promoting basic services ethiopia social...
TRANSCRIPT
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Promoting Basic Services
Ethiopia
Social Accountability Program
Grant Agreement [TF099878]
Regional Learning Benchmarks
workshops
and Executive Directors’ Day
(serves as MTR SAIPs)
August 2014
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Contents
Acronyms 3
1. Results of the Learning Benchmark workshops ................................... 4
2. Introduction ........................................................................................ 5
3. FTA-SA linkage update ......................................................................... 7
4. Workshop theme: the right people on board ........................................ 9
4.1 Disempowerment ............................................................................................... 9
4.2 New notions of power ...................................................................................... 10
4.3 Empowerment matrix ...................................................................................... 10
5. Social Accountability tools ................................................................. 13
5.1 Community Score Card .................................................................................... 13
5.2 Citizen Report Card ......................................................................................... 14
5.3 Participatory Planning and Budgeting ............................................................ 14
5.4 Gender Responsive Budget tool ....................................................................... 16
5.4.1 Gender Analysis Exercise ........................................................................ 17
5.4.2 How to integrate GRB with the other SA tools? ..................................... 18
5.4.3 Future support for GRB from the MA.....................................................20
6. Interface meetings ............................................................................. 21
6.1 Preparation of the interface meeting ............................................................... 21
6.2 Facilitation of the interface meeting ................................................................ 23
7. Monitoring – Joint Action Plan .......................................................... 25
7.1 How to prepare for the JAP? ........................................................................... 25
7.2 What is the content of the JAP? ....................................................................... 26
7.3 How to disseminate the Joint Action Plan? ..................................................... 26
7.4 How to mobilize citizens during JAP implementation? .................................. 28
7.5 How is monitoring of the JAP implementation organized? ............................ 28
7.6 Role of SAIPs during JAP implementation .....................................................30
7.7 Role of SAC during JAP implementation ........................................................30
7.8 How can SA tools be used for monitoring? .....................................................30
7.9 Is the JAP being implemented? ....................................................................... 31
8. Concrete results and dissemination of SA .......................................... 33
8.1 Factors that have influenced behavior change ................................................ 33
8.2 Most significant change stories ....................................................................... 36
8.3 Engaging the media with interesting stories ................................................... 37
8.3.1 Preparation – document your work: ....................................................... 37
8.3.2 How to get the media to come? .............................................................. 38
8.3.3 Good to know .......................................................................................... 38
9. Sustainability ..................................................................................... 40
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10. Grants and Financial management .................................................... 44
11. SAIPs learning and exchange ............................................................. 46
12. Learning groups and areas of improvement ....................................... 47
12.1 SAC members ................................................................................................... 47
12.2 Summary of improvement actions by SAIPs ................................................... 48
12.3 BoFEDs ............................................................................................................ 49
13. Executive Directors Day ..................................................................... 50
13.1 Oscar competition – Participatory Video ........................................................ 50
13.2 Participatory Video for monitoring and evaluation ......................................... 51
13.3 Learning Benchmark results ............................................................................ 52
13.4 SA institutionalisation – what’s next ............................................................... 53
Annexes
Annex 1: Participants in the learning benchmark meetings ............................................ 55
Annex 2: Draft Action Plan FTA-SA linkage .................................................................... 57
Annex 3: Different notions of power ................................................................................ 61
Annex 4: ESAP2 Most Significant Change - story format ................................................ 62
Sample Most Significant change stories – Dire Dawa Cluster ........................ 64
Annex 5: Observations on overall grants and financial management performance of SAIPs ................................................................................................................ 66
Annex 6: Presentation Exchange Visit ............................................................................. 67
Annex 7: SA Project Mid-Term Self-Assessment format .................................................68
Annex 8: Summary Mid-Term Self-Assessment results of 34 SAIPs ............................... 70
Annex 9: M&E - Behavior change and service improvements captured by Participatory Video ................................................................................................................ 76
Boxes in this report Page
Box 1: Gender analysis example 17
Box 2: Good practice - Empowering interface meeting preparations 21
Box 3: Example of participants at the interface meeting 23
Box 4: Good practice – action in case of delay in JAP implementation 29
Box 5: Results cases – education sector 30
Box 6: Results cases - no longer waiting for government to fix problems 35
Box 7: Most Significant Change - Education sector in Afdem woreda 37
Box 8: Good practices – creative resource mobilization 41
Box 9: Good practice - Sustainable links with the council 42
Box 10: SAC Gudamale Kebele, Awassa town – established in 2002 (ET) 43
Box 11: Participatory Video explained by the Oscar winner – RtG 44
Box 12: Good practice: Regional Council Tigray 53
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Acronyms
BoFED Bureau of Finance and Economic Development
CSC Community Score Card
ED Executive Directors (of SAIPs)
EDD Executive Directors Day
ESAP2 Ethiopia Social Accountability Program 2 (PBS)
FTA Financial Transparency and Accountability (PBS)
GTP Growth and Transformation Plan
IGA Income Generating Activity
JAP Joint Action Plan
MA Management Agency (of ESAP2)
MDG Millennium Development Goals
MoFED Ministry of Finance and Economic Development
MSC Most Significant Change
MTSA Mid Term Self-Assessment
PBS Promoting Basic Services
PMF Public Finance Management (a committee at woreda level)
PV Participatory Video
SA Social Accountability
SAC Social Accountability Committee
SAIP Social Accountability Implementing Partner
SHG Self Help Group
Demonstration of the Most Significant Change interview, with Blen Fitsum from the MA
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1. Results of the Learning Benchmark workshops
The learning benchmark workshops, organised with SAIPs, SAC members, BoFED/MoFED representatives, and development partners (681 people), achieved the following results.
