developed a joint plan to address payment, service quality, and communication issues. The electricity company agreed to institutionalize this plan and improve its grievance redress mechanism. In return, citizens were expected to increase payment rates. This approach may likewise be a good way of increasing trust and mutual accountability between service providers and consumers in Pakistan, especially in areas where illegal electricity use is common. Indeed, Karachi Electric has already had successful experience applying such an approach in some of its service areas.

## **Box 6: Example of a Successful GRM: The Pakistan Flood Emergency Cash Transfer Project**

The cash transfer program for the Pakistan Flood Emergency project had a very successful grievance redress mechanism (GRM). The GRM included facilitation centers with grievance redress counters. It also included a public information campaign on the grievance redress process. Television, radio, print, and word‐of‐mouth were used as part of the communication strategy. In addition to facilitation centers, complaints could be registered by text messages, phone and calls. The project successfully mobilized different organizations to address different types of grievances, for example NADRA centers handled grievances related to incorrect personal details and local authorities dealt cases of eligibility/targeting grievances. Hotlines were created to handle cases of incorrect personal details. The local authorities checked whether the applicant is based in a flood‐affected area and if they have already received the benefit. Another channel of communication was through local influential leaders who could verify the applicants’ status as flood affectees. The district authorities supervised the review process and the eligibility statuses were submitted to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). The final step involved NADRA entering the decisions into case management systems and clearing the households enrolled at the facilitation centers. For the payment grievances, the partner commercial banks operated through offices and dedicated hotlines. Grievances related to maladministration and unaddressed complaints were handled by the District Administration or NADRA. The GRM successfully handled grievances and has been cited as one of the most effective GRMs for emergency projects in Pakistan. The example shows that an effective GRM is one that is efficient on multiple fronts and where each organization effectively handles grievances both individually and as part of the collective effort.

_Source: Rao, 2014._

# **_Communication and Sequencing_**

Lack of awareness and misinformation can be one of the biggest barriers to subsidy reform. A study by the IMF indicated that in 22 cases of reform, lack of a communication plan was the biggest cause of failure (Clements et al., 2013b). Information campaigns have underpinned the success of reforms in a number of countries, including Armenia (ibid), Indonesia (World Bank, 2011), the Islamic Republic of Iran (IMF, 2013b) and Uganda (Sdralevich et al., 2014). In the case of Pakistan, the information campaign should both make the case for the reform, and educate eligible households about how to apply for the new benefits. The campaign could include public addresses by senior government officials, media campaigns, focused outreach activities, and inclusion of civil society and other stakeholders. The communication agenda should continue throughout the reform process, and should be launched before the reforms begin. The communication strategy should take into account the interests of various stakeholder groups (World Bank, 2015). Beyond the traditional media, interpersonal channels could be tapped, such as community influencers, mosques, representatives of the local Union Councils, and community outreach. This may be more effective in reaching poorer households: a recent survey found that among BISP 21