Some Propositions on Local Governance handout



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Some Propositions on Local Governance HANDOUT


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Around the world, increased attention to decentralization and democracy have brought to the fore issues of strengthening citizen participation in local governance. While at first glance the theme may seem straightforward, in fact each of the core notions contained within it is contentious. The two propositions below are intended to provoke some of this debate in order to establish the rational, benefits and risks of social accountability.


Group Task. Read through each of the four propositions. In your group choose one proposition for discussion. Take about 10 minutes to discuss the following questions:


  • What are the merits or benefits of the proposition?

  • What are some of the faults or risks of the proposition?

  • To what extent do you agree/disagree with the proposition?

  • What is the relevance of the proposition to your work?

Be prepared to summarize your group’s discussion in a brief (2-3 minute) presentation to the large group.



Proposition 1: A key challenge for the 21st century the construction of new relationships between citizens and their local governments. This means working both sides of the equation—that is, going beyond ‘civil society’ or ‘state-based’ approaches, to focus on their intersection, through new forms of participation, responsiveness and accountability


Proposition 2: Enhancing accountability of local governments to citizens is another passing fad of donors and western democracy theorists. These concepts having little grounding in the realities of many developing country political and cultural contexts. The risks of these forms newer forms of accountability and participation outweigh the benefits. Moreover, there is little evidence of pro-poor development and governance outcomes.

Social Accountability Mechanisms—Short Sketches HANDOUT


Poor people’s dissatisfaction with public service institutions relate largely to issues of voice and of accountability. Many poor people believe that state institutions—whether delivering services, providing police protection or justice, or as political decision-makers—are either not accountable to anyone or accountable only to the rich and powerful (Narayan, 2000, Voices of the Poor).


Directions: Read the ten thumbnail sketches of the Social Accountability (SA) mechanisms. There are many different kinds of SA mechanisms and these represent just a few.
Step 1. In small groups, select and discuss one or two examples by focusing on the following questions:

  • What is the mechanism and how does it work?

  • Whose voice was articulated and by whom?

  • What sector or service is addressed, and at what level of government?

  • To what extent does the mechanism build citizen voice and create strengthened connections between citizens and the state?

Using the questions as an outline, summarize the main points of your discussion for a brief (2-3 minute) presentation to the large group. Note: the sketches may not answer all of the above questions so you’ll need to highlight further questions and surmise some of your responses.




  1. Women’s Budget Initiative—South Africa


The initiative analyzes public expenditure patterns in terms of their likely impact on the economic and social conditions of women. The aim is to monitor central government commitments to gender equality by tracking expenditures spending on gender-sensitive policy measures and public services. A civil-society initiative, which replicates the state-based budget analysis initiative in Australia, it has inspired other similar programs in Canada, Croatia, Jamaica, Mozambique, Russia, Tanzania and Uganda. The focus in on ex post budget analysis since there is limited access to government budgets before they are published.

  1. Participatory Municipal Budgeting—Brazil


Participatory budgeting is a process through which newly created Regional Assemblies and the Participatory Budget Council participate in allocating resources and monitoring how they were used. The Council is composed of delegates elected from municipal unions, neighborhood associations and local government. The Councils are responsible for organizing ongoing consultation meetings, representing district priorities to the municipal governments, and—in collaboration with government representatives—establishing and monitoring the local budget. Originally started in Porto Alegre, participatory budgeting is now established in some 80 cities. The process is currently being applied to the state level covering some 500 municipalities.


  1. Civil Service Performance Improvement Program—Ghana

Ghana’s District Assemblies (DA’s), set up in 1989, provide two key mechanisms for improving the responsiveness and performance of government. The first enhances popular participation in local government through both direct and representative methods. The second seeks to create a more ‘service conscious and responsive’ public service through civil service reforms. The reforms involve government agencies in designing their own Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs), which form the basis for Performance Agreements between staff and management. The PIP process uses self-appraisal and participatory management methods, supplemented by client satisfaction surveys to encourage staff to confront problems and design their own solutions.


  1. Report Cards—Mumbai, Bangalore, Calcutta, India

Formal, quantitative surveys of client satisfaction with public services have been conducted by NGOs in low-income neighborhoods in several Indian cities. The surveys generate ‘report cards’ on the perceived quality and appropriateness of a range of urban services. They are used to put pressure on elected officials by demonstrating the extent of pubic dissatisfaction, with hope that this will result in greater responsiveness of the part of public servants responsible for services. The surveys are also used to educate the media, other public interest groups, and citizenry.


