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ANSA-Africa's first annual stakeholder workshop
30 March 2007
ANSA-Africa's first annual stakeholder workshop, held in Pretoria during mid-December last year, was attended by 60 delegates from some 15 African countries. They debated, in an often lively fashion, perspectives on social accountability issues. Delegates came from Togo, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Liberia and Lesotho.
The workshop had various objectives. The most important was to introduce the concept of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA). But it also provided an opportunity for the participants to shape ANSA-Africa’s future activities. Delegates returned home very supportive of the role that ANSA-Africa could play in stimulating social accountability initiatives in Africa.
They also returned having discussed different techniques for social accountability. They include beneficiary assessments, community score cards, participatory budgeting, public expenditure tracking, independent budget analysis and participatory planning.
The workshop discussions have informed a draft strategic plan, compiled by the ANSA secretariat, to guide activities over the next three years. The draft will be discussed at a forthcoming executive committee meeting.
Highlights from the presentations
Dr Ritva Reinikka, World Bank country director for Southern Africa, presented the keynote address based on her experiences of expenditure tracking surveys and citizen report cards in the education sector in Uganda. She noted the following:
"In a business transactions there is a clear ‘short route’ to accountability. Clients who are unhappy can complain or take their business elsewhere. But for good reasons many public services are provided through public intervention, not through the market. Here institutions become relationships of accountability between citizens (clients), the state (politicians) and service providers.
"The citizens’ voice, exercised through elections and other mechanisms, and the compact between the state and service providers make up the ‘long route’ to accountability. But even here there can be a short route if we focus on the direct impact that clients – beneficiaries of services – can have on providers.
"All relationships of accountability involve delegation, finance, performance and incentives to providers. Ensuring performance requires information and enforcement based on the information. Without this there is no incentive to perform. Our role lies in providing the information to enable citizens to play the enforcement role. The information is not easy to obtain and we need to look at the tools that we can use.
"In Uganda we have evaluated the impact of citizen report cards on the performance of health centres using a rigorous study to ensure credible results. After only one year we see a significant improvement in health indicators and use of health facilities. Service improved significantly and health care workers were trying harder to serve the community. So putting public service users at the centre can have a big impact and this needs to be more widely publicized.”
Mary McNeil and Carolyn Winter, from the WB’s Washington office, spoke of their expectations of ANSA-Africa. They noted the following with respect to the objectives of the network:
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To develop cross-country collaboration on social accountability and demand-side initiatives;
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To provide technical assistance to and across different African countries to enhance the quality of social accountability initiatives. They noted that CSOs oten lack the technical competence to conduct rigorous surveys and document the results in an objective manner for policy discussions with politicians. They also noted that the technical assistance which the HSRC could provide would be crucial to achieving ANSA’s goals.
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To provide financial support for the undertaking of social accountability initiatives;
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To deliver training programmes on rigorous social accountability tools and techniques, often in collaboration with the World Bank Institute; and
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To share country experiences and lessons from social accountability and demand-side governance initiatives regionally and globally. ANSA can be a conduit for cross-regional sharing of experiences.
Colm Allan, Director of the Public Service Accountability Monitor at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, took issue with what he said was the WB’s definition of accountability. He recommended that social accountability:
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adopt a rights based approach that includes a distinct right to social accountability;
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balance support for supply and demand aspects of social accountability by supporting multiple approaches across the demand side of accountability irrespective of whether one considered these approaches too adversarial – "critical engagement is essential”; and,
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that meso level approaches to social accountability in developing countries be supported.
Steven Gruzd, a researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs at the University of the Witwatersrand, spoke on the synergies between the African Peer Review Mechanism and ANSA-Africa. He noted that the network could help to share documentation on the APRM and to facilitate networking around APRM processes.
"Accountability needs sustained campaigning to make a difference and generate interest. Advocacy is important but NGOs also need training in management, strategising and techniques for building their own domestic legitimacy. Media engagement is really critical. Millions get wasted on media strategies but if well planned they can have an enormous effect,” he said.
Ozias Tungwarara, director of AFRIMAP, also raised the information dissemination role that ANSA-Africa could play. And he noted:
"On the ground we find that our leaders sign grand sounding declarations at AU summits but often there is little commitment to translate this into a process that improves the quality of people’s lives. Monitoring compliance can begin to facilitate useful and constructive dialogue between government and civil society.”
After these plenary presentations, delegates work shopped a series of critical issues. These have subsequently informed the draft strategic plan.
Workshop facilitator Scott Drimie noted the following in his closing comments:
"It seems that we are talking about a facility and a network that shares and disseminates good practice around social accountability and that includes three major functions; a capacity building function, support for other networks and a
grant making function. These are all technical issues but we are all aware that this is about a transformative agenda, it is about the big development questions in Africa.
"That raises the accountability of the network itself, its accountability to continue reflecting its principles and how it makes its strategic choices. This is just so that we do not lose sight of the fact that this is not only a technical network but that it also includes governance issues and that its strategic plans should reflect that.”
ANSA-Africa intends to hold an annual stakeholder consultation each year.
The full report can be accessed below.
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