SAIPs reviewed their empowerment strategy, and learned that it is important to understand local stakeholder dynamics. They gained new insights in how to strengthen or develop empowering relationships among various SA stakeholders, so that citizens can become and stay more influential in service improvement processes.
The 19 new SAIPs gained lots of practical suggestions for SA tool implementation – “the right workshop at the right time”.
All SAIPs practiced with the application of the updated Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) tool to mainstream gender in other SA tools, also during the final monitoring phase. Participants, including SAC members, learned that gender analysis of the budget is key, and that the MA can help with gender expertise. The most important lesson was that gender analysis is more than women’s participation. It means dialogue on the different perspectives of men and women to come to fair priorities. All SAIPs have identified actions to mainstream the GRB tool, and this will be followed-up by the MA.
Experience sharing about Interface Meetings (IM), with key lessons learned on:
o How to prepare the IM – jointly consolidate scores; prepare speakers from vulnerable groups; prepare service providers to handle critique
o Who to invite – widen the audience to stakeholders outside the woreda, region, investors, NGOs etc.
o Who facilitates – pros and cons of local, SAIP, and consultant options: avoid conflict of interest, maintain neutrality and identify skilled facilitators.
The reflections on the Joint Action Plan (JAP) implementation revealed the following good practices:
o Plan content – keep it simple, but detailed to know what will be achieved, what needs to be done, by whom, how, where, by when, and with which resources
o Distribution – a copy to all who attended the interface meeting (add minutes); sector responsible for implementation signs; council signs and monitors
o Dissemination – posting in public places and facilities; radio/media; community meetings; CBOs/ traditional structures
Role of SAC / monitoring committee – monitor implementation, hold responsible people accountable, use SA tools to check satisfaction levels among vulnerable groups, men and women. Role of SAIPs – monitor JAP, support SAC; work towards sustainability
Participants scored their approaches to sustainability, and shared good practices. Most SAIPs still need to support stakeholders in developing a plan on how to continue with Social Accountability after project end. The MA will follow-up with action-research on regional sustainability strategies.
There was very specific sharing and learning about behavior change in citizens and service providers and the factors that have contributed to such changes.
Participants practiced with an additional reporting tool – the Most Significant Change format, and this generated a number of very interesting results case studies. The format will hence be used in addition to the quarterly report format, and SAIPs committed to producing at least two stories per quarter.
SAIPs identified bottlenecks in their grants management, especially the burn rate, and discussed activities to wisely spend remaining project resources for sustainable project results. The MA will follow-up and support budget modification where needed.
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2. Introduction
The Ethiopia Social Accountability Program Phase 2 (ESAP2) organised learning benchmark workshops to facilitate learning between Social Accountability Implementing Partners (SAIPs) on Social Accountability (SA). In the learning benchmark workshops, achievements of 49 SAIPs are compared cluster-wise (a cluster containing 4 to 5 SAIPs) so that participants get insight into their comparative strengths and weaknesses and can learn from the practices of others. In this way, the learning benchmark meetings also served as a Mid-Term Self-Assessment (MTSA) for SAIPs. All project staff, except finance officers, of the 49 SAIPs and sub-partners were invited. Each SAIP brought two members from the Social Accountability Committee (SAC) along, one citizen and one service provider.
Key benchmarks were:
Citizen mobilization during SA tool application
Interface meetings
JAP implementation
Satisfaction levels of SAIPs with behaviour change of citizens, and service
providers/local government
Other important areas of learning were:
Financial Transparency and Accountability (FTA) - SA linkage
“Working with the right people” – empowerment strategies for vulnerable and social
groups
GRB Tool
Most Significant Change stories
Engaging the Media for broad dissemination of SA concepts, practice and results
Project sustainability
Grants management – budget utilisation
After the learning benchmarks, SAIPs are expected to finalise the MTSA form and submit this to the MA.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED), and all eleven (11) regional Bureaus of Finance and Economic Development (BoFED) also participated in the learning benchmarks. Each regional workshop was officially opened by the respective BoFED.
MoFED and BoFEDs are implementing the FTA program in all woredas of the country. Both FTA and ESAP2 are part of the Citizens’ Engagement component of the Promoting Basic Services (PBS) program of the Government of Ethiopia. FTA works on the supply side of service delivery to make information about service standards, budgets and plans accessible to citizens. ESAP2 works on the users / demand side of service delivery to enable citizens to assess service delivery performance, budget execution, and plan implementation. The FTA and ESAP2 programs are developing stronger linkages, based on mutual consultations during the previous learning benchmark workshops in February 2014, and subsequent discussions in the FTA-SA working group.
Immediately following the learning benchmark workshops, the second Executive Directors’ Day (EDD) was organised in Addis Abeba, on 29 August 2014. The morning was mostly dedicated to honour the Participatory Video (PV) makers, present the PV Oscar Award to the winners of the competition. The Executive Directors (ED) subsequently
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discussed about using PV in the monitoring and evaluation system of their organisations. This suggestion was welcomed by the EDs, as PV solves a common weakness with documentation, and can also serve to promote the organisations online with donors.
In the afternoon, the EDs were briefed about important lessons from the learning benchmark workshops, which was a good opportunity for learning and sharing. The MA also presented key findings from the Social Network Analysis (report available on the ESAP2 website), which clearly indicated a strong SA network that is however heavily dependent on the MA. SAIPs elected 5 representatives to explore a firmer future role of SAIPs in the SA network beyond ESAP2.
Finally, representatives from the World Bank, ESAP2 donors and other civil society programs in the country, as well as representatives from sector Ministries, also participated in the learning benchmarks. See annex 1 for an overview of participating organisations and numbers of participants (total 681).
With this report, useful practices and insights gained in the learning benchmark workshops have been be documented and will be widely disseminated to inspire ESAP2 project improvements, and to support further dissemination of the practice of Social Accountability (SA).