  1. Citizens’ Information Centers—Romania

As part of general public administration reform in Romania, the government established a national public relations unit and Citizens’ Information Centers in eight local councils with the aim of creating a more open, accessible and ‘citizen friendly’ public service. The overall results have not been very encouraging due to continued patronage appointments in government, low pay and staff demoralization, excessive ‘legalism’ in civil service attitudes and high turnover in top levels of management. However, the Centers greatly improved the transparency of local government and encouraged citizen involvement through contacting and petitioning officials.


  1. Law of Popular Participation—Bolivia

The Law of Popular Participation of 1994 empowers democratically elected municipal councils to design and implement local development policies and programs, with finance transferred from the local government. In addition, the law empowers community organizations to participate in the development of five-year municipal plans. These groups are given jurisdiction over a given territory and assigned rights and duties covering a range of social, infrastructural, productive and environmental matters. In addition, Vigilance Committees act as watchdogs on the municipal council, and ensure that community priorities are reflected in municipal budgets/expenditures.


  1. Participatory Local Government—Philippines

The Local Government Code of 1991 establishes a Local Development Council (LDC) for every province, city, municipality and barangay. The primary responsibility of the LDCs is to draft comprehensive, multi-sector development plans, including a land-use plan for each local government. A least one-fourth of the total membership of the LDCs should come from the NGOs, people’s organizations and private sectors. LDCs have become vehicles for these civil society organizations to mobilize people in the barangays to claim from government minimum basic services and to prioritize local projects. A national network of NGOs (known as BATMAN) has worked to strengthen planning and local government/civil society interaction.


  1. Community Radio—Karnataka, India

This community radio show—initiated by citizens--aims to educate marginalized groups about how local government structures should work, especially in light of India’s 73rd Amendment providing greater representation of women in local government. With characters and story lines relevant to people in the district, the show weaves themes about the roles, responsibilities and functions of local government into the plot of each episode. Radio can reach 98 per cent of the population, including those who cannot read. Women especially are targeted. They can listen while they are at home doing chores and get information on issues such as the role of local forums, women’s rights and service delivery.



  1. Assembly of the Poor—Thailand

A loose farmers’ network that organizes mass agitation campaigns and sit-ins to demand response from government officials on issues affecting poor rural communities like dam displacement, access and rights to local resources such as land, water and forests. Campaigns target policy makers continuously at the local level and reach the national level during a mass mobilization of 20,000 farmers in 1997 for a 99-day sit-in. Objective media coverage and leadership that bridged the urban-rural cultural divide were essential elements of this movement’s awareness-raising capacity.


  1. Participatory Poverty Assessment—Uganda

Participatory poverty assessments (PPAs) involve the use of participatory and qualitative research techniques for national-level consultation on local people’s perceptions of poverty and priorities for poverty reduction. The Ugandan PPA is an extensive consultation exercise that has generated nuanced qualitative information about the experience, depth and breadth of poverty. It has sought to build a national system to integrate quantitative and qualitative poverty monitoring and to inform poverty alleviation policy. It was initiated by bilateral donors (with some Bank support) and NGOs and is managed by Oxfam. The PPA has focused on building government ownership and is housed in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

Assessing Dimensions of Social Accountability HANDOUT


Social Accountability mechanism can be characterized along six different dimensions—punishment vs. reward-based mechanisms, rule following vs. performance-based mechanisms, level of institutionalization, depth of involvement, inclusiveness of participation and branches of government. Each of these dimensions is important for planning purposes and for assessing how a feasible and sustainable a particular SA mechanism may be for a particular country and institutional context.


Step 1. Review the descriptions of the five different SA dimensions below.

1. Incentive Structure: Punishments or Rewards?


To what extent is the accountability mechanism oriented towards rewards or sanctions? Mechanisms relying too heavily on sanctions may threaten officials and cause paralysis. Rewards may not correct the behavior of bad apples. Some of the strongest accountability mechanisms rely on a balance of punishments and rewards.

2. Accountability: Rule following or Performance-based?


A focus on rule following is linked to the so-called “Old Public Management” grounded in traditional notions of bureaucracy and rational action. Mechanisms that seek to stimulate performance improvement are characteristic of the “New Public Management” and focus on accomplishing results through performance evaluation. Some of the best pro-accountability strategies focus citizen participation both on enforcing rules and on improving performance.


3. Institutionalization: Low or High?

Many accountability mechanisms are ad hoc initiatives designed by well meaning public servants without being permanently embedded in the structure of the state. To what extent are participatory accountability mechanisms inscribed into law, requiring individual agencies or government as a whole to involve societal actors at specific moments in the public policy process?


