those furthest behind. Collecting feedback from citizens has been crucial for informing the development of this innovation, using an ‘iterative’ approach. However, we noted the need for citizens to electronically track service delivery requests, in case of no resolution during Project outreach activities. The S2F initiative was proposed to meet this need. As the Project reaches an advanced stage, we will be able to share further lessons on testing different versions of the S2F prototype, and gather feedback on each iteration.