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Q. The focus of policy and governance has hitherto primarily been on output rather than the outcome. Not only does the Aspirational District Program mark a change in the policy focus but also chooses a collaborative form of governance over a top-down approach. Analyze.

Approach:

• Briefly discuss how the focus of policy has hitherto primarily been on output rather than the outcome and state the drawbacks of earlier policies.
• Discuss how the Aspirational District Programme (ADP) marks a change in policy focus and state its features.
• Conclude on the basis of the Civil Service

Answer:

Policy makers have continually aimed to address the issue of widespread disparity in development in various regions of the country. However, the focus of policy and governance has primarily been on output of the policies and program. For instance, performance is mostly assessed within the narrow confines of quantity such as the number of beneficiaries; number of schools built in an area and not on the quality of education etc.

Further, the policies/programs have drawbacks such as lack of convergence, absence of centralized monitoring mechanism, mismanagement of public funds, lack of availability of real time data, lack of people’s participation and a ‘one size fits all’ approach. In this context, the Aspirational District Program (ADP) was launched in 2018 to quickly and effectively transform the chosen 115 least developed districts to address the increasing disparity. It differs from the earlier programmes in the following ways:

• Selected district-specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will be identified and progress made on these development indicators will be monitored and annual ranking on the incremental progress made will be carried out.
• These indicators are broadly classified into five pillars, namely health and nutrition, education, basic infrastructure, financial inclusion and skill and water resources.
• The ADP will focus on the strength of each district, identify low-hanging fruits for immediate improvement and measure progress.
• The program is centered on outcome-oriented metrics and data. Districts will be ranked quarterly based on their ability to improve socio-economic outcomes.
• In certain states, there is monitoring of real-time progress of the districts, which is open to public. For instance, in Andhra Pradesh (in partnership with NITI Aayog).
• Other government program are associated with prescriptive and rigid program guidelines with little scope for localization. For instance, the MGNREGA guidelines cap the overhead ratio for all districts level regardless of their size and labor demand.

However, the ADP deviates from a top-down approach in the following ways:

• A district level team will prepare a baseline report of the current status of different indicators and will also prepare year-wise targets.
• The District Collectors will be provided with evidence-based recommendations based on best practices and incentivised to tailor solutions based on specific contexts of their districts.

Therefore, instead of a top-down approach, a collaborative form of governance is preferred in ADP through:

• Convergence of central and state schemes so that there are no overlaps and limited resources are adequately utilized.
• Collaboration of central level officers, state level ‘Prabhari’ officers and District Collectors. Further, the NITI Aayog anchors the programme at the central level, individual ministries assume separate responsibilities, and the state governments assume the role of the main drivers of change.
• Competition among districts driven by a spirit of mass movement, which fosters accountability. It focuses on public-private partnerships and integrates the external partners within the institutional apparatus of the government in order to bridge critical gaps and improve governance at the grassroots.
• The ADP is a step forward in attaining the goal of sustainable development and creating a new benchmark for policymaking in India. It should be expanded to other backward districts, as the end goal is to raise the living standards of the citizens and to ensure ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’.