Workshop opening by BOFEDs
All workshops were officially opened by a representative of the regional BoFED. In his opening remarks in Adama, Ato Ibrahim Ahmed, Harari BoFED, mentioned the importance of SA in engaging citizens for development and further said that an agreement has been reached between regional governments to link SA and FTA to work in collaboration. Stating that the workshop was a suitable platform for SAIPs and other stakeholders to exchange experiences, Ato Ibrahim told stakeholders, “this is an event where you can also evaluate your current performance and adjust your plans accordingly”.
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3. FTA-SA linkage update
In the February 2014 Learning Benchmark workshops, the consultation on linkages among SA-FTA under the PBS component of Citizens Engagement took centre stage. This time, MoFED provided a progress update from the SA-FTA working group:
Based on the inputs from the learning benchmarks in February 2014, the SA-FTA linkage
study was finalized;
The study report was submitted to the PBS ESAP2 Steering Committee and endorsed;
A generic work plan was drafted; and,
The study findings are being disseminated to the key stakeholders: BoFEDs and SAIPs.
Table 1: Agreed areas of SA-FTA linkage
Areas of Linkage Examples
1 Capacity Building MA and SAIPs invite FTA/PFM teams to the SA trainings, workshops and meetings;
The FTA team invites MA and SAIPs to the FTA trainings, workshops and meetings.
2 Participatory planning and citizens-state constructive collaboration
PFM/FTA teams participate in interface meetings facilitated by SAIPs;
SAC members actively participate in the pre/post budget discussion forum facilitated by FTA team;
Involve FTA in SAC and vice versa, i.e. involve SAC in PFM committee.
3 Joint Monitoring Conduct joint field visits and review meetings to closely follow-up and monitor implementation of activities in common;
Monitor the implementation of service improvement plans
4 Documentation and Information Dissemination
Share necessary information, documentation of good practices and lessons learnt
FTA to support SA with media disclosure
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Linkage in action: regional initiatives
SAIPs and FTA have already started the collaboration, including regional level initiatives:
SNNP- regional BoFED coordinated a consultation meeting with 11 SAIPs - a
committee formed (3 SAIP represenatives and 2 from BoFED to facilitate the
linkage);
Addis Ababa –the regional BoFED trained more than 28 SAC members on budget
literacy and closely working at woreda level;
Amhara - BoFED staff regularly travel to the ESAP2 woredas and undertake joint
monitoring visits and engaged in facilitation of interface meetings;
Dire Dawa- PPB training jointly facilitated and provided by BoFED and SAIP staff
B/Gumuz- the MA assisted a two days training on facilitation skills training for more
than 40 Woreda PFM members and regional BoFED staff.
Next steps
Disseminate the approved study report to BoFEDs, SAIPs and other stakeholders
Prepare linkage implementation guidelines and ToR
Establish regional Linkage Coordination Committee - (SAIPs and BoFED)
Establish a functional link between SAIPs, PFM and SACs in the ESAP2 woredas
Develop guidelines for FTA Pre/Post Budget Discussion Forums – SAIPs will be
involved in the consultation
Piloting the linkage in 190 woredas
The draft FTA-SA linkage Action Plan can be found in annex 2.
Picture: Ato Belay Asrat, MoFED, presents the FTA-SA linkage update at the Sheshamene workshop
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4. Workshop theme: the right people on board
In February, our workshop theme was “citizens in the drivers’ seat”. We learned a lot about why and how to engage social and vulnerable groups in the SA process. This includes having a majority of citizens in the SAC, because SA is about citizens holding the Government accountable. We also learned about the importance of working with the woreda council, because it has an important role to play in checking citizen satisfaction with government services. This time, we asked the question: does your SA project have the right people on board?
4.1 Disempowerment By means of introduction, participants were asked to close their eyes and think about a time in their life when they felt powerless, frustrated, when things were not working out for them. They shared this experience with a neighbour and discussed reasons for feeling helpless. From all clusters, these reasons can be summarised as follows1:
Table 2: Multiple reasons for disempowerment
Capabilities Examples from group work
Life Losing a loved one
Health
Bodily integrity. Relates to safety, freedom from assault and reproductive choices.
Senses, imagination and thought. Relates to literacy, education and having sufficient freedom of expression to create.
No clear understanding, no information No education Not able to speak the language Wrong perception Not able to share, others not listening No commitment, no perseverance, can only see a dark future, negative attitude, no self-reliance
Emotions. Emotional development is healthy and not short-circuited by excessive fear.
Fear, being afraid
Practical reason.
No skills Poverty, no resources, no money, bankruptcy No infrastructure like bridge and road Action at the wrong time
Affiliation. Relates to social interaction.
No love from others, so lack of confidence No social network – loneliness, no family, no community support Negative behavior of others, lack of tolerance No action from others
Play. Freedom to enjoy recreational activities.
Control over one’s political and material environment.
No opportunities, no responsive institution, no transparency No control, no way to influence No authority to decide Injustice, discrimination, corruption
1 The reasons are organised using a capabilities framework developed by Martha Nussbaum, in her book - Women and Human Development: A Capabilities Approach, 2000.
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We realised that vulnerable groups suffer from a similar mix of reasons when they feel excluded from social and political life.
“The session on feeling powerlessness triggers us to think over the causes and gave us insight on how it will more affect vulnerable groups of people who are mostly affected by multiple causes. The power matrix gave us a clear direction with whom we have to work and whom we have to empower”
Citizen representative, SAC member
4.2 New notions of power We then looked at new notions of power – where citizens become influential through SA. A dominant view of power is the notion of “power over”, where one person or group of people dominates or controls another. This is often viewed in negative terms, and with power as a limited resource. But there are other views that see power as a force for change, as positive, and not necessarily limited to a “zero-sum” game.
