BRIEFING PAPER. Social Accountability Platform For Local Governance Performance In Ghana Project

Transcription

1 BRIEFING PAPER Social Accountability Platform For Local Governance Performance In Ghana Project ESTABLISHING SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS TO IMPROVE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICE DELIVERY IN GHANA SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY INSTITUTE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT STUDIES

2 Background In a bid to promote good governance at the local level, various stakeholders have embarked on efforts to ensure that citizens become satisfied in the delivery of public services. Citizens are considered satisfied when there is high level of accountability mechanisms provided in the delivery of public service. Making public organisations more accountable to the citizens they serve is a key part of building effective governance systems that can ensure poverty reduction and the improvement in living conditions. Accountability refers to the processes, norms, structures and mechanisms that require public authorities (governors) to answer for their actions to another actor (the governed), and/or suffer some sanction if the performance is judged to be below the relevant standard. In other words, accountability can be explained as the obligation of local authorities and bureaucrats to explain or justify what they have done or failed to do regarding the resources entrusted to them and the efficiency of resource utilization. Accountability is a necessary pre-condition for just and democratic governance that can lead to trust between citizens and the public institutions. Over the years, there has been only one-sided efforts for public organisations to inform other formal institutions and to some little extent citizens about their actions. Public institutions use only the supply-side of accountability to inform what they have been able to do successfully. Accountability mechanisms that concentrate on the supply side of governance have failed to deliver results in terms of minimizing corruption and improving access to and quality of public service for poor communities. The use of the top-down approach has not been very responsive and alienates the citizens from participating in matters that affect their livelihood. It is in this regard that social accountability becomes imperative. Social accountability is an approach towards building accountability that relies on civic engagement, i.e. in which it is ordinary citizens and/or civil society organizations who participate directly or indirectly in exacting accountability (Malena et. al, 2004). Social accountability is a means to achieve good governance and increase public participation for improved public service delivery. It is the process through which citizens exact influence on the responsiveness and accountability from local authorities and public servants. Indeed, social accountability includes actions and tools that citizens and other nonstate actors can use to hold public officials accountable. Examples of social accountability initiatives include advocacy campaigns, investigative journalism; and, the recent ones such as citizen report cards, participatory public policy making and public expenditure tracking. These tools therefore make social accountability instrumental in the allocation of public resources more inclusive and equitable. Social accountability tools and strategies help empower ordinary citizens to exercise their rights by scrutinizing the activities of public authorities in the utilization of public resources to improve governance and achieve real development. In countries like Brazil, India, Uganda and Philippines, social accountability tools are being used to sustain governance reforms. The sustainability and effectiveness of the social accountability mechanism can be realised when it is institutionalised at all levels of governance. In Ghana, the demand for accountability from local government has been done largely by civil society, especially NGOs and community - based organisations. However, there is need to build these processes into the entire governance framework of Ghana. Citizen groups need to initiate actions and mechanisms to hold public officials, politicians, and service providers to account for their conduct and performance in terms of delivering services, improving people's welfare and protecting people's rights. To this, citizens have access to relevant and timely information to monitor performance and demand accountability of services delivered by local government. In Ghana, social accountability has been given little attention. Therefore the Social Accountability Platform provides the real opportunity for citizens to exact accountability at all levels of governance by enhancing the capacity of NGO s. The Social Accountability Platform ensures the use of simple Social Accountability tools to exact accountability from public officials and service providers. 1

3 Table 1: Social Accountability Tools in Ghana Local Government Functional Area District Medium Term Development Planning Process and Annual Action Plans District Assembly Performance Monitoring District Assembly Expenditure District Assembly Service Delivery Applicable Social Accountability Participatory Planning Participatory Budgeting Citizen Charter Social Audit Citizen Report Cards Community Score Cards Oversight Committees Participatory Expenditure Tracking Public Hearing Town hall meetings Citizen Report Cards Open forums Citizens charter Opinion polls Existing Social Accountability Tools There are numerous social accountability tools that are being used by citizen groups to ensure public officials are accountable and responsive to the needs and preferences of citizens. The selection of a particular tool depends upon the service, context and the issues under consideration. In selecting the appropriate social accountability tool there are some few principles to kept note of. These include nature of the accountability problem, level of community mobilisation, extent of civil society presence and the skills availability to use a particular tool. Below are some of the Tools that are used in Ghana: Participatory Planning Development planning process is vital in meeting the needs of citizens. In that regard, involving citizens in the planning process ensures accountability. Participatory planning is a process whereby beneficiaries of local government programmes and projects are involved in the design and planning of developmental interventions. The aim of the participatory planning is to contextualise local problems, priorities and solutions by involving local communities in the planning process. Participatory planning at the local level involves a number of steps including appraisal, needs identification, restitution, organisation, planning, implementation and evaluation. Participatory Budgeting Planned development programmes and activities need to be budgeted. It is a tool that engages citizens in negotiations with local authorities over the distribution of public resources for development. It provides citizens with an opportunity to decide how and where public resources are spent which will reduce the scope for corruption and mismanagement. Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) During the implementation stages of projects and programmes, it is imperative that citizens know how much has been expended to improve the living conditions of people. Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) is a tool used to track the flows of funds to determine how governments use public funds and whether resources actually reach the target beneficiaries. The process involves securing information on budgets and expenditures across central, regional, and district levels. 2

