South Asia Regional Training on Social Accountability

South Asia Regional Training on Social Accountability Tools September 18 -20, Kathmandu, Nepal Session on An introduction to Governance & Accountability George Cheriyan Director, CUTS International September 18, 2012

About CUTS International • Indian origin International Organization headquartered in Jaipur, India. • Established in 1983, pursuing social justice and economic equity within and across borders. • CUTS has five programme centre and six resource centers: seven in India, two in Africa (Lusaka & Nairobi), one in Geneva and one in Hanoi and have direct interventions in about 35 countries. • Good Governance is one of the key programmatic area. Working in the area of promoting transparency and accountability at all levels of governance through increased people’s participation from its inception • Details can be seen at: www. cuts-international. org 2

SAc: Journey of CUTS Year Sector Partner Agency Tools used 19992002 State Accountability Project (SAP) Ford Foundation Budget Analysis 2003 Schemes and Programmes for Children Govt. of Rajasthan Budget Analysis 2001 -07 Power Sector Reforms FES, Germany CMC 2005 -06 Measuring the Effectiveness of Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) World Bank, Washington DC PETS & CRC 2006 India Budget Process IBP, WDC Peer Review 2007 -08 Combating Corruption PTF, WDC RTI 2008 -09 Assessing outputs of NREGS World Bank CRC/CSC/PETS 2008 -10 Power Sector Reform in India, Bangladesh & Nepal NORAD CRC 2009 -10 Reforming Processing in Rural Development Dept. , Rajasthan, India PTF, WDC RTI 2009 -10 Absenteeism & Service Delivery Monitoring in Health Sector (PATP) R 4 D, WDC CMC & CRC 2010 -12 Developing a culture of good governance ANSA-SAR CSC 2012 Community of Practice on Social Accountability ANSA-SAR 2012 -13 My. City: Improving quality of Urban Governance Asia Foundation 3 CRC, PSI

International Affiliations/ Memberships • South Asia Social Accountability Network (SASANet) • International Resource team on SAc of the WBI from 2007 • Communication for Governance and Accountability Program (Comm. GAP) of the World Bank • Demand for Good Governance (DFGG) Learning Network • Affiliated Network on Social Accountability – South Asia Region (ANSA-SAR) • Freedom of Information Advocates Network (FOIANET) • Governance Assessment Portal of UNDP Oslo Governance Centre • In addition to India, hands on experience in working in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Nepal on SAc tools.

Framework for Accountability Relationships Making Services Workable for the Poor (WDR 2004) Demand Side Approaches Supply Side Approaches 5

Good Governance • Good governance is a term used to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in order to guarantee the realization of human rights and sustainable development. • Governance describes "the process of decision-making, the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented) and the process by which power is exercised for the optimum utilization of economic and social resources for development“. • The term governance can apply to corporate, international, local governance

Governance & Key Elements • Accountability can be defined as the obligation of powerholders to account for their actions and behavior • Transparency, when used in a social context, implies openness, communication, and accountability • Access to Information: Not piecemeal access to information, but deliberately and systematically integrating information in the debate on fundamental public issues to make the governance transparent

Why Social Accountability • Citizens have the right to demand accountability and the State or the public actors have an obligation to be accountable to its citizens. • Fundamental principle of democracy • Contract between the state and its citizens • Breach of contract and failure of existing mechanisms to ensure accountability, resulted in emergence of social accountability 8

What is SAc: Definition • Social accountability is an approach towards building accountability that relies on civic engagement in which, ordinary citizens and/or civil society organizations participate directly or indirectly in exacting accountability • SAc mechanisms refer to a broad range of actions (beyond voting) that citizens, communities and civil society organizations can use to hold government officials and bureaucrats accountable. • SAc mechanisms can be initiated and supported by the state, citizens or both. But very often they are demand-driven and operate from the bottom up

SAc Mechanisms-various aspects • Information & Transparency (Right to Information, Websites, Community Radio, information sharing) – Promote and create two-way-communication between government and citizens through access, disclosure, and dissemination of information and transparency norms • Participation & Consultation (Participatory Budgeting) – Encourage and mediate opportunities to build multi-stakeholder coalitions that combine public and political will for policies, public spending and project planning • Monitoring & Oversight (CRCs, CSC, PETS, Social Audits) – Empower and encourage citizens, civil society and the media to enact their rights to supervise and oversee policies, programs, projects, and services • Capacity Building (WB, ANSA, CUTS) – Educate and enable civil society, authorities, and the media to effectively participate in a multi-stakeholder debate of policies, programs, projects, and services

Why is it important? Social Accountability Citizen Empowerment Dev. Effectiveness Good Governance 11

Change in Approaches • From ‘Screaming’ to collective ‘VOICES’ by Citizens • From ‘Shouting’ to ‘Counting’ - quantify voice and ‘Counting’ feedback • From Reaction (demonstration) to Informed Action • From Episodic (broken up) to Organized Action • From Confrontational to “Win-Win” situations 12

Public Expenditure Management • Resources allocated fail to reach the intended beneficiaries • Lack of Accountability: Inefficiency, ineffectiveness and lack of transparency in the process, resulting in week delivery and poor quality of services. Leakages/corruption/Absenteeism week delivery mechanism/ poor spending Unlimited funding ? ? 13

PARTICIPATORY PUBLIC EXPENDITURE MANAGEMENT 4 STAGE PROCESS Ø Budget Formulation How public resources are allocated Ø Budget Review Diagnosing the implications of the budget when formed Ø Expenditure Tracking Seeing where the money goes Ø Performance Monitoring After the money is spent, see how the output/service is performing Each of these stages can be carried out in a participatory manner. That is PPEM. 14

Governance & Corruption Governance The manner in which the State acquires and exercises its authority to provide public goods and services Corruption Using public office for private gain Corruption is an outcome – a consequence of ‘break downs’ in the governance system 15 15

Existing SAc tools? • Budget Analysis • Participatory Budgeting • Social Audi • Right to Information • Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) • Citizen's Charter • Public Hearing • Citizens’ Juries • Citizens Report Card (CRC) • Community Score Card (CSC) 16

Key Challenges • Integrating Social Accountability aspects in design of supply side institutions and service delivery approaches to institutionalize them with required budgetary support • Providing Demand-side stimulus for accountability and good governance for involving users and local service providers in giving feedback and exacting accountability • Critical mass of in-country demand side practitioners and networks

Improving Outcomes through Feedback State Government Redesign Programs District Administration/ Government Accountability Feedback Reallocate Resources Improved Quality of Service Delivery Education Service Provider Feedback Services

SAc Approaches Outcomes Development Outcomes • Improved Quality of Service Delivery Citizen Report Cards Community Score Cards Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys Right to Information (RTI) Compliance • Program Redesign and Resource Reallocation to Improve Program Effectiveness and Public Expenditure Efficiency • Improved Governance through Demand Side Approaches in Governance Institutional Outcomes • Institutionalization of continuous user feedback mechanisms • Formation of community-Govt. -NGO partnerships for implementation of development programs • Stronger linkages between local governments and civil society

Thanks 20