Power within – confidence building among vulnerable groups
Power with – FGDs; relationship building for vulnerable groups with influential persons
who prioritize social issues
Power over – SA contributes to building oversight capacity of woreda councils over
administration/service delivery
Then again, power also has different aspects:
Visible power – awareness creating about entitlements and responsibilities: building the
SA evidence base
Hidden power – overcoming gender blind budgets: bringing women into dialogue with
men
Invisible power – creating mindset: “citizens holding government accountable gives
better services”
We looked at power cartoons to see if participants could recognise these forms of power (for more cartoons see annex 2: Different notions of power).
4.3 Empowerment matrix We engaged in an exercise: “empowerment matrix”, to analyze if the relationship we are promoting among stakeholders are empowering for social and vulnerable groups. In other words, what is our empowerment strategy? Each group identified all SA stakeholders in one of the project woredas, and wrote each one on a card.
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We then asked: How important is sector improvement for this stakeholder? How influential is this stakeholder to make service improvements happen? Accordingly stakeholders were placed in the empowerment matrix.
Illustration 1: empowerment matrix
Project teams then discussed: do we want to make any changes in our strategy so that citizens can have a sustained impact on service improvements? The following insights were gained from working with the empowerment matrix:
There is a need for more awareness creation about roles, mandates, responsibilities and
working policies among all stakeholders, so that the enabling environment for citizen
participation can be improved.
The high officials from the City Administration, council and other important and
influential sectors and CBOs need to be brought on board. They need further awareness
on SA concepts and results, so that they can more fully support and enable it.
We need to work more with Iddir2 (SNNPR)/ development army (Amhara region),
because they have links with different social groups, and they have influential leaders.
Organize the community based on their respective categories. For instance ongoing
sensitization for youth can create a sense of community, so that their involvement in
decision making can be improved.
Engaging the CBOs, women and others who are high on importance but low on influence,
so that they can be strong together to make their voice heard; and experience sharing for
these groups between woredas.
2 Iddirs are indigenous voluntary associations established primarily to provide mutual aid in burial matters but also to address other community concerns.
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Empower vulnerable groups by linking them with those who have high interest and high
influence, so that they can make the voice of vulnerable groups heard in decision making.
Motivate influential people that achieve good service improvement results by giving
acknowledgement and celebrating their efforts.
Build the capacity of CBOs and CSOs to influence the service providers more, and of
women’s affairs to play a more influential role in the council on gender issues.
Improve relationships between citizens/CBOs and front line service providers, so that
they can be influential together.
Make an exhaustive identification of influential stakeholders and inquire about their
interest and motivation to support vulnerable groups in their quest for service
improvements. Plan an empowerment strategy based on this assessment. Follow an
independent strategy for each stakeholder.
Strengthen FTA-SA linkage, but be aware that sometimes the woreda finance office
cannot follow-up enough due to workload – so need to link with other stakeholders as
well.
In the health sector: help the Health Office to focus on service standards, and develop
strong supervision to the Health Center. Strengthen participation of citizens (CBOs and
CSOs) in the Health Board. Develop professional capacities of the Health Office Head to
be accountable to the Health Board, and to work constructively with it.
Work with Planning and Finance and other government sectors to more actively promote
service delivery in the water sector, because they are mandated to provide quality
services.
Report regularly to the Council, and strengthen their role, because they are supposed to
keep SA on the agenda of government basic service offices.
“We will be more specific about our empowerment strategy, and we want to use this tool to monitor it.”
Tarik Endale, PC, APAP
Picture: Empowerment matrix Hawassa workshop
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5. Social Accountability tools
5.1 Community Score Card Almost all organizations implementing CSC have taken similar steps. On average, it takes at least a month to complete all the steps in CSC, for instance HUNDEE took 3 days and others have mentioned up to 6 days per kebele before organizing the interface meetings and developing JAPs. Cluster - HIDA, CFAFI, PADeT, WSA and AAWA mentioned that a phased approach is necessary because communities, FGDs and Service Providers need time to internalize the essence of SA and the processes it entails. In practice, the basic steps are as follows:
Among other SAIPs of the second batch of 19 SAIPs, ADCS conducted all launching
workshops with the involvement of many actors, before starting the tool application
process.
Some SAIPs have found it helpful to start with the baseline survey and then do
sensitization based on the initial findings.
Information sharing and sensitization meeting – among others, MfM invited FTA for
sensitization and SA roll-out training. Communities were sensitized through coffee
ceremonies and stage dramas, poems and
music organized at Woreda Anti-AIDS clubs
before the implementation of CSC (cluster -
HIDA, CFAFI, PADeT, WSA and AAWA).
Discuss with the SAC when and how to
implement CSC.
FGD formation – Note that there is no strict
number of FGDs, or number of people per
FGD. It rather depends on the local situation:
discuss specific social and vulnerable groups
with the SAC, considering the sector. For
instance, in the education sector, AFSR involved institutions in 3 kebeles. The girls club
formed a girls group, and handicapped students were in one group, then Council
members, PTAs and Religious Leaders had a group. In all 40 persons per kebele, and 8
persons per FGD were mobilized, bringing the total number to 320 persons. AFSR also
mobilized service providers from 8 education centers in 4 FGDs of 10 persons each, so an
additional 40 persons. The FGDs were conducted during four days, in the afternoon in
order not to disrupt the learning teaching process, and they took 180 minutes each.
The majority of SAIPs organized a separate FGD for vulnerable groups, with 10-20
members on average, but MfM included vulnerable groups in all FGDs. In the case of
WAT vulnerable people do not sit in separate groups in some of the Woredas. This is due
to their very limited number ( eg. PLWHIV). However WAT indicated that they were
made to actively participate and air out their needs. KMG takes at least 50% of the
participants from women.
