Context: NITI Aayog’s ‘Outcome based monitoring’
Outcome based monitoring of NITI Aayog
- NITI Aayog is engaged in outcome-based monitoring with states in sectors such as healthcare, education and water supply
- It is also discussing the idea of ranking each state based on health, education and water index, and identifying states with good performance
- For example, it has developed a composite water management index, comprising several key performance indicators, with different weights assigned to indicators
- This is expected to incentivise states to collect data and analyse it to make better policies
Possible Disadvantage of Outcome based monitoring
- Some experts suggests that owing to self-ranking by states without independent review, reforms remain mostly on paper with key concerns remaining unaddressed.
- Also, legitimate beneficiaries may get excluded.
- Consequently, such approach of self-ranking and comparing needs to be viewed with caution.
Outcomes of efficient policy implementation by States:
- Experts suggest that significant improvement in the ability to implement policies and projects in the states, cities, and at the centre can considerably add to citizens’ well-being.
- And also, could even add about 2-3% to the country’s GDP, without any additional resources.
The way forward
- Agencies struggling with implementation should not be burdened with additional responsibilities of data collection and analysis.
- NITI Aayog must create a repository of best practices(as a benchmark) for dealing with implementation challenges, based on case studies from around the world.
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