Dak Lak increases 10 places in PAPI Index ranking in 2023

On the morning of April 2, in Hanoi , the United Nations Development Program in Vietnam (UNDP) in collaboration with the Center for Community Support and Development Studies (CECODES) held a conference to announce the Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) 2023.

Source: PAPI Report 2023

According to the published Report, Dak Lak's 2023 PAPI Index reached 42.3265 points, ranking 31/61/63 provinces and cities; an increase of 1.2042 points, an increase of 10 ranks compared to 2022; ranking 1/5 compared to the Central Highlands provinces (Dak Lak: 31; Lam Dong: 45; Gia Lai: 51, Kon Tum: 56; Dak Nong : 61).

In particular, the province's improvement criteria compared to 2022 are: Publicity and transparency (2022: 4.8389; 2023: 5.3089); Accountability to the people (2022: 4.1477; 2023: 4.2091); Control of corruption in the public sector (2022: 6.3898; 2023: 6.6173); Public service provision (2022: 7.4912; 2023: 7.5422); Environmental governance efficiency (2023: 2.9834; 2023: 3.2489); E-governance (2022: 2.8875; 2023: 3.417).

2 criteria decreased in score compared to 2022 including: Participation of people at grassroots level (2022: 5.1388; 2023: 4.7562) and Public administrative procedures (2022: 7.2450; 2023: 7.2269).

PAPI is an important governance research program initiated by the United Nations Development Program in Vietnam since 2009. The PAPI index measures and compares people's experiences and perceptions on the effectiveness and quality of policy implementation and public service delivery by local governments in 63 provinces and cities in Vietnam to promote effective governance and proactively respond to people's needs. Over the past 15 years, 197,779 people nationwide have participated in the assessment.

Source: PAPI Report 2023

PAPI measures eight dimensions: participation of local people; publicity; transparency in local decision-making; vertical accountability; control of corruption in the public sector; public administrative procedures; public service delivery; environmental governance; and e-governance.

Leading the PAPI Index ranking in 2023 is Thua Thien Hue province (46.0415 points); Dak Nong is the province with the lowest score (38.9711 points); there are 2 provinces that are not evaluated: Quang Ninh and Binh Duong .

Dak Lak province's public service provision criteria in 2023 have many improvements - Illustrative photo

In her opening remarks, UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam Ramla Khalidi said that the PAPI 2023 report surveyed nearly 20,000 people in 63 provinces and cities in Vietnam. This is the largest number of respondents ever in a PAPI survey.

According to Ms. Ramla Khalidi, there are three outstanding findings in the PAPI 2023 survey results. First, the level of people's satisfaction with anti-corruption work in the public sector has improved at the local level. This is a welcome progress.

However, Ms. Ramla Khalidi also noted that people still have concerns about some anti-corruption indicators in the fields of human resource recruitment; transparency in local decision-making processes...

The second finding is that citizens’ access to e-governance has increased compared to 2022. PAPI 2023 data shows that the proportion of citizens using national and provincial e-portals tends to increase, although the overall figure is still low.

The UNDP Resident Representative in Viet Nam noted that comprehensive access to e-services requires bridging the digital divide, with a particular focus on ethnic minorities and rural populations.

The third finding is the issues that survey respondents are most concerned about in 2023. Accordingly, the three issues that people think the State needs to focus on solving in the following year are poverty (accounting for 22.39% of total respondents), employment (12.79%) and economic growth (9.2%).

UNDP Resident Representative in Vietnam Ramla Khalidi said that the above concerns show that the State and local authorities need to pay attention, understand and have policies for vulnerable population groups, regions and communities that are at risk of being left behind in Vietnam's rapid economic development process.

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