4 Social Audits When projects are undertaken, it is important that citizens who are beneficiaries of the project are allowed to audit to find out whether the project specifications were met. An important tool is the use of social audit. It is a process whereby a local government programmes is checked with the active participation of the intended beneficiaries. It involves obtaining information on local government services specifically on budgets, expenditure, allotments, estimates of works, payments etc pertaining to the implemented programme. Official information and records on expenditures and entitlements are verified against the testimonies of beneficiaries. Citizens auditing water service project Community Score Card The Community Score Card (CSC), also known as the voice card, is a participatory, community - based monitoring and evaluation tool that enables citizens to assess the quality of public services such as a health, education, public transport, water, waste disposal systems and so on. It is used to inform community members about available services and their entitlements and to solicit their opinions about the accessibility and quality of these services. By providing an opportunity for direct dialogue between service providers and the community, the CSC process empowers the public to voice their opinion and demand improved service delivery. Citizen Report Cards Some community members rating water services in their community When services are delivered, it is important to find out the impact they have made on users. The Citizen Report Cards (CRCs) are commonly used tools for participatory impact evaluation. It provides systematic feedback from users of services to service providers on the satisfaction levels amongst citizens on the quality, adequacy and efficiency of public services in order to improve service delivery. Satisfaction ratings of the s e r v i c e s a re s h a re d w i t h a l l stakeholders for improvement. 3

5 Public Hearing Public hearing is a social accountability tool that is formally or informally organised to share information on local government programmes and interventions. It provides the platform for citizens to dialogue with local authorities on services that have been provided. It is an opportunity to correct any negative perception A cross-section of community members at a public hearing Precedents in Social Accountability in Local Governance in Ghana In the last decade, various development initiatives have had components to foster citizens' participation and enhance the demand side of accountability. Various areas of emphasis have included participatory budgeting, participatory planning, participatory resource mobilization, participatory fee-fixing processes, participatory performance monitoring and participatory impact evaluation. Some of the key projects and programmes include the Government Accountability Improves Trust (GAIT) Project which promoted town meetings, participatory budgeting, the district performance improvement plans (DPIP) and the civic unions approach to demanding social accountability. The Civic Unions Approach involved building local level partnership of various membership associations/interest groups of economic associations, labour councils teachers and faith-based organizations for advocacy with local authorities. DPIPs provided indicators on assemblies' facilitation of participation in planning, budgeting, dynamism in resource mobilization, networking, communication, ethics and accountability, service delivery responsiveness The Rights and Voice Initiative (RAVI) which aimed at improved accountability and responsiveness of government agencies at various levels towards its citizens, particularly the poor adopted a combined approach of providing funding and capacity building support to grant partners. Grants were provided to CSOs to engage governments and duty bearers on citizens' rights directly. There were also grants to intermediary organizations to nurture, support and disburse small grants to CBOs/LNGOs. A rigorous grant making process was adopted. The HIPC Watch Project, undertaken by SEND Ghana with its partners, was an initiative involving local level committees in monitoring the use of HIPC resources on the basis that it was the right of the public. This intervention was widely acclaimed. The Decent Work Project in Ghana was implemented with the support of International Labour Organization (ILO) in eight districts in Central Region. This intervention was notable for establishing a mechanism (the sub-committees on productive and gainful employment) to facilitate regular communication between local enterprises and the assemblies as well as for integrating social protection in local economic development (LED) initiatives. The Local Governance and Decentralization Program (LOGODEP) supported under the USAID/GHANA's Democracy and Governance Strategic Objective is an ongoing initiative. The objectives of the program are to expand public participation in local governance, support metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to increase internally generated funds, support development planning efforts, and strengthen existing country systems. The activities target the 17 districts in the Western Region, and build synergies with existing activities. 4