Organize a service center / facility visit by the community as part of problem
identification. The added advantage is that citizens begin to build the relationship with
service providers. For instance, Rohi Weddu – a UEWCA sub-partner, made a photo
document (power point presentation) of the visit to a town water facility and used it
Tip from the MA:
Don’t take the average when consolidating the FGD scores.
It is better for each FGD to share the reasons for priorities. Then give time for FGDs to reconsider their priorities, and facilitates consensus.
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during the interface meeting to illustrate the poor situation of the facility.
Priority setting - scoring the service issues identified in each FGD
Consolidation of various group scores can be challenging as they present different scores.
Some SAIPs mentioned that the average was taken of all group scores, but this is not
always the best way. One SAIP mentioned that the consolidation is done by the note-
taker and the chairperson, or by the FGD facilitators, but others discussed that it needs a
thorough process, although they were not specific on how to ensure that women and
vulnerable people issues will remain on the agenda for the interface meeting.
Consolidation tip from the MA: rather than taking the average when consolidating the scores, it is better for each FGD to share the reasons for prioritization. Having heard other groups, the facilitator gives time for FGDs to reconsider their priorities, and then facilitates consensus on priorities. (See box 1: gender analysis example, in 5.4.1, on how a male group changed their priorities after listening to the women group.)
For efficiency purposes, SAIPs find that the consolidation of the scores was best at kebele
level and this also presented interesting results. Consolidation at kebele level is
considered the best way to go about the setting of priorities at woreda level.
MfM and TYA consolidated the issues that were raised by the community by
incorporating gender, in the sense that participation and enabling gender sensitivity was
part of the consolidation process. In one other group it was mentioned that women were
drawn from each FGDs participant at woreda level consolidation.
5.2 Citizen Report Card MENA discussed the importance of making the service standards as a fundamental point of reference for the development of the CRC questionnaire. Other issues to consider are sample representativeness, like inclusion of people with disabilities, women, elderly and other neglected people in relation to the selected sector. Finally, it was recommended to engage citizens in as much as possible in the design of the CRC questionnaire.
NSAC organised problem identification in the agriculture sector with service users and providers, they contracted a consultant to design the questionnaire. The consultant used random sampling, and inclusion of different social and vulnerable groups. Then there were individual interviews. NSAC organised a validation workshop at kebele level with citizens and service providers.
AMUDAEAS first did a rapid assessment and identification of issues, and then conducted community conversations in the kebeles, including vulnerable groups and service providers (180 people in total). This produced issues to be included in the questionnaire.
5.3 Participatory Planning and Budgeting In one good practice, PPB included a sensitisation workshop in consultation with FTA. During this first sensitization meeting more than 100 people participated, including all sector heads. There was a brief on last years’ budget experience, and community needs were raised. An action plan was produced, and a committee formed to follow-up. In the second meeting, there was detailed information, because the committee had organised field visits. A draft budget was prepared and debated, and communities could ask questions.
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Last years’ budget performance was also discussed and the meeting came out with strong and weak points.
PC and BoFED groups discussed that PPB should be linked to the CSC and CRC process because the outcome of the CSC and CRC can be used as an input for the PPB, namely to refine priorities for planning and budgeting. Service standards and reform agenda issues in the JAP can be considered in the budget if the linkage is effectively done. Note that some issues in the JAP require budget while other issues can be solved with existing budget and local resources (e.g. PICDO - fixing water taps).
As an example of combining SA tools, REST is implementing 3 tools in three sectors, taking into consideration the multiple tasks and interests of the community at Tabia level (similar to kebele). The CSC and GRB tools are implemented in one process, and PPB is expected to be conducted after this.
How can the CSC be linked with PPB considering that CSC is sector focused while PPB sees all sector interventions? MLYAM prioritized issues using CSC and developed a JAP based on this. Some of the prioritized activities will be considered in PPB. LiA worked on all sectors when they reached the PPB stage. “We worked with the community to come up with a bottom up plan, and SAC and FGD representatives were involved. The demand of the community was compiled and submitted to WoFED. The SAC is following up the approval: Council and Sector members have influence, so they can help with the approval of the budget. (Birhanu, LiA)” In order for citizens to be influential, PICDO trained the woreda cabinet on PPB.
The FTA focal persons can assist with PPB facilitation, because SA and FTA are part of the same sub-component under the PBS program: to enhance accountability of the government towards the people. SAIPs have been invited and included in FTA training. As an example, both MfM and TYA implemented PPB and established a link with the woreda FTA, where in all FTA training, time was allotted to talk about SA as well.
PPB can begin at any stage of budgeting as context determines, but it is important to know the government planning and budgeting calendar. HIDA is planning to implement PPB after the CSC due to the fact that the budget cycle has passed for meaningful implementation of the PPB. Citizen involvement can be achieved by nominating community representatives who will continue with the PPB process after they participate in the kebele level planning forum.
Picture: One of three facilitators’ teams in action.
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5.4 Gender Responsive Budget tool The Gender Responsive Budget (GRB) session began with unpacking concepts of gender, gender mainstreaming, budget and budget cycle. Participants were asked to discuss these concepts, and to explain the need to integrate gender in budgets. Then the key steps of the updated GRB tool were presented.
Illustration 2: Important Gender Responsive Budget slides
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5.4.1 Gender Analysis Exercise Participants exercised with gender analysis through a case study in the GRB manual (page 16). The case was summarised in Amharic. Groups discussed lessons learned and advantages of conducting gender analysis:
Women can better express their issues when they are among themselves, so it is best to
hear their voice separately from the voice of men.
Women see things differently from men, and gender analysis helps to understand the
real problems of both men and women.