4. Involvement: External or Internal?

Many accountability mechanisms involve consultations and workshops with societal actors but few involve inviting actors “into the kitchen” to observe the step-by-step process of government planning. To what extent does the mechanism encourage deeper, internal involvement versus shallow participation?


5. Inclusiveness: Elitist or Inclusive?

There is a tendency of accountability mechanisms to only involve a small group of “well behaved” NGOs, middle class professionals, and centrist politicians. To what extent does the mechanism actually promote participation of groups with less voice or groups with alternative interests and ideological perspectives?


6. Branches of Government: Executive, Judicial or Legislative?

Accountability mechanisms often tend to be directed towards the executive branch. Though reforming the executive branch is an important challenge the legislative and judicial branches are equally important. The judiciary may be very difficult to penetrate while the legislative branch is often an untapped “gold mine” for pro-accountability reform.

Source: Adapted from Ackerman, 2004




Step 2. Read your case study. In your small group review and discuss the case to determine which SA dimensions it reflects. Plot the dimensions of your case on the grid below.


1

Incentive structure

Punishments Rewards

2

Accountability for what?

Rule following Performance-based

3

Institutionalization

Low High

4

Involvement

External Internal

5

Inclusiveness

Elitist Inclusive

6

Branches of government

Executive Judicial Legislative


Step 3. After plotting your example discuss the following six questions:


  1. What is the mechanism and how does it work?

  2. Who or what interests initiated and supported it?

  3. Whose voice was articulated and by whom?

  4. What does your assessment of the dimensions of the SA mechanism suggest to you about the viability of the mechanism in your country?

  5. What are some of the benefits and risks of this particular SA mechanism in your country?

  6. How might the mechanism be adapted or modified to better fit your country context and institutional setting?


Step 4: Put your grid on a flip chart and be prepared to present a brief summary of your analysis of the case to the large group.


CASE 1: Mexico Electoral Accountability HANDOUT


Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute’s (IFE) principal activities include organizing federal elections, distributing public funds to the political parties, monitoring the use of both public and private funds by the parties, checking for media bias in the coverage of political campaigns, putting together and cleaning up the official electoral roll, and running public education campaigns. The IFE actively involves societal actors at five different levels.


First, the IFE is run by an independent, nine member “citizen-run” General Council that serves as both a special horizontal accountability agency for electoral affairs and as the IFE’s principal directive body. Second, the meetings of the General Council are public. The minutes and decisions are widely publicized, reported on by the media, and are available via the Internet. Third, one representative from each registered political party sits on the General Council. These party representatives can fully participate in the discussions of the General Council and have access to all of the same information as the councilors but do not have the power to vote on initiatives or decisions. Fourth, the IFE commissions that are responsible for organizing and supervising the federal elections at the state level are also “citizen-run” in so far as they are appointed by the General Council without any formal interference from local or state governments.
Fifth, during its most important moment of “service delivery”, the organization of the federal elections, the IFE recruits a huge army of citizen volunteers. For instance, during the months leading up to the 2000 elections the IFE trained over 800,000 volunteer citizens to run 113,423 polling sites. All of the participants receive two training courses that are designed and implemented by the IFE. In addition, the IFE trains both national and international observers in the basics of electoral law. Finally, each political party is permitted to send one representative to each voting booth on election day. In total, more than one million citizens were mobilized in 2000 to assure the realization of free and fair elections.
Overall, the IFE has been remarkably successful. The lack of significant post-electoral protests and mobilizations in the year 2000 was unprecedented for a presidential election in Mexico. In addition, the fact that there has not been a new electoral reform since 1996 is a testament both to the great breakthrough of this reform and to the legitimacy that the institution continues to enjoy up through the present. Other than the 1933-1942 and 1963-1970 periods, the seven years from 1996-2003 marks the longest period the Mexican political system has gone without an electoral reform since the promulgation of the Mexican constitution of 1917. Finally, the IFE’s recent historic 100 million dollar fine of the Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI) and its aggressive investigation of the irregular financing of the campaign of sitting president Vicente Fox demonstrates its ability to stand up to even the most powerful interests.
The stimulant for the 1996 reform was the widespread social unrest and demands for democracy that arose out of the economic meltdown of 1994-1995 as well as the Zapatista uprising. In addition, one of the most important influences on this electoral reform was the activism of non-profit electoral watchdog groups. The leading group during this period was Alianza Cívica. For the 1994 elections, this group mobilized over 12 thousand national electoral observers and 400 international observers, carried out its own parallel “quick count” of the electoral results, published a report on bias in media coverage of the campaigns as well as a guide for electoral observers and a final evaluation of the election as a whole. This organized civic activity motivated the 1996 reform and many of the activities that the IFE carries out today (e.g. the “quick counts”, the training of electoral observers and the analysis of the media) are based in practices that Alianza Cívica first initiated.
Source: John Ackerman (2004), Concept Paper: Social Accountability.

