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ANSA-Africa Full Circle Newsletter: August 2007
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One of ANSA-Africa's goals is to help eliminate physical hunger… and to create hunger of an entirely different kind. The hunger we want to awaken is the hunger for stronger accountability in local government. It is a hunger that stems from Africa's long history of governments - colonial and post-colonial - that have either ignored the real needs of many communities, or have been unaware of how to meet those needs in practical, sustainable ways.
A team from ANSA-Africa had the privilege of seeing that hunger for social accountability grow sharper in Ethiopia last month. The German government funding agency GTZ and the Centre for Development Communication hosted the Ethiopia Social Accountability Knowledge Event in Addis Ababa, with funding from the World Bank, on July 17 and 18.
Presentations and panel discussions introduced topics like citizens' report card surveys, participatory budgeting and community scorecards. Government representatives from South Africa and Uganda joined speakers from Uganda, Senegal and South Africa in giving a broad overview of the positive effects social accountability is bringing to developing countries. Breakaway sessions provided further insights into how to implement the various techniques.
You can benefit from the Ethiopia event: papers from the conference will shortly be available on the homepage of ansa-africa.net. Have a look at them and let us know what you think, or share with us your own insights into social accountability in Africa, by emailing .
In the month just past…
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Our website continues to grow in popularity. The average user now spends almost 13 minutes browsing the site - up from four minutes a few months back. The site now contains 189 research reports, 427 news items (with up to eight news articles uploaded each day) and 42 features. Statistics also show a pleasing return rate (40%) by users after their first visit.
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The home page feature has been updated. It now contains ten declarations from African and international conferences. The latest addition is the communique from the African Ministers of Finance meeting in Maputo.
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Some recent additions to the website include articles like:
This month…
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ANSA-Africa is putting the finishing touches to its first report to the World Bank, including unaudited statements to the end of June and a narrative report on activities so far. This report will be available on the website shortly.
In the month ahead…
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ANSA-Africa will be sending a representative to the (Pan African Media Research Organisation (PAMRO) conference in Malawi in mid August 2007. A paper will be presented on ANSA and it social accountability initiatives.
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Africa's Social Accountability Profile (ASAP) - the ANSA-Africa scoping study - will have completed the desk-based phase of its research on Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Senegal, Togo and Egypt and will soon be sending questionnaires to partners and social accountability practitioners in these countries. Your input will aid this process, so please send us information on what social accountability initiatives are in place in your country - even if it not part of this pilot phase of the scoping study - and who you are working with. Regular updates on strategy and projects will be posted on the website.
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We expect the ANSA-Africa network to grow and strengthen as people like you take the time to share from your own experiences in social accountability - both good and bad. Please let us know what your concerns are for your own community, what social accountability initiatives you have undertaken, and what new initiatives you would like to introduce. Again, you can email us at: .
Yours for the growth of social accountability,
The ANSA-Africa Team
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