Women priorities can be compared to men priorities. When women priorities are
expressed in front of men, men will take these seriously.
When both sides have been heard, consensus can be achieved about true priorities of the
society, not just of men.
Brings understanding of the need to a fair distribution of work among men and women.
Makes it easier to work together and to share and sustain the benefits.
It helps service providers to avoid duplication of efforts, and waste of resources.
“Gender analysis enables men to be in womens’ shoes” Fantaye Tadesse, WC HIDA
Box 1: Gender analysis example
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5.4.2 How to integrate GRB with the other SA tools?
SAIPs then reviewed their gender scores in the benchmark report, and this generated heated discussions, because many thought their scores were too low. When SAIPs understood that the score was based on their own quarterly report, the lesson was that to get a better gender score they need to improve their quarterly report.
SAIPs subsequently developed a preliminary plan on how to integrate GRB in the other SA tools they are implementing. The following summarizes activities proposed in the various plans developed by the SAIPs, and can be considered a rich and practical addition to the GRB tool.
Step 1: Identify gender and budget expertise
Contact woreda level sector offices: women and children affairs, education, agriculture,
health, water and sanitation and others
Link with woreda budget and gender experts
Integrate with the existing local government structure. Example, women development
group
Work with women affairs office and women focal person in each sector, and consider
them as potential SAC members. Gender based committees will pave the way for smooth
implementation of GRB (e.g. JECCDO).
Step 2: Timing with the budget cycle
While this was not mentioned as a specific activity in any of the SAIP plans, it is critical to time the SA intervention in such a way that citizens can influence the budget process. The window for doing so is quite narrow, just two months in the year. Ideally the time before the end of February is recommended for any SAIP to have issues identified and interface meeting/ budget forums conducted. This is because the calendar for submission of budget request should not be later than 22 March. However, SAIPs that have passed this date can look for opportunities of budget revision and reallocation, although this option is not so viable as the budget forum.
Step 3: Gender Equity in service delivery: training and awareness
Increase awareness of the community as to participation of women
Check and review number of women at each committee
Awareness of participating gender experts and women representatives on budget cycle of
the woreda, in collaboration with woreda finance office.
Providing training on gender equality and equity in public service delivery for women
representatives and sector representatives.
Train men that hinder certain activities like health care delivery
Capacitate JAP committee members on gender
equity
Step 4: Gender analysis - Involving women/girls and men/boys in SA tool application
Separate sensitization meetings for men and
Tip from MA
Bring men and women together after separate group discussions:
Facilitate dialogue among men and women groups to agree on joint priorities.
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women to avoid the negative influence of traditional beliefs and attitudes.
FGD selection: Female headed households, and 50% females among FGDs of students,
farmers, and elderly. AAWA - 70% women and 30% men.
SAC members: 50 % female, including note taker and chair.
Promote participation of women and other marginalized groups
Empowers women’s’ voices and choices
Selecting women who are active and have acceptance in the society, and making them a
role model
Need to do a gap analysis especially on gender roles
Analyze socially constructed values, norms, beliefs…
Emphasis to involve both women and men to ensure equal participation, equal
commitment and equal responsibility sharing
Use gender as one indicator for scoring.
PPB is implemented now and we should make it gender sensitive, e.g. in case ofwater
collection - check whether the way water is taken from the tap/well is convenient to
women, are the stairs convenient to women, how about the structure, etc.
Step 5: Interface meetings/budget forums
Make sure that the SA tool results are benefiting women equally.
Conduct interface meetings at kebele and woreda level with a maximum number of
women actively participating.
Increase the number of women participants in review meeting and dialogue forums.
Empower women to effectively participate in service provision.
Step 6: Monitoring service improvements for women and for men
Evaluate and review the JAP from a gender perspective. Sensitize women on the process
of JAP to improve monitoring.
Involve women into different committees (e.g. sustainability committee). Strengthen
women participation in the PTA.
Include women/girls and men/boys in monitoring the process of service delivery.
Monitoring the reform agenda: 50% female participation.
Include women’s issues in the monitoring checklist.
Making the issues of women an agenda item for SAC meetings and discussions.
Assess the service provision as per the action plan focusing on gender mainstreaming.
Experience sharing as a vital strategy to replicate this essential GRB tool.
“We have already completed all steps of SA and are at the monitoring stage, but we will do it all over again to involve more women in the service improvement monitoring, and to involve more women in water management.”
Teshome, AFD
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5.4.3 Future support for GRB from the MA In the remaining ESAP2 project period, the MA can make GRB expertise available if needed. The following suggestions were provided:
GRB tool already selected: SAIPs that have taken GRB as a SA tool should
implement the tool with technical support from the MA consultant Tadelech Debele in
the remaining project period. This is critical because SAIPs are pioneers, and the
consultant has been requested to document the experiences with GRB.
Those who will complete project implementation soon (i.e. NEWA, NSAC and ADA) should develop a Gender Disaggregated Beneficiary Assessment checklist to track the performance of the budget according to the priorities identified in interface meeting.
Those who are at the SA application stage (i.e. RCWDO, ADV and REST) have time to implement the steps of GRB accordingly with thorough technical support from the MA.
GRB tool mainstreamed from now on: SAIPs that did not select GRB as SA tool
have learned about the importance of GRB during the learning benchmarks. They have
clearly understood that GRB is not a stand-alone tool or a budget for women or gender.
They could follow a mainstream strategy in the remaining project period, depending on
the stage of the SA process. The MA will include the GRB checklist in the monitoring
protocol and provide or arrange technical support where needed. Besides, if there is
room to include GRB as SA tool in the remaining project period, SAIPs should consider a
procedure of inclusion.
