Why the Charter of Professionalism Implementation Stagger in Ethiopia?
Citizens’ Charter is a public document that provides the essential information that citizens need to know about the services provided by a public organization. It was first implemented in the United Kingdom in 1991 (1,2) and soon was embraced by various developed and developing countries (3). Although the central aim was to achieve better quality and responsive service delivery, variation on the content and implementation exists among different countries (4). Citizens Charter is about commitment to improve the quality of public services, give choice to service users, establish service standards, avail full and accurate information in plain language, ensure service providers listen to the views of service users and are made accountable if things go wrong and deliver value for taxpayers’ money. For Citizens’ Charter to succeed it must thoroughly follow the cycle of preparation, design, implementation and monitoring & evaluation. After three decades of its inception in the UK, the concept of a citizens’ charter is still a new in Ethiopia. Since its introduction, in 2012, trainings were given to different public organizations on the essence of the charter, necessities and constituents. While the implementation is staggering, it became almost a decade since the Ethiopian civil service developed ethical principles in service provision. Besides, political commitment, customization of the charter is key to hasten implementation. The concern on quality of services delivered and health outcomes is global issue, though it is worse in sub-Saharan Africa (5). Drug shortages, disrespect to patients and families, health workers’ focus on donor-funded activities and medicine and supplies theft (6-9) are among the factors that affect health service functioning in sub-Saharan African countries. Acknowledging the above challenges, the 2008 Accra Agenda for Action and the 2005 Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness emphasized country ownership for development policies through citizen engagement. Similarly, in Ethiopia, the public service delivery system including the health care delivery, is not up to the public expectation. Since the health system is the major service delivery reaching may, it is one of the service delivery sectors where Citizen Charter is implemented. Jimma University customized and implemented citizens’ charter to provide more responsive and citizen-friendly service. The charter has been implemented in Jimma University Medical Center (JUMC) since 2017, where the public bodies have been able to improve their functioning over the years by referring to the principles and timeliness valued through these charters, thus promoting good governance, and greater satisfaction of the citizens in general (10). A study on implementation of citizens’ charter at JUMC should that the majority of the respondents claimed that they do not have information about its existence. This indicates that the planning phase is not properly done. The current issue of the journal, the fifth regular issue for the year 2019, contains an editorial, fourteen original articles, a review and two case reports focusing on various topics. One of the original articles in this issue deals with citizens charter. I invite readers to read through these articles and appreciate or utilize the contents. I also urge readers to forward comments and suggestions to the editor or the corresponding authors.