CASE 2: Philippines Local Government Code HANDOUT


Decentralization and local autonomy has been a continuing issue in central-local relations in the Philippines for the last fifty years. Despite constitutional provisions promoting local autonomy, historical antecedents reflect centralism as the main feature of governance. The 1991 Local Government Code seeks to expand the powers and prerogatives of local governments, increase their share of the national income, expand their sources of local revenue, liberally interpreting the sharing of power in favor of local government:

Any provision on a power of a local government unit shall be liberally interpreted in its favor, and in case of doubt, any question thereon shall be resolved in favor of devolution of powers and of the lower local government unit. Any fair and reasonable doubt as to the existence of the power shall be interpreted in favor of the local government unit concerned.

The code provides the mandate for people’s participation in the Local Development Councils (LDCs). The purpose of the LDCs is to assist the local Assembly in setting the direction of economic and social development, and to coordinate development efforts within its territory.

The Code mandates NGO participation in several LDCss:

1. Barangay [Village] Development Council (BDC).  NGO representation should make up at least one-fourth of the total number of members in a complete, organized council.


2. Local Pre-qualification, Bids and Awards Committee. Two representatives from the NGOs who are also representatives from the BDC.

3. Local School Board. One representative from the SK, one from the PTA, one from the teachers’ organization, and one from the non-academic employees’ organization of the public schools (Section 98 (b, i))


4. Local Health Board. One representative from an NGO involved in the delivery of health services, and; (Section 102 (a, i))
5. Local Peace and Order Council.  In accord with the established EO 309 (Section 116)

Local Government Code in Action: Naga City’s Empowerment Ordinance

A success story in the implementation of the Local Government Code is Naga City’s enactment of its Empowerment Ordinance in 1995 which led to the design and implementation of several initiatives involving partnership between local government and civil society.  The success story, however, did not start out that way. The devolution of powers pursuant to the 1991 Local Government Code caught the City government unprepared to manage and deliver certain basic services (like health and environmental protection) mainly due to inadequate resources and limited manpower.


The City chose to develop its own “Empowerment Ordinance” to establish the structure to achieve active partnership between the city government and the people of Naga City.  The Ordinance spells out the norms of accreditation of NGOs and their rights and privileges. Accredited NGOs are deemed eligible for joint ventures with the city government to engage in various municipal tasks like infrastructure delivery, capacity- building and livelihood projects, and other activities that enhance the economic and social well-being of the people.
The Ordinance institutionalizes all accredited NGOs under an autonomous People’s Council (the Naga City People’s Council or NCPC). Among the powers of the NCPC are:

1. Vote and participate in the deliberation, conceptualization, implementation and evaluation of projects, activities and programs of the city government;


2. Propose legislation;
3. Participate and vote at the committee level of the city legislature; and
4. Act as people’s representative in the exercise of their constitutional rights to information on matters of public concern and of access to official records and documents.

The Ordinance mandates sectoral representation in the Sangguniang Panlungsod (city legislature) from each of the non-agricultural labour, women, and urban poor sectors of the city that shall be elected from among the members of the accredited NGOs and POs in each sector.

With external capacity-building support, Naga City initiated a series of successful projects in partnership with civil society: The Naga City River Watershed Plan; The Naga City Solid Waste Management Plan; and the City Health Development Plan.

However, the overall record of the LDCs is mixed. Where the LDCs promote active people’s participation, both the local governments and the NGOs want to strengthen the design of the LDCs because of several pervasive problems. First, there is too much focus on the selection and accreditation of NGOs and people’s organizations. Much less attention is given to procedures for effective people’s participation. Second, few guidelines exist to assist LDC members in local planning, investment promotion, and the prioritization of projects. Third, at the level of capabilities, little or no support exists to empower LDC members with the skills and expertise needed to fulfill their mandates. Fourth, there are too few resources available to LGUs for carrying out investment promotion and project monitoring. Fifth, many NGOs were unfamiliar with how to participate in the councils and government often invited them to meetings without seriously considering their proposals. In a series of consultations commissioned by the Local Government department, a majority of NGO representatives expressed more frustration than satisfaction with the LDCs.

