Effective administrative services require a strategic vision for a whole-of-government approach to continuously improving service design and delivery, grounded in a human-centred approach. Implementing whole-of-government and comprehensive strategies for the design and delivery of public services is a key principle of the OECD Recommendation on Human-Centred Public Administrative Services (OECD, 2024). Equally, governments should uphold the rights and legitimate interests of people using public administrative services.
Every surveyed country in the SEA region has designated an agency responsible for improving public administrative services. Countries vary in how they organise the delivery of administrative services, reflecting diverse traditions, institutional set-ups and the roles of different levels of government. In Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, and Viet Nam, this function is housed within the prime minister’s or president’s office, placing service reform within the centre of government. In the Philippines, this function is the responsibility of the Department of Budget and Management (under the Office of the President). Singapore’s institutional set-up for public service delivery is centred around ServiceSG, a department under the Prime Minister’s Office that leads a whole-of-government approach by co-ordinating agencies and leveraging innovation to ensure integrated services. In Indonesia, Lao PDR, and Cambodia, the ministry of public administration or interior is responsible for improving public administrative services, such as the Ministry of Civil Service in Cambodia (Figure 6.16).
Government-wide strategies for public services are comprehensive plans adopted by the central government on how to improve public administrative services. They serve as the blueprint for aligning administrative actions with broader national priorities, ensuring that reforms are both coherent and sustainable. Seven of eight SEA countries have published a government-wide strategy for improving public administrative services. All three countries in which the ministry of public administration or interior is responsible for improving public administrative services have published both standalone strategies and integrated service improvements into other government strategies. Elsewhere, in the five SEA countries where responsibility for service improvement sits within the centre of government (prime minister’s or president’s office), only one has published a standalone strategy (Singapore), while three have integrated service improvement as part of a broader government strategy (the Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam) (Figure 6.17).
Table 6.1).
