The PAPI report shows an incremental improvement in national governance and public administration performance during the 2016-2021 Government term. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The northern province of Quảng Ninh was ranked top in the 2020 PAPI report, which offers an overview of provinces’ performance through measuring the satisfaction of their citizens, with an aggregate dimensional performance score of 48.881.

The 2020 Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) Report, released on Wednesday morning, showed an incremental improvement in national governance and public administration performance during the 2016-2021 Government term.

Quảng Ninh Province was followed by the Mekong Delta's Đồng Tháp Province (46.961) and northern Thái Nguyên Province (46.471).

As a policy monitoring tool that assesses citizen experiences and satisfaction with government performance, PAPI measured eight dimensions: participation at local levels, transparency, vertical accountability, control of corruption, public administrative procedures, public service delivery, environmental governance and e-government.

Based on the aggregate scores, the 63 provinces and cities across Việt Nam are divided into four groups including the 16 best performers, 16 high-average performers, 15 low-average performers and 16 poor performers.

“New features of the 2020 PAPI Report include insightful findings on the performance of local governments across two terms (2011-2016 and 2016-2021); experience of internal migrants with accessing services in receiving provinces; and voter perception of women in leadership roles,” UNDP Resident Representative in Việt Nam Caitlin Wiesen said at the report launch event in Hà Nội.

The report shows that citizen engagement and anti-corruption efforts have a positive correlation with the country’s ability to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

At the launch event, Nguyễn Hữu Dũng, Vice President of the Central Committee of the Việt Nam Fatherland Front, said: “We hope that PAPI will continue to serve as a reliable policy monitoring tool that helps promote government accountability and reforms, thereby furthering modern governance.”

Australia’s Ambassador to Việt Nam, Robyn Mudie, said: “This improvement may have contributed to Việt Nam’s successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic."

The report also demonstrates that women have different areas of concern from men, with women far more concerned about poverty reduction, healthcare and education than men. In addition, women are less engaged in local decision-making and have less access to the internet and e-government services

John McCullagh, the Ambassador of Ireland to Việt Nam, said: “Women’s leadership in the public sector is essential as it is important to have women’s perspectives and voices involved in the decision-making process.”

More than 14,700 citizens were interviewed for the 2020 PAPI Report, the largest number of citizens to participate since the survey was first conducted nationwide in 2011. For the first time, the survey also gathered responses from citizens with temporary residence registration status. Nearly 300 migrants were surveyed in Hà Nội, HCM City, Bắc Ninh Province, Đà Nẵng, Đồng Nai Province and Bình Dương Province.

The report, which assesses citizen experiences with national and local government performance in governance, public administration, and public service delivery, showed the control of corruption in the public sector dimension has improved significantly each year since 2016.

PAPI has been co-funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of Australia, the Embassy of Ireland and UNDP in Việt Nam. — VNS