Sources: UN-HABITAT, The Consultative Group on Participatory Local Governance (2001); World Bank Social Accountability Stocktaking Exercise for South and East Asia (2004).

CASE 3: Croatia Budget Transparency HANDOUT


One of the central issues in Croatia is the lack of transparency in public sector activities that undermines the credibility and effectiveness of the public authority, and contributes to corruption and uneven influence on important public policy decisions.


The Institute of Public Finance (IPF), a local nongovernmental organization, undertakes research in all aspects of public sector economics, including public sector expenditure and revenues, fiscal policy, budget policy, public debt and the role of the state in the economy. IPF provides independent analysis of important economic issues in order to educate citizens, members of parliament and government of the implications of alternative policies being considered and to improve fiscal transparency and accountability in public sector institutions.
IPF published its first Public Policy Newsletter in 1999. IPF timed the newsletter’s release with the parliamentary debate on the government’s 1999 budget proposals. At that time the government was also in the midst of a debate on the nation’s fundamental macroeconomic accounting system.
The newsletter, called “The Public Policy Note of the IPF in Connection with the Budget of the Republic of Croatia, 1999" was published in both English and Croatian and was sent free of charge to approximately 1,000 people, including the President of the Republic, members of parliament, relevant parliamentary boards, ministries, agencies, public enterprises, and the media. To reach an even broader audience at a low cost, IPF also posted the newsletter on its web site.
Following the initial newsletter on the budget, IPF published an additional newsletter to address the amendments to the 1999 national budget. The purpose of this publication was not to analyze the soundness of the allocative decisions contained in the budget, but rather to highlight ways transparency could be increased during the execution of the budget.
The newsletter is kept short and addresses issues that are of immediate importance in the budget debate. IPF gathers the information it needs for its analysis through officially published data, as well as direct contacts with people from the administration and from the members of parliament. Personal contacts have proven particularly important when the Ministry of Finance has been unwilling to disclose its budget suggestions before sending them to parliament. Gaining access to that information through other channels has allowed IPF to consistently provide advanced analysis of government’s policy recommendations for the members of parliament.
Encouraged by the positive response to the newsletters, IPF decided to publish additional

newsletters on other salient public policy concerns, focusing mostly on budget and taxation issues. For example, in connection with Croatia’s recent election that resulted in

a much different parliament, government, and president, IPF published a comprehensive

newsletter “Economics of the Public Sector - Situation, Problems, and Possible Solutions” which discussed the role of the state, the budget, the public debt, the tax system, the underground economy, and social security issues.


IPF’s independent review and analysis of the government budget was a way of creating greater public awareness about the importance of transparency and accountability in the public sector. Moreover, it has had tremendous educational impact due in large part to the media that quoted, discussed and commented on the newsletter and brought budgetary issues into the public domain.
In fact, the media’s coverage is one way to begin to assess IPF’s impact on the policy dialogue surrounding the budget. Long after publication of different IPF papers, the media would reference them in its evaluation of government policy by saying things like,

“government intends to introduce lower tax rates for tourism, although IPF expressly warned against such measures,” and would often quote entire sections of the IPF newsletter in a news story.


Of course, it is more difficult to adequately assess the impact of IPF’s work on policy makers. While in all likelihood IPF’s role in the debate helped shape the thinking for many officials, it is impossible to know whether government made some decision because of IPF’s advocacy or due to some other influence.
IPF’s next goal is to form groups consisting of leading independent economists, lawyers, sociologists, and mathematicians for the permanent assessment of public policy issues. The function of the groups will be to raise public and parliamentary awareness of key public policy issues by providing independent analysis of governmental decision making.

Source: Analyzing and Affecting Policy: Institute of Public Finance, Croatia, International Budget Project, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2000.



CASE 4: Brazil Participatory Budgeting HANDOUT


As part of their agenda of deepening democracy through “popular administration” of government the Workers Party (PT) in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre introduced a set of innovations around participatory budgeting. Having won several municipal elections in 1989, including Sao Paulo with over 10 million people, the PT began an experiment to engage a wide spectrum of people in formulating city budgets. The Porto Alegre case has, in particular, having been nominated by the 1996 UN Summit on Human Settlements in Istanbul as an exemplary ‘urban innovation’, stood out for demonstrating an efficient practice of democratic resource management. Originally started in Porto Alegre, participatory budgeting is being established in some 80 Brazilian cities.