In the next learning benchmark workshop, experience sharing will be organised, but this should not stop SAIPs from organising their own exchange with those who implement GRB as SA tool, or with woredas with good GRB experience like Libu-Kemekem3 , in collaboration with the MA and MoFED/Women Affairs Department (WAD).
GRB consultant Tadelech Debele at one of the workshops
3 See GRB manual page 12 to 13.
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6. Interface meetings
In each cluster one SAIP was assigned by the MA to present interface meeting experiences based on a number of specific questions related to the preparation and facilitation of interface meetings. The MA also shared some observations from having attended interface meetings all over the country. The learning benchmark groups then further shared experiences along a number of questions. An overview of the lessons is presented below.
6.1 Preparation of the interface meeting
Facility visit: actual visiting the water provision, or the health center, or the school - so
that citizens can observe the situation, and service providers get a chance to explain the
situation to the SAC and selected representatives of vulnerable groups. This builds
appreciation of the situation of service providers by citizens. A facility visit enables
citizens to present their assessment in a clear way at the interface meeting (Rohi Weddu).
Preparing what to present – it is important that a convincing case is presented about
the actual service situation, meaning that it is not enough to present the final results of
the CSC. The scoring should be explained, preferably by representatives of the different
vulnerable groups themselves. In the case of CRC, it is important to first disseminate the
findings, and then discuss which issues people would like to take to the interface
meeting. Some SAIPs have prepared a ToR for the interface meeting, detailing the
process, responsibilities and expected results.
Preparing the presenters - empower citizens so that they feel confident to present in
front of the service providers and officials. Work with service providers so that they are
ready to hear the “service assessment”. NEWA used participatory video to show how
citizens have worked with the SA tool to come up with an evidence based assessment of
services. This helped service providers to gain knowledge of the steps taken prior to the
interface meeting.
Box 2: Good practice - Empowering interface meeting preparations
NEWA explained that at the border with Sudan they had a challenge of making women speak in front of men. So they organised women in Self-Help Groups (SHG) in a separate program of savings, in addition to SA. The women slowly started talking about their issues with services, and gradually developed their speaking skills.
NSAC uses an ice-breaker to practice with citizens who do not have experience with high level meetings with government officials. They discuss with citizens how they can introduce difficult issues at such meetings, and let them practice in a drama form.
For instance, an elderly citizen, woman or man, will speak: dear children (talking to the often younger service providers and woreda officials), we have raised you to be responsible persons, so please accept our suggestions for improvement...
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Table 3: Whom to invite to the interface meeting and why
Whom to invite Why to invite
Citizens – representatives of various social and vulnerable groups, who participated in the SA tool process (e.g. in the FGD for CSC).
They have first-hand experience with the services, and can explain the assessment in more detail if needed. They can also make a commitment to actions from their side to help improve the service situation.
Service providers who participated in the SA process and their supervisors, the woreda sector officials.
They are going to be held accountable during the interface meeting for their services. They have participated in a self-assessment, and can explain their possibilities and limitations in providing better services.
Social Accountability Committee (SAC) members. They have overall responsibility for the quality of the service assessment with the SA tool. They have to help work towards joint actions, and will follow-up after the interface meeting to finalize the JAP on behalf of all attendees to the interface meeting
Kebele, woreda, zonal and regional officials like the head of administration, and the Office of Finance and Economic Development (or FTA).
The administration is responsible for quality service delivery. Being a sister program of ESAP2, FTA can support the meeting with transparency and accountability issues regarding standards, budgets and plans. The administration can also influence the effective implementation of the joint actions agreed in the interface meeting.
Council members, including women affairs. The council has the power to prioritize issues in future plans, and to (re)allocate budget where needed. Women Affairs has the responsibility to mainstream gender into service delivery.
CBOs (e.g. youth league, women association), FBOs, unions, religious leaders and cultural or traditional leaders (e.g. Geda representative, clan leaders).
They can mobilise and reach out to citizens and support dissemination of findings and implementation of agreed actions.
NGOs, donors and investors. They can make a contribution to finding solutions to service issues.
Other sectors and other kebeles. They can learn from the experience and help to spread the SA practice in their respective kebele and sector.
Media.
They can report the service issues to a wider audience and support the dissemination of the JAP.
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Selecting the venue and dates – Considering the busy schedule of government
officials, it is not always easy to select the right dates. In one case the delay was so
considerable that the SAIP went ahead and arranged the meeting without
representatives from the woreda administration. They were briefed at a later stage. In
another case, the kebeles were far away from the woreda venue, up to 90 kilometers. The
budget was not sufficient to enable everyone to participate. In this case participatory
video can be helpful to at least have some of the voices from vulnerable groups heard in
the interface meeting.
Kebele and/or Woreda interface meetings? There was some discussion about
whether to hold interface meetings at kebele as well as woreda levels. TYA held interface
meetings at both kebele and woreda level, while other SAIPs only held woreda level
interface meetings. It all depends on the issues raised by citizens with the SA tool. Issues
that can be solved at kebele level should be addressed in a kebele level interface meeting.
Those beyond the responsibility of the kebele should be handled at a woreda interface
meeting. It is important to present the SA results from each kebeles at the woreda level
interface meeting (for the same sector).
Inviting and preparing participants - Prior to the interface meeting, it is important
to select the right mix of stakeholders (see table 3: whom to invite and why), and
sensitize all of them on the purpose of the interface meeting, including procedures to
follow. One SAIP commented: “invite as many stakeholders as possible, as much as
your budget allows.”
Box 3: Example of participants at the interface meeting
In the case of KMG - at woreda level there were 186 participants in the interface meeting from 3 kebeles, including 20 out of 60 FGD participants. Other participants were influential persons, religious organizations, Women Affairs, representatives from 16 sector offices, woreda SAC members, social court, police, zonal and regional offices, and more. At kebele level, 100 people participated, i.e. 40 from different sectors and 60 from FGD participants.
