Serving Citizens 2026

1. Human-centred public administrative services matter

Abstract

This chapter discusses the importance of human-centred public administrative services and the context, challenges and opportunities countries face in making them more efficient and effective.

Rising public expectations combined with rapidly evolving technologies and fiscal pressures, challenge public institutions to deliver better services with less. Public administrative services (PAS) are at the heart of daily interactions between the government and people, and shape people’s experiences and perceptions of the public administration. PAS are the administrative processes that people use to comply with laws and regulations, access government programmes and services, and use their rights. These include familiar processes that many people use regularly, such as renewing passports or identity documents, paying taxes, or managing their benefits like public pensions (OECD, 2024[1]). Other PAS are processes that an individual may use only occasionally but at important points in their lives, such as applying for a driving license; registering a birth, marriage or death; or getting the deed on a home. In many cases, using a PAS is an important aspect of how people access and interact with other types of public services. For example, people may use PAS for processes like accessing public health records or enrolling in public education. Other PAS, like national IDs and passports, establish a person’s legal identity.

High-quality PAS are essential for achieving many of governments' objectives, including well-being, economic growth, and the rule of law. Policies in a broad range of areas such as employment, education, health, social, pensions and labour often involve providing targeted groups with benefits, such as subsidies or training. The effectiveness of these policies is influenced by how effectively PAS allow the intended beneficiaries to understand and access these benefits. Robust data governance and responsible sharing are prerequisites for targeting benefits accurately and reducing exclusion and error. Similarly, from a growth perspective, efficient PAS for starting and licensing a business are important for encouraging entrepreneurship, growth and job creation. Efficient PAS in civil justice support growth by enabling contract enforcement and supporting the rule of law. Domestic revenue levels depend in part on effective PAS that enable people and businesses to comply accurately and easily with tax obligations. PAS also include administrative processes that support the effective functioning of democracy, such as registering to vote or registering a civil society organisation.

PAS are also an important driver of trust in public institutions. As a frequent point of contact between people and government, PAS play an important role in building and maintaining trust. People’s experiences when using PAS, and the experiences relayed by acquaintances and the media, can influence individuals’ perceptions of the values and practices of their public institutions. They affect perceptions such whether people believe that public servants would accept a bribe; that government would try to improve in response to complaints; that people are treated fairly by public employees; and that public agencies use personal data legitimately.

Governments face multiple pressures to make PAS more efficient and effective in a broader environment where technology raises public expectations and governments must “do more with less”. Fiscal space is narrowing and at the same time, as digital technologies have advanced, people have experienced increasing speed, convenience and efficiency from their private sector services providers, which likely raises expectations of government services.

Yet administrative complexity hampers effort to make PAS more efficient. Unnecessary and repetitive steps, checks, and requirements absorb resources from both governments and service users – both people and businesses. Across OECD countries, many people report difficulties in navigating bureaucratic processes, understanding eligibility criteria, and completing application procedures. Only 31% of people, on average across 27 OECD countries, feel they could easily receive public benefits if they needed them, and only 28% of respondents say that they think the application process would be simple and quick (OECD, 2025[2]). The problems of complexity are also well acknowledged even within government: in a recent OECD survey of OECD member countries, government respondents from 72% of countries and business organisations from 90% of countries considered the level of regulation and bureaucracy in their country to be excessive1 (OECD, 2025[3]).

Governments have a unique opportunity to respond better to service users’ needs, as improvements in digital technologies are rapidly expanding governments’ capacity to evolve and innovate in PAS design and delivery. The acceleration of the digitalisation of government and public services has contributed to designing and delivering seamless and accessible services for users, particularly by fostering the development of end-to-end processes and collaboration across public entities.

The digital transformation of governments in OECD countries – measured in part through the OECD Digital Government Index – has helped build critical enablers for building human-centered services, including digital identity, secure data sharing, interoperability standards, and common platforms. PAS have considerably benefited from advancements in digital enablers such as digital identity and interoperability frameworks. In the coming years, the use of AI and advanced technologies can further advance more proactive and seamless service delivery around user needs. Openness and re‑usability of public sector data further support these outcomes by enabling transparency, downstream innovation and cross‑sector re‑use. Making data accessible and usable, with clear safeguards for personal data, is also a critical lever for trust and accountability in service delivery.