In Porto Alegre the PT successfully linked the municipal political and legislative structures with consultation and decision-making processes involving several communities in the city. Intra-community Assemblies were formed to review investment plans of the previous year, discuss proposals for the next year, and to elect people a Fora of Delegates for subsequent deliberations. These assemblies then collected a series of demands from discussions on themes such as:


  • transportation,

  • education, leisure and culture,

  • health and social welfare,

  • economic development and taxation,

  • city organisation and urban development.

These demands were subsequently mapped to different city regions and assessed by the municipal Executive administration in terms of need - measured by how much of access a region has had to a particular service, and population size. The Assemblies and the Participatory Budget Council participate in allocating resources and monitoring how they were used. The Council is composed of delegates elected from municipal unions, neighborhood associations and local government. The Councils are responsible for organizing ongoing consultation meetings, representing district priorities to the municipal governments, and—in collaboration with government representatives—establishing and monitoring the local budget.
Some concerns over the balance between participation and the quality of representation are still hovering over this participatory budgeting exercise introduced in Porto Alegre. The municipality’s Executive administration has asked for a narrower representative base, for example, while citizens have continued to demand more representatives on the Council. Some other problems arise with the lack of constitutional recognition for this mayoral initiative, with the municipality sometimes encountering frictions or being unable to set the agenda, timing and debates. A point that has also been raised is that as participation gets socially institutionalized, common citizens may be replaced by specializd ‘participatory citizens’ to take part in the process.
However, the city has experienced some impressive results that have made many to praise the initiative. Between 1989 and 1996, the number of households with access to water services rose from 80% to 98%; percentage of the population served by the municipal sewage system rose from 46% to 85%; number of children enrolled in public schools doubled; in the poorer neighbourhoods, 30 kilometres of roads were paved annually since 1989; and because of transparency affecting motivation to pay taxes, revenue increased by nearly 50% (budget resources for investment only went up from US$ 54m in 1992 to US$ 70m in 1996).

The Porto Alegre experiment also presents a strong example of democratic accountability, equity, and re-distributive justice, with the participation part guaranteeing legitimacy to decisions, and objective budgeting ensuring fairness in an otherwise arbitrary process of translating political decisions into distributed resource. A notable change in attitudes of technical staff, well-versed in matters of budgeting and engineering, has also been observed as a result of their increasing interface with lay citizens. Called a jump from ‘techno- bureaucracy to techno-democracy’, the technical staff have changed the way they communicate with the communities and have tried to make themselves understood in simple language. Overall, from a protest-based culture of the 80s, these participatory budget exercises have fostered a more ‘civil’ and less disruptive form of conflict resolution through dialogue and negotiations.

Sources: World Bank Participation Sourcebook 2001; Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre: Toward a redistributive democracy “Politics and Society” Dec 1998.

CASE 5: Uganda Public Expenditure Tracking HANDOUT


In December 1996, soon after a landslide victory, President Museveni announced the abolition of school fees. Since then there has been a sustained shift in Ugandan expenditures in favor of education, especially for primary schools. Spending on education has risen as a share of government expenditures from an average of 20 percent in the three fiscal years preceding the election to an average of 26 percent in the three years following. Total enrollment in primary education skyrocketed from 3.6 million students to 6.9 million between 1996 and 2001.


Budget allocation alone can be a poor indicator of the quality and quantity of public services. While shifting budgetary resources to priority sectors is a good first step, it is crucial to ascertain where and how the allocated sum gets spent.
The 1996 Uganda-World Bank public expenditure tracking surveys (PETS) of local governments and primary schools revealed that only 13 percent of the per-student capitation grants made it to the schools in 1991-95. In 1995 for every dollar spent on nonwage education items by the central government, only about 20 cents reached the schools, with the local government capturing most of the funding. Most poor schools received nothing and poor students suffered disproportionately.
Case study evidence and other data showed that the school funds were not going to other sectors either. The disbursements were rarely monitored, and most schools and parents had little or no information about their entitlements to the grants. Most funds went to purposes unrelated to education or for private gain, as indicated by numerous news articles about indictment of district education officers after the survey findings went public.
To respond to the problem, the central government began publishing data on monthly transfers of grants to districts in newspapers and to broadcast them on the radio. It required primary schools and district administrations to post notices on all inflows of funds. This promoted accountability by giving schools and parents access to information needed to understand and monitor the grant program.
An evaluation of the information campaign reveals a large improvement. Schools are still not receiving the entire grant (and there are delays). But the capture of interests along the way has been reduced by 80 percent in 1995 to 20 percent in 2001. Related analysis suggests that the information campaign explains two-thirds of the massive improvement.
With an inexpensive policy action---the provision of mass information—Uganda dramatically reduced the capture of a public program aimed at increasing access to textbooks and other instructional materials. Because poor people were less able than others to claim their entitlement form the district officials before the campaign, they benefited most from it.
Source: World Development Report 2004