6.2 Facilitation of the interface meeting
Seating arrangements - Good practice shows that the best seating arrangement is
when citizens are facing the service providers and their supervisors. In this way it is clear
that citizens are holding the service providers accountable. Other invited guests can be
seated to observe the interactions, and can be invited to comment and give feedback or
suggestions – especially when solutions are being discussed.
Facilitators - There are different experiences with selecting the right facilitator for the
interface meeting. Some argue that ESAP2 project staff should facilitate because they are
professional facilitators who speak the local language, and they are aware of cultural
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barriers (e.g. in Borana culture a visually impaired person cannot speak publicly).
In other cases, facilitators were selected from the kebele, and given training on facilitation skills. This builds ownership in communities, and also people can learn directly from their own representatives, in their own language, so there is immediate acceptance.
Others argued that SAC members should facilitate because it is their role and it is more sustainable. Others again argued for facilitators from the woreda administration. In one case, the FTA was selected, because it helps to show transparency, and gives more weight (part of good governance agenda of the Government)
There are usually some tensions and, understandably, there can be defensive behaviour of service providers during the interface meeting. Some SAIPs have therefore learned to assign neutral people with good facilitation skills, other than the service providers and service users, and to prepare these facilitators well in advance.
“The better the facilitation skills and the experience of the facilitator of the interface meeting, the better the results of the meeting. Good facilitation is needed to make the different voices heard.”
Making voices heard - Have respect for peoples’ “voice”. It is good to have fun in a
meeting, but do not allow people to be ridiculed. It is important to empower where
needed. Remember that sometimes service providers also need support to be heard.
Provide an equal chance of speech to all groups of participants and reach a common
agreement.
Work towards conclusions – that is: Joint Actions!
Picture: SOS Sahel presents their experience with interface meetings at Sheshamene Learning Benchmark meeting
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7. Monitoring – Joint Action Plan
In this session, the MA started to share observations from monitoring visits made to SAIPs. Following, mixed groups took a few minutes to study and discuss the learning benchmark graphs related to participation in meetings to monitor the JAP, as in the illustration below.
Illustration 3: Sample graphs - participation in JAP monitoring meetings
7.1 How to prepare for the JAP?
PDN brought service providers and services users together to agree on a consolidate
score, then moved towards drafting a JAP (on the spot in the interface meeting) based on
agreement between both parties.
In one good practice, the JAP was developed and then reviewed by elderly, youth,
women associations, people with disabilities and PLWHIV. AAWA prepared the JAP in
collaboration with the SAC, Woreda and sub city sector representatives.
Citizens negotiated the budget and service providers were willing to adjust the JAP based
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on feedback (Adama cluster).
Before endorsement, ODA circulated the draft for comments to all stakeholders and
successively finalized it.
The JAP was discussed with the woreda council and in some cases with the regional
council (e.g. in some Woredas of the SAIPs in Tigray).
7.2 What is the content of the JAP? Breakdown of the activities so that it is clear how to achieve the results/objectives (be
SMART). Be specific about the output (e.g. a classroom made of wood).
Give details about how resources will be mobilized, and by who. Community
contribution and government budget.
Install a monitoring body representing all actors (e.g. PDN), like community
representatives, service providers, woreda council and SAC. Be clear on each activity
about who should monitor what, when and where. Who is responsible, who takes the
lead and who supports the initiative? Some projects work with a focal person who can
follow up.
Some JAPs include threats and mitigation strategy under the remarks column.
The SAC in Nefas Mwecha has an office and its own stamp, and endorsed the JAP
(WCAT).
Table 4: Sample detailed JAP activities
No. Activity Unit Qty Resources Time Responsible
Gvt Com
1 Construct wells June 30 Water office
1.1 Set community contribution
April 30 SAC
1.2 Do underground study May 30 Water office
1.3 Construct the well June 30 Water office
1.4 Establish water committee
May 30 SAC
1.5 Mobilize resources for new wells construction
Sep. 30 SAC
7.3 How to disseminate the Joint Action Plan? Good practice is to disseminate the JAP as follows:
Form a planning team during the interface meeting. The planning team will finish the
JAP, get it signed by stakeholders, and officially disseminate it. SAC members are
checking if it was received or not.
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Another mechanism is where service users are coming together to review the draft JAP.
At kebele level there are community meetings, so SACs are using these events to check
with community.
Send the JAP to all key stakeholders who were present at the interface meeting,
including regional stakeholders (e.g. Finance and Sector Offices).
Send to all those responsible for implementing the JAP. Their signature on the JAP will
facilitate implementation, especially if service providers, woreda officials and the council
countersign.
Send the JAP to citizens via “representatives” from CBOs, and other citizen groups like
Iddir.
Attach the detailed minutes or report from the interface meeting to the JAP as
background information.
In some cases the JAP was integrated with government plans. For instance, the JAP is
endorsed by the Woreda Council and included as a government plan in Sahrti Samere
and Kola Tembeien Woredas (TYA).
In some cases, the JAP was also presented to investors and alumni.
SAIPs use a high variety of means to disseminate the content of the JAP:
Use the media – work closely with the FTA, as media is an integrated part of the FTA-SA
linkage. In some cases the woreda communication office was invited to disseminate the
JAP through local media. NEWA had the community score card published in a magazine.
Another suggestion was using FM radio, where representatives of government, citizens
and NGOs are invited to a radio talk show.
Notice board – public postings at sector offices and facilities, e.g. PADET posted the JAP
in the health centers. SAIPs can use the FTA budget info display boards to post the JAPs.
Use traditional media such as Ware4, woros, sogo, goda and dagu etc5 to disseