Citizen Report Cards (CRC) is a way to measure how citizens perceive the level of participation. It is a form of evaluation and can give guidance on gaps and areas to address. ICLD has developed a specific CRC survey for municipal partnerships, to measure change at the societal level.
Citizen Report Cards is a participatory survey-method to monitor change at the community or society level. It focuses on the citizens’ own personal
experience and satisfaction of public services, in order to generate citizen feedback that can be used to develop and initiate reforms of service delivery. It is conducted by researchers and is often paired with focus group meetings.
The survey developed for ICLD municipal partnerships is divided into two parts: one with general questions about citizens’ experiences of
local democracy related to ICLD’s four core values (equity, participation, transparency and accountability) and a second part that is project-specific with questions about the theme or service that the MPP project focuses on.
Monitoring and evaluation of municipal services.
Ideally approximately 300 persons participate in the survey, selected with a rigorous random sampling strategy. The team coordinating the survey consists of both the local government, ICLD and a research institution, as well as enumerators trained to conduct the field work.
CRC is a relatively cost-effective way to conduct a reliable evaluation that takes citizens’ experiences into account. However, it requires thorough coordination and the involvement of multiple institutions.
The while process from start to finish can take up to a few months.
The full methodology developed at ICLD will be published soon for public use.