W

e should be proud that two of Indonesia'€™s nominees for the 2015 UN Public Service Awards (UNPSA) competition were among the winners.

First, the regency health office of Aceh Singkil in Aceh province was awarded for its innovation in fostering partnerships between traditional birth attendants and midwives to reduce maternal and infant mortality. It was nominated in the category of improving public services.

Second, the Sragen regency in Central Java was nominated for its integrated service unit on poverty relief. The awards were in the category of promoting government approaches in the information age.

Both were runners-up for the Asia and the Pacific region. They will receive their awards in conjunction with the 2015 UN Public Service Forum Day of June 23, during a ceremony scheduled for June 23-26 in Medellin, Colombia.

This international recognition, announced last month, should encourage other institutions in Indonesia to serve the public in a more innovative fashion. Lessons learned from Aceh Singkil and Sragen should be introduced across the country.

Aceh Singkil is one of 23 regencies in Aceh served by 11 basic health facilities '€” one hospital and 10 clinics '€” according to last year'€™s data from the Health Ministry. Traditional birth attendants still play an important role in assisting deliveries especially in remote and rural areas.

In Aceh Singkil, the initiative to partner traditional birth attendants and midwives was introduced in 2012. Just one year since the introduction of the program, maternal mortality appears to have decreased. Reports cited two maternal deaths in 2013 compared to five in 2012.

The partnership between traditional birth attendants and midwives was initiated by the local health clinics and was supported by village heads, heads of the local mosques, community leaders, religious leaders, local health volunteers, traditional birth attendants, and midwives themselves.

Traditional birth attendants and midwives gained mutual benefit from the partnership.

Pregnant women in Aceh Singkil gained modern medical assistance from paramedics and midwives, and also spiritual and cultural guidance from traditional birth attendants.

It was a great challenge to unite such diverse stakeholders, given the various values and beliefs regarding child birth emanating from tradition, local wisdom and religious and administrative perspectives.

Mediated and advocated by an NGO named Daun which focuses on people empowerment especially in child birth, cooperation among the stakeholders was vital to the partnership'€™s success.

Let'€™s shift now to Sragen in Central Java. The regency has received numerous awards both from government and the private sector. It has received visitors from various local governments and NGOs who wish to study its system.

In 2005, Sragen won best practice in integrated service units for business licenses. In this year'€™s UNPSA the regency has been awarded for the integrated service unit for poverty relief.

Like the partnership program in Aceh Singkil, Sragen also introduced the above initiative in 2012 through a regency regulation.

Sragen is now providing daily assistance to thousands of its poorest residents '€” typically those who earn less than Rp 400,000 (US$30.04) '€” a month. Residents who meet the poverty criteria are entitled to 18 types of assistance, as listed in a poster outside the entrance to the regency office.

These types of assistance range from free healthcare and scholarships to financial support for house repairs. Provision of the entitlements take three days at most, and are free of charge, as the Asian Development Bank reported in 2012.

Sragen uses a '€œone stop service'€ to serve the poor with information and communication technology to ensure transparency and accountability. The initiative, keenly supported by the regency'€™s administration, is able to integrate coordination among poverty relief units and programs because it uses the same database.

At least three lessons emerge from the public service delivery efforts of both Aceh Singkil and Sragen.

Firstly, innovation in public affairs is important to improve the quality of public service itself. Both regencies had achieved significant improvements in providing quality public services aimed at improving public prosperity.

Secondly, to be innovators, leadership and a strong commitment to delivering quality public services are crucial issues.

Furthermore, the leadership must be supported by partnership and cooperation between interested stakeholders such as government, NGOs and target groups.

Lastly, the use of technology is helpful in maintaining and sustaining the innovation process.

Next on the agenda is how to spread the spirit of innovation in providing quality public service across the country.

If 497 other regencies and municipalities follow the experiences of Aceh Singkil and Sragen, we will see an incredible improvement in public services, and that is the most obvious indicator of success in
governance.
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To be innovators, leadership and a strong commitment to delivering quality public services are crucial issues.
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The writer is a scholarship winner undertaking a Masters in Public Administration at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.