CASE 6: Niger Participatory M&E Systems HANDOUT


The World Bank supported Community Action Program (CAP) in Niger relies upon community management of local development micro-projects that is based initially on an integrated process of community self assessment. The process serves as a catalyst for community empowerment, operational efficiency, development sustainability and stakeholder accountability. The broad steps of the theory include the following:



  1. Community needs assessment

  2. Development of local development plan (LDP) oriented toward service delivery and/or income generation.

  3. Implementation of LDP micro-projects

  4. Operation/maintenance of micro-projects

  5. Monitoring of micro-projects

  6. Re-assessment of LDP annually/readjustment /continuation of implementation

The community self-assessment is designed to ensure that the empowerment taking place during the participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) process is as broad based as possible. The community self assessment process begins with a community wide (the village general assembly) discussion triggering community interest in the development process and focusing on the history of the village as a tool for comparing the rate of local development over time. The second stage of discussions also includes the entire community, and focuses more specifically on the community’s vision and objectives for local development, while introducing the concept of a community based monitoring and evaluation system.

Following these open and public discussions, the community selects a monitoring and evaluation committee, who, based on objectives and processes agreed upon by the community as a whole and in collaboration with the project’s overall Management Committee, ensures ongoing monitoring, evaluation and learning during each stage of the micro projects. Although Committee members are the primary individuals involved in PM&E, the community as a whole holds the Committee accountable to the objectives identified in the local development plan, and analyzing progress and adjustment needs.
Based on community wide discussions of well being objectives the community M&E Committee (or M&E organizers of the Village Development Committee) develops indicators that help track progress against the local development plan. The Committee then works with the community to define M&E methods, responsibilities and timing of information gathering and a schedule of community meetings and consultations. This process facilitates the identification of sub committees, organizations and individuals that assume monitoring responsibilities and who maintain an active involvement in M&E throughout the project. The schedule include the type of committees involved, the type of consultation/ reporting required, and the timing of the meeting, often coinciding with seasonal (agricultural) and religious or traditional events.
Additionally, the selected M&E Committee is also required to report back to the community during quarterly and annual meetings and during meetings managed by the overall Project Management Committee.

Source: World Bank, 2004




CASE 7: India Right to Information Act HANDOUT



The Goa Right to Information Act (GRIA) was passed in 1997. When the Congress chief minister of Goa announced that his government would introduce right-to-information legistlation. Goa’s activists and press corps were caught off-guard. When the press finally, obtained a copy of the bill—ironically, through a leak from sources within the bureaucracy—they discovered a number of draconian provisions, which had little to do with increasing accountability. One clause provided for fines for those who used information under the act for ‘malafide purposes.’ Many felt that this clause revealed the governments true intent: intimidation of the press.


The GRIA, as amended, guarantees the right of any citizen to apply in writing for “any information relating to the affairs of state or any local authorities.” Information can be refused in only special cases. A list of “competent authorities” provided in the Act have 30 days to furnish or refuse the information, once the information is received. The law also provides a procedure to adjudicate appeals against requests that have been denied. Three years after enactment of the law, over 1000 applications have been filed by a wide range of citizens.
After the first year 400 applications were filed by individuals seeking the release of information. Such information ranged from potentially illegal construction, to clearances give to polluting industries, and business taxes paid by individuals known to be favored by those in government. Only a few civil society organizations have extensively exercised their rights under the law and many of Goa’s journalists prefer to use their established channels of disclosure rather than invoke the GRIA. One group filed for an audited financial statement of a district cooperative bank. The statement detailed aspects of the bank’s mismanagement which were published and a local politician who controlled the bank lost in the election that followed the expose. In another situation a federation of “other backwards castes” (OBC) filed an injunction of granting OBC status to a large “forward” caste and the Supreme Court stayed the lower decision.
There is mixed feedback about the law and despite the growing exercise of their right to information through the GRIA critics argue that the petitions that have been filed so far “do not yet add up to a concerted campaign against corruption affecting less privileged constituencies.” Although some cases of corruption and nepotism have been exposed, the GRIA imposed processing and photocopying fees which critics warn may be too prohibitive for the most marginalized groups who would benefit most from it. There are also some gray areas in the law, particularly a clause which enables invocation of “personal information” as an objection to disclosure. This clause has prevented the release of some tax documents of officials suspected of tax evasion. The monitoring of the law is supposed to be undertaken by the State Information Council which includes representatives from NGOs and the process, but it is not yet operating effectively.
The response of government employees to the GRIA is likewise mixed. Some have complied with the law, disclosing information in response to applications filed. But other departments have ignored the applications and the 30-day response time limit. In one case, after refusing an application which later won appeal, the agency used bureaucratic tactics to deny the citizen her right to the information.
Source: World Bank, Social Accountability Stocktaking Exercise for South and East Asia (2004).

