Experience with the Governance

and Transparency Fund

Presentation at the Colombo EBPDN Annual Meeting by Fletcher Tembo, ODI, Research and Policy in Development, November 2007

Good governance: what is it? DFID White Paper 2006• Good governance and development are

about people and governments of developing countries working out a deal for themselves…

• People want to be governed well and have a say on what happens in their lives. They want to be safe … to be treated fairly by their government and public officials.

• It is essential to combating poverty• It is more than just government but also

political parties, parliament, judiciary, the media, civil society … it is about relationships

Governance and Transparency Fund: what it is, why, for whom?

To achieve lasting improvements in living conditions for large numbers of people, the capacity and accountability of public institutions needs to be strengthened. That’s why DFID already does so much to help developing countries build their capacity in areas like public financial management, police and civil service reform, and health and education. We will continue with this work and build on it. But we will also do much more at the grassroots end of political governance, working with organisations that train citizens’ groups in budget monitoring to make sure that money is spent where it’s supposed to be; increasing our support to a free press and media in developing countries; and offering much more support in areas like elections, human rights, parliament and trade unions” Hilary Benn

In order to ensure that DFID delivered on this statement, the White Paper committed DFID to:

• Set up a new £100m Governance and Transparency Fund to strengthen civil society and the media to help citizens hold their government to account.”

http://www.dfid.gov.uk/funding/gtf-terms-of-reference.pdf

GTF assessment and selection

• Independent Fund manager, KPMG assisted by Harewell, Tripline, Delta & a large # of standalone consultants responsible for assessing submissions

• About 450 concept notes submitted by 29th June 2007, 295 of them accepted for proposal stage, by 28th September 07

• Final decisions expected Dec 07/Jan 08

GTF proposal preparation process• Six countries (Malawi, Zambia, Swaziland,

Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone) selected from a pool of 13 countries first suggested

• Partnership with CIVICUS, IPS and country partners including EBPDN partners e.g. MEJN, CSPP

• Due to resource constraints, only Malawi selected for a more detailed consultation, using a multi-stakeholder workshop (about 25 participants from media, civil society and parliament)

Country Selection Criteria

• ‘Post-conflict’/ weak vs strong performer in governance, using World Governance Indicators

• Political and Civil Freedoms (including freedom of information)

• Captured parliament vs vibrant parliament

• Human rights abuses vs progressive human rights record

Civil Society Organisations

Parliament + elected reps at local govt

Media

Project/ Programme 1

Project/ Programme 2

Learning around use of Evidence Communication, Networking/ links

About Civil SocietyEffective governance

Civil Society role

State capability Sectoral expertise/ grassroots realities, delivering services

Accountability Standard setting, investigation, demand for answers, sanctions

Responsiveness Social inclusion, representation

About the MediaEffective governance

Media roles

State capability Awareness raising

Accountability Demanding answers from the state, sanctions via public

Responsiveness Social inclusion

About ParliamentEffective Governance

Parliamentary roles

State capability Legislation

Accountability Oversight

Responsiveness Representation

Proposal focus: relationships among the 3 in

learning from use of evidence Effective Governance Roles drawn from the

3 actors working together

State capability ?

Accountability ?

Responsiveness ?

Thank you!