Changing attitudes : the key to improved service delivery in citizen service centers in Cambodia?

The one window service office and district Ombudsmen initiative in Cambodia seeks to provide more efficient, transparent and accountable administrative services at the district level. Achieving this requires a significant change in the mindset of government staff at central and sub-national level as they learn to share licensing authority and re-orient themselves from an attitude of administrator to one of service provider as explicitly called for in Cambodian government policy. This implies a whole new mindset around transparency, accountability, customer-orientation and of course, rent seeking. At the same time, customers, whether individual citizens seeking civil registrations or small businesses obtaining commercial licenses, must also change their expectations and attitudes, becoming more willing to demand better services, avail themselves of complaint mechanisms when necessary, and comply with regulation voluntarily. This learning note discusses the role that attitudes have played in achieving results to date and examines the remaining challenges.