The corruption that often captures newspaper headlines and provokes worldwide public disapproval is dominated by loud “big-time corruption,” notably administrative and political corruption at the highest government levels.

Forum Syd is seeking the services of a qualified consultant to carry out a baseline study for the Social Accountability Program in Tanzania.

The CRC methodology is based on the premise that feedback on service quality, collected from communities with the help of a sample survey, provides a reliable basis for communities and local governments to engage in a dialogue and partnership action to improve the delivery of public services.

This briefing paper makes the case for the introduction of a Citizens Budget for Namibia. Such an easy-to-read, simple overview of the budget highlights would allow a larger share of Namibians to understand the National Budget and make their voices heard when it comes to formulating its priorities.

Fifty five representatives of Civil Society Organisations attended a national consultative meeting in Dar es Salaam from the 18^th to 19^th of January, 2010 to discuss the MKUKUTA review studies results that will be used to inform on the next drafting of MKUKUTA II.

The paper examines the effectiveness of social audit as a tool to enhance accountability by measuring the impact of social audit on the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the flagship employment guarantee program of the Government of India, in the state of Andhra Pradesh,…

The USAID/Indonesia Local Governance Support Program (LGSP)1 led by RTI International supported “expanding participatory, effective and accountable governance” through an integrated set of assistance activities engaged with local governments (LGs), legislative councils, and civil society organizations…

These preliminary submissions are presented by Idasa in response to the invitation by NERSA to comment on Eskom's application for a multi-year determination regarding the amounts it charges for electricity (referred to as the "MYPD 2" or the "tariff application"). Idasa acts as secretariat to the…

This desk study examines the support to Local Government Capital Development Grants (LGCDG) System in Tanzania as a case study of Sector Budget Support.

This Guide is intended to respond to an increasing demand from UNDP Country Offices and a wide range of national stakeholders for guidance on the multiplicity of tools and methods that are being used to measure, assess and monitor governance at the local level. The Guide uses the term ‘local governance’…

Local government in South Africa has contributed to the achievement of a number of significant social and economic development advances, since the ushering in of the new democratic municipal dispensation in December 2000. The majority of our people have increased access to a wide range of basic services…

Our water, our waste, our town is a guidance and training manual for civil society organisations showing methods and tactics that can be used in taking action to reform urban water and sanitation utitilies.

Government must be more effective in its actions. It must improve the quality of its services. Since 1994 we have successfully expanded access to services. The quality of services has however often been below standard. Massive increases in expenditure on services have not always brought the results…

Growth and development require a long term perspective to frame shorter term trade-offs. A long term plan helps focus government and society to deal with the inevitable short term turbulences in a nation’s progress.

To meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for water supply and sanitation, project planners and service providers and the poor themselves in developing countries will have to overcome a number of barriers that impede the improvement of services for the poor. These Guidance Notes identify a number…

This paper analyzes the key aspects of the budget process, the conditions and players necessary for its execution, and the different management models that have evolved. It gives an overview of the debates regarding the budget process and budgeting approaches, with special focus on two alternative…

The Protection of Basic Services (PBS) – Ethiopian Social Accountability Project (ESAP) was designed to engage citizens and CSOs in pilot activities to enhance budget literacy and downward accountability in the context of decentralized service delivery.

Employing a view of culture as a communicative phenomenon involving discursive engagement, which is deeply influenced by social and economic inequalities, the authors argue that the struggle to break free of poverty is as much a cultural process as it is political and economic.

Nigeria’s Conditional Grants Scheme (CGS) emerged out of (i) the backdrop of an inefficient and top-down public service in which citizens had for long periods lost confidence, (ii) the recognition of the central role of the country’s federal structure to public service delivery, and (iii) the opportunity…

A Iniciativa Colaborativa para a Reforma Orçamental em África (CABRI) trata-se de uma rede pan-africana de técnicos superiores do orçamento afectos aos ministérios das finanças e/ ou do planeamento, criada como plataforma para os seus membros partilharem experiências em matéria de programas de reforma…

The Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI) is a pan-African network of senior budget officials in ministries of finance and/or planning, created as a platform for its members to share experiences on budget reform programmes and to contribute towards the efficacy of public finance management…

Dhaka city is the home of more than five million and is one of the most densely populated cities of the world. Dhaka City Corporation is responsible for providing various services to its citizen with its limited resources. ‘Citizen Report Card' is one of the new methods to measure the performance…

The Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA) is happy to announce and welcome old and new members to the ninth edition of ALGAF which runs from February to November 2009. This edition is divided into four modules on: (a) Corruption; (b) Crime Violence and Security;…

This Citizen Report Card (CRC) has been researched and published by the National Taxpayers Association (NTA) to sensitize citizens, elected officials, and civil society rganisations on the management of devolved funds, and the provision of district services.

In 2006, a range of locally based stakeholders in Nairobi launched a Citizen Report Card (CRC) to obtain citizen's experiences on water supply, sanitation and solid waste services.

This brief compares Tanzanian citizens' perceptions of service delivery by local government authorities between 2003 and 2006; summarising their perceptions of the overall quality of local services, as well as their satisfaction with services in the three key sectors of education, health and water.

Participatory water monitoring has an especially important role to play in reducing or avoiding water-related conflict in large-scale, intensive development projects. Conflict tends to arise in situations where expectations are not being met, information is not available, stakeholder engagement is…

This handbook is designed to assist community groups and individuals to understand the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) process and to provide information and skills on how to monitor these funds through a process known as social auditing.

This empirical study looks at coordination and cooperation within five district councils in Tanzania with a special focus on efforts to reduce maternal mortality.

1. Ensuring Good Governance
   
   • Elements of Good Governance Programme
   • Partnerships
   • Legal Reforms
   • Decentralization Framework

• The aim of this paper is to explore by means of selected case-studies how official statistics have been used by civil society organizations to hold public agencies accountable for service delivery or for the effective use of public resources. It…

1. Budget experts everywhere complain that citizens’ seemingly unending appetite for more public services and benefits is not matched by a corresponding willingness to pay for them. The public does not seem to understand the need for short-term fiscal tradeoffs, let alone grasp the potentially…

In 2006, a range of locally based stakeholders in Nairobi launched a Citizen Report Card (CRC) to obtain citizen's experiences on water supply, sanitation and solid waste services. The CRC tool is used to provide feedback to public service agencies on the strengths and weaknesses of their work. CRC's…

This symposium was an important staging point in reviewing the role of Africa local governments in delivering the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The symposium's overall objective was to help strengthen local governance in Africa to enable local authorities to deliver more effective and accountable…