6 There are other programmes particularly in the local government sector that make provision for social accountability whose lessons must be of interest. These include: Citizens' charters especially in the health sector and the role that Health NGOs have played in creating awareness The periodic health sector /water sector stakeholder review processes at the district, regional and national levels Citizens' assessments undertaken as part of the monitoring and evaluation processes of the Annual Progress Reporting on poverty reduction processes by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). The surveys are followed by Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) in selected districts. Citizens' score-cards administered by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and data collected through the District Oversight Committees (DOC); Social auditing initiatives by the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) in various districts Citizens Report Card and Community Score Cards Training under Community Based Rural Development Project (CBRDP) Citizens Score Card Study in Accra conducted by the World Bank, with lessons for the Cities Alliance Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) intervention called the Land, Services and Citizenship for the Urban Poor (LSC) Program The Social Accountability Project undertaken within the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) which aims at increasing society's ownership of and responsiveness Various experiences of individual assemblies with capacity building to negotiate social corporate responsibility arrangements with private sector more effectively such as those achieved by the Asutifi and Birim North Districts with the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) and Newmont. Enabling Social Accountability Mechanisms Institutionalising social accountability mechanisms in Ghana will require adopting and establishing strong structures that will make it sustainable. Building strong pillars of Social Accountability can enable the effectiveness of social accountability. SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY ORGANIZED AND CAPABLE CITIZEN S GROUPS ACCESS TO AND EFFECTIVE USE OF ADEQUATE AND ESSENTIAL INFORMATION SENSITIVITY TO CULTURE AND CONTEXT RESPONSIVE GOVERNMENT 5 Figure 1: Four Pillars of Social Accountability

7 Organized and capable citizen groups Establishing effective social accountability mechanisms require the institutionalization of organized groups. Organised groups have the capacity to gather and analyze information about local government interventions and then use this information judiciously to directly engage public officials, politicians, and service providers and demand that they serve the public interest justly, efficiently, and effectively. Organised groups, such as Social Audit Committees, have the ability to build networks and negotiate among competing stakeholder interests to address citizen priorities. When people are well-organised it is possible to make the necessary changes in their communities to ensure improvement in living conditions. Access to and effective use of adequate and essential information For any social accountability mechanism to be effective, there is the need to generate high quality, reliable and user friendly demand-side information to influence service delivery. Monitoring and evaluation of local governments' performance should be based on reliable evidences to make credible claims about whether the service provider is performing well or not. Significantly, citizen groups must have the capacity to access and assess the quality of information presented to them. The passage of the Right to Information Law in Ghana will ensure that citizens are able to get information to evaluate the performance of service providers. The media is a key mechanism for social accountability and plays an important role in the dissemination of information and education of the citizenry. It is expected to engage the citizens and the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to stimulate the demand for accountable governance. Sensitivity and Relevance to Culture and Context Social accountability thrives well within a context. To enable social accountability mechanism to function, it require and understanding of the culture and enthusiasm of the people to engage service providers. The framing, application, and mainstreaming of social accountability actions must be placed in the cultural context to prevent any form of conflict but rather build on support constructive engagement. A Responsive Local Government Making social accountability a mandatory function of local governments in Ghana is a critical action for sustaining accountability mechanisms. Local government must provide spaces, structures, and processes for a constructive civic engagement. Such engagements ensure trust and responsiveness among citizens and local authorities as well as service providers. Responsiveness is to create the sense of ownership, belongingness and public trust. Using participatory planning and social audit for instance, enhance accountability. The state can create an enabling environment for citizens for participation and holding the local government accountable. Conclusion Social accountability mechanisms, which have great potential for improving service delivery by public authorities, are yet to be institutionalised in Ghana's local government sector. Areas that social accountability has been experimented have yielded some significant results. Social Accountability tools such has participatory planning, social audit and citizen report cards have promoted social accountability mechanisms. However, social accountability mechanisms have been done in a small scale and in a piecemeal. There is the need to make such mechanisms, customised for local contexts and mandatory in all districts in Ghana. This will require a policy change. Besides creating an enabling legal environment, incentive mechanisms can also be set up to help adoption of social accountability tools for more effective local governance. The effective implementation of Decentralisation Action Plan will promote social accountability mechanisms in wide areas. 6

8 References and Selected Bibliography Ahwoi, K. (2010): Local Government and Decentralization in Ghana. Accra, Unimax Macmillan Department for International Development (DFID) (2008): Accountability Briefing Note. A DFID Practice Paper Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development (2010): Decentralisation ActionPlan Assembly Press Malena, C., Forster, R. and Singh, J. (2004): Social Accountability: An Introduction to the Concept and Emerging Practice, Paper No. 76, Social Development Papers, Participation & Civic Engagement, World Bank, Manila. Published by Social Accountability Platform for Local Governance Performance in Ghana Project Institute of Local Government Studies P. O. Box LG 549, Legon, Accra Tel: Fax: ilgs@ilgs-edu.org December, 2013