OECD countries recognise the need and opportunity for far-reaching reform in PAS. To this end, the OECD adopted the Recommendation on Human-Centred Public Administrative Services (“the Recommendation”) in 2024 (OECD, 2024[1]). The Recommendation provides guidance to governments on implementing a human-centered approach to designing and delivering PAS, with the goal of making PAS more efficient and effective, improving satisfaction, and supporting trust. A human-centred approach means that government starts from understanding service users' needs and then uses this information to (re)design and deliver services that best meet those needs. A human-centred approach can help to co-ordinate services across agencies, and strip out unnecessary steps, checks and duplications of effort. It ensures that services are organized around people and that the government is proactive in using the data and information to anticipate, offer and deliver the services to people when they need it. Making PAS more human-centred can therefore serve a dual purpose: freeing up public resources by increasing efficiency, while also improving the public’s experiences and improving their satisfaction. Coherent systems and reusable platforms can also advance these goals further by scaling solutions across agencies.

OECD countries are advancing in their implementation of human-centred PAS, but much remains to be done. To support countries in implementation of the Recommendation, OECD undertook the first Serving Citizens survey in late 2024 and early 2025. The survey is the OECD’s first systematic effort to gather information from member governments on how PAS are managed and delivered in their countries. The survey systematically explores the extent to which governments are implementing specific, practical components of the Recommendation, providing a baseline from which progress on the Recommendation can be measured in the coming years. The survey has been answered by public servants responsible for design and reform of PAS in their country. 37 countries completed Serving Citizens, including 31 OECD members and 6 non-members. Survey data were collected between November 2024 and July 2025. Data presents countries’ status as of November 2024.

This report presents the findings of Serving Citizens, other relevant OECD surveys, and case studies from a wide range of countries to give an overview of where countries stand vis-à-vis the Recommendation and making their PAS more human-centred. Results on a subset of topic areas and countries (30 OECD countries and 4 non-members) for which data were complete was published in Government at a Glance 2025 (OECD, 2025[4]). This report presents the full results of the survey, covering all main topic areas, and expanding to include the additional countries which had not fully completed the survey at the time of publication of Government at a Glance 2025.The report also includes relevant questions from the OECD Digital Government Index (DGI) (OECD, 2026[5]; OECD, 2026[6]) which measures how countries are leveraging digital technologies and data to design and deliver human-centred PAS.

The report is organised as follows: Section 1 gives an overview of how PAS are organised in OECD countries, as well as data on public satisfaction; Section 2 introduces the four pillars of the Recommendation; and Sections 3 through 6 then look at the extent of implementation of each pillar, presenting a view from start-to-finish of how equipped OECD governments are to make PAS more human-centred. Examples of good practice from across the OECD are integrated throughout the report.

References

[6] OECD (2026), “Digital Government Index and Open, Useful and Re-usable Data Index: 2025 Results and Key Findings”, OECD Working Papers on Public Governance, No. 90, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/6347ec74-en.

[5] OECD (2026), Digital Government Outlook 2026: From Foundations to Transformational Impact, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/0496b2bc-en.

[4] OECD (2025), Government at a Glance 2025, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/0efd0bcd-en.

[2] OECD (2025), More Effective Social Protection for Stronger Economic Growth: Main Findings from the 2024 OECD Risks that Matter Survey, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/3947946a-en.

[3] OECD (2025), “Simplifying for Success: Insights from OECD Surveys”, https://shorturl.at/NnY6Z.

[1] OECD (2024), Recommendation of the Council on Human-Centred Public Administrative Services, https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-0503.

Note

← 1.  Data for government respondents reflects the aggregated responses from 28 OECD Member countries (Austria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom), 6 Accession countries (Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Peru, Romania, and Thailand) and the European Union (EU). In this symposium brief, data from the EU is included in government respondents in countries. Data for business organisation respondents reflects the aggregated responses from business and employers’ organisations that are national member and observer organisations of Business at OECD, across 27 OECD Member countries (Australia, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, and the United States) and 4 Accession countries (Argentina, Bulgaria, Romania, and Thailand). Two responses were received for Germany and Türkiye. Where the two responses diverge, they are not included in the aggregated data; where they converge, they are counted as representing one answer. The S4S survey to business organisations was implemented in collaboration with BIAC.