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Storytelling: Using Empathy to Redesign Public Services

By Tarek Nady

Bangladesh is a small country with a very large population. More than 40% of the people are

engaged in agriculture and located in faraway rural locations. They are mostly wage earners or

smallholder farmers and for their livelihood they need to work every day. And like any other

developing country Bangladesh has quite slow and inefficient public services. These public

services are mostly distributed from the district cities. And transportation systems are expensive

and in most of the cases roads are also not in very good condition. So for rural population it is

very difficult to avail necessary public services. The opportunity costs are very high along with the

actual costs due to travel, corruption etc. Then again the bureaucratic processes and

administrative mechanisms were based on the system designed by the British back in the

nineteenth century. And the lack of empathy among the public officials and lack of understanding

about the challenges faced by the poor rural population to avail the basic public services are

clearly evident. From my project I was assigned to develop a pilot project involving the public

officials to deliver decentralized services for the rural population; a mechanism what would reduce

the number of visits required to a public office to avail a service. The first step was to make the

public service officials empathetic and agreeing in engaging in the pilot. The challenge was to

make the public service officials of the pilot project area to feel empathetic towards the service

recipients of rural areas, to understand the implications in the lives of the people who come to

take service. The lack of empathy among the public officials were the major challenge in

redesigning the service delivery processes.

The idea was to make the public officials feel the complications, costs and the difficulties of the

people of remote rural areas who sometimes needs to spend one full day of travel just to collect

a form. So in terms of tool selection I thought that storytelling would be the most suitable tool.

Because I felt that the challenge has certain elements of emotion and compassion because the

issues needed to touch the hearts of the people whose decisions could make a difference in the

lives of many. I did think of other tools, but I very strongly felt that storytelling would be appropriate

as I wanted to create a personal connection for the public officials.

I organized a workshop with the public service officials of the pilot area. Before the workshop I

collected some videos of interviews of the rural people who faced serious difficulties in availing

public services and did a survey to find out some statistical analysis on average total cost (actual

costs added with opportunity costs) of availing a service. Once all this information was ready I

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decided to develop a story taking bits and pieces from the information collected. I central character

of the story is a farmer, Rahim who is in his late forties, he needed to go to the district

administration office to collect a form to claim the irrigation subsidy. The challenge was he needed

to work in the field because the field needed clearing and at the same time he needed to pay the

examination fee for her daughter. He also needed to pay some bribe for the form along with the

costs of travelling to the district city, there were expenses for food also. Now the cost implication

for Rahim was huge as he needed to hire someone for clearing the field, he needed to travel to

the office and come back. To meet the expenses Rahim had to take money out of his savings.

This is not even the half of the challenge!! Because after filling up the form, getting the right

signatures he again needed to go back to the office to submit the form and finally a third time to

get the subsidy. Eventually he spent more than half of the subsidy amount he was supposed to

receive, in the process. This scenario keeps repeating every year and poor farmers like Rahim

keeps being underserved by the faulty system. They also become more and more vulnerable

because of almost no savings. I used some visuals for the storytelling and to portray the

helplessness of the rural population. The aim of the storytelling was to make the public officials

empathetic first, then engage them in discussing different aspects of the challenges for the service

recipients and the service providers.

The story followed by videos & survey findings were shared at the beginning of the workshop.

After that the public service officials were engaged to identify the reasons behind such a system.

At this point some interesting insights came up. To be more specific the policies, the service

delivery rules, documentations requirement, legal requirements for signatures, payment for

services, audit requirements, brokers and other many aspects that created the persisting scenario

of depriving the service seekers. It was identified that with the advancement of the technology

there were many possibilities opened up to make service processes simpler, to make access

easier, faster and cheaper. However due to many complex reasons such initiatives were not being

undertaken satisfactorily.

The workshop achieved its target of making the public service officials more empathetic, more

understanding of the challenges faced by the rural people and the prices they pay and engaging

the to identify the issues with the current service delivery model. The videos supported the story

and created the right environment for the discussion. Next time I would like to bring a real person

who faced the challenges in availing the public service. Because I feel interacting with someone

who faces such challenges on a regular basis, would be even more impactful for the public service

officials.