CASE 8: Marshall Islands Gender Sensitive Budgets HANDOUT


The Asian Development Bank/University of South Australia Project Team provided technical assistance (TA) to Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) to support analysis on the impact of the budget and public spending on gender issues. The project was carried out over 15 months during the 2002-03 budget cycle.


The main objectives of the TA were to: 1) assist in the design of “people-centered budgets and gender appropriated policies, programs and institutions based on global “good practices”; 2) assist the government in collecting disaggregated data on gender; 3) build capacity among senior RMI officials and representatives of women’s groups to support implementation of gender-sensitive public expenditure management; 4) raise awareness of policy issues and how the budget impacts on women and men; 5) promote transparency and accountability of government policy commitment and budgets in relation to gender; and 6) to change policies and budgets to ensure equity and equality of opportunity between men and women following local priorities.
Assisted by the NGOs, the Ministry of Finance served as the project coordinator and undertook an approach focused on three main objectives. The first was to assess the gender impacts arising from budgets and policies. This involved demystifying the budget and analyzing it in terms of impacts on gender. Workshops also dealt with raising awareness on gender issues. The second objective was to foster government accountability for the gender equality impacts of its policies. This phase of the project established administrative procedures within the government to guarantee the execution of the project. NGOs received capacity building support. The third objective was to change budgets and policies in light of gender assessments and accountability. A steering committee was formed involving several officials from the MoF a Women’s desk officer from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and a representative from a Women’s NGO umbrella group. The Steering Committee decide to focus on teenage pregnancy as a major gender issue as it carried much community concern. A second workshop was held for government officials on the issues of how their budgets and policies affected matters concerning gender and teenage pregnancy.
The project was making progress and then the compact negotiations between the US and the RMI during the pilot year failed (RMI is heavily dependent on the US for foreign assistance) causing the normal budget process to falter. There were other problems. The one-year time frame was adequate for the goal of awareness raising but too short to have an impact on changing the budget itself and several factors slowed down the momentum of the project. One was the poor coordination of the MoF and another was the cancellation by ADB of an important regional workshop on the pilot project. The project was also undermined by the absence of a transparent system of expenditure management. There was no public document and funds were misappropriated.
The project failed to create a cross-cutting budget to address the problem of teenage pregnancies. Nevertheless, the capacity building activities did result in some changes in the budget and the MIA got a reallocation of funds which it earmarked for the teenage pregnancy program.
Source: World Bank, Social Accountability Stocktaking Exercise for South and East Asia (2004).

Designing a Pro-Accountability Strategy HANDOUT



Designing an effective SA strategy grounded in country experiences and realities is not easy. This calls for a good eye for windows of opportunity and a highly developed sensitivity to the country’s history, culture and politics. Although no single recipe can be applied in all cases, experience shows that the most successful cases of designing and adapting social accountability systems follow a basic pattern. In other words, certain basic steps can be followed creatively to identify and distill an effective SA strategy.



Team task (45 minutes)
Your team will design a first-cut SA strategy for a particular country, focusing on a district or set of municipalities you have selected. In this activity you’ll need to integrate a number of issues that we’ve covered and quickly follow several steps:


  1. Conduct a brief SA diagnostic of the district/municipality you have selected.




  1. Identify a few candidate SA approaches/mechanisms that might be a good fit in the geographic area you have selected.




  1. Quickly review some of the main characteristics of the candidate SA approaches to see how they jibe with your diagnostic. Select the best SA approach.




  1. Develop a first cut strategy. The strategy should:




    • Build on preexisting SA demands and practices in country.

    • Draw on some of the ‘good practices’ and SA lessons learned discussed earlier.

    • Have a clear entry point.

    • Describe how key interest groups will be mobilized and how coalitions will be formed to support the SA approach.

    • Provide a clear objective of how the SA approach will be used in practice and by whom.

    • Provide a realistic time frame for adoption of the SA approach.



Post the main points from your diagnosis and the key elements of your strategy on a flip chart. Be prepared to summarize your findings/analysis in a brief (3-5 minute) presentation to the large group.
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