Port Louis, July 31th 2019 : UNDP, in collaboration with the Government of Mauritius, has launched a new SMS Mobile project for Citizens Reporting Mechanism (CRM) and data analysis to assess the impact of public service delivery to the most excluded, especially youth and women. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Social Integration and Economic Empowerment (MSIEE) and its anti-poverty implementing arm, the National Empowerment Foundation (NEF), this initiative uses mobile phone technology to report cases of unavailability and delays in the delivery of public services and programmes, or their uneven quality, particularly with regards to the most in need.

The SMS Mobile system will help citizens registered in the Social Register of Mauritius (SRM) and benefitting from social programmes under the Marshall Plan against poverty to report on their experiences with public service delivery by simply sending an SMS from their mobile phones. The system will include features that will allow this targeted audience to receive information on new pro-poor policies, and to share feedback and report issues in the delivery of services and programmes.

This project is the result of two years’ of consultations with UNDP’s experts, national public institutions, ICT institutions including regulatory bodies, private telecommunication operators, and the beneficiaries themselves. A rigorous process, funded by UNDP Innovation Facility in 2017, leading to the official approbation of MSIEE for project implementation taking into account the fact the very high mobile phone technology penetration rate among poor in Mauritius the poor in Mauritius (>93% in the least developed region as per last census) makes the use of this mechanism possible.

In line with its mandate of “Leaving No one Behind”, and within the Country Programme Document 2017-2020, UNDP is supporting innovation initiatives for development and e-governance for public sector transformation in Mauritius. With the generous support of the Government of Denmark, the UNDP Innovation Facility has provided technical support and funding for this CRM project implementation. This is a big achievement as UNDP Mauritius has supported the Government in implementing the proposal 1.7 of the Marshall Plan to fight against Poverty developed with the technical assistance of UNDP Regional Service Centre in 2016. The model can be shared with other countries in the region.

For more information please contact :
UNDP Registry Mauritius – registry.mu@undp.org