Page 1 of 2 Storytelling : Using Empathy to Redesign Public Services By Tarek Nady Bangladesh is a small country with a very large population . More than 40 % of the people are engaged in agriculture and located in faraway rural locations . They are mostly wage earners or smallholder farmers and for their livelihood they need to work every day . And like any other developing country Bangladesh has quite slow and inefficient public services . These public services are mostly distributed from the district cities . And transportation systems are expensive and in most of the cases roads are also not in very good condition . So for rural population it is very difficult to avail necessary public services . The opportunity costs are very high along with the actual costs due to travel , corruption etc . Then again the bureaucratic processes and administrative mechanisms were based on the system designed by the British back in the nineteenth century . And the lack of empathy among the public officials and lack of understanding about the challenges faced by the poor rural population to avail the basic public services are clearly evident . From my project I was assigned to develop a pilot project involving the public officials to deliver decentralized services for the rural population ; a mechanism what would reduce the number of visits required to a public office to avail a service . The first step was to make the public service officials empathetic and agreeing in engaging in the pilot . The challenge was to make the public service officials of the pilot project area to feel empathetic towards the service recipients of rural areas , to understand the implications in the lives of the people who come to take service . The lack of empathy among the public officials were the major challenge in redesigning the service delivery processes . The idea was to make the public officials feel the complications , costs and the difficulties of the people of remote rural areas who sometimes needs to spend one full day of travel just to collect a form . So in terms of tool selection I thought that storytelling would be the most suitable tool . Because I felt that the challenge has certain elements of emotion and compassion because the issues needed to touch the hearts of the people whose decisions could make a difference in the lives of many . I did think of other tools , but I very strongly felt that storytelling would be appropriate as I wanted to create a personal connection for the public officials . I organized a workshop with the public service officials of the pilot area . Before the workshop I collected some videos of interviews of the rural people who faced serious difficulties in availing public services and did a survey to find out some statistical analysis on average total cost ( actual costs added with opportunity costs ) of availing a service . Once all this information was ready I Page 2 of 2 decided to develop a story taking bits and pieces from the information collected . I central character of the story is a farmer , Rahim who is in his late forties , he needed to go to the district administration office to collect a form to claim the irrigation subsidy . The challenge was he needed to work in the field because the field needed clearing and at the same time he needed to pay the examination fee for her daughter . He also needed to pay some bribe for the form along with the costs of travelling to the district city , there were expenses for food also . Now the cost implication for Rahim was huge as he needed to hire someone for clearing the field , he needed to travel to the office and come back . To meet the expenses Rahim had to take money out of his savings . This is not even the half of the challenge ! ! Because after filling up the form , getting the right signatures he again needed to go back to the office to submit the form and finally a third time to get the subsidy . Eventually he spent more than half of the subsidy amount he was supposed to receive , in the process . This scenario keeps repeating every year and poor farmers like Rahim keeps being underserved by the faulty system . They also become more and more vulnerable because of almost no savings . I used some visuals for the storytelling and to portray the helplessness of the rural population . The aim of the storytelling was to make the public officials empathetic first , then engage them in discussing different aspects of the challenges for the service recipients and the service providers . The story followed by videos & survey findings were shared at the beginning of the workshop . After that the public service officials were engaged to identify the reasons behind such a system . At this point some interesting insights came up . To be more specific the policies , the service delivery rules , documentations requirement , legal requirements for signatures , payment for services , audit requirements , brokers and other many aspects that created the persisting scenario of depriving the service seekers . It was identified that with the advancement of the technology there were many possibilities opened up to make service processes simpler , to make access easier , faster and cheaper . However due to many complex reasons such initiatives were not being undertaken satisfactorily . The workshop achieved its target of making the public service officials more empathetic , more understanding of the challenges faced by the rural people and the prices they pay and engaging the to identify the issues with the current service delivery model . The videos supported the story and created the right environment for the discussion . Next time I would like to bring a real person who faced the challenges in availing the public service . Because I feel interacting with someone who faces such challenges on a regular basis , would be even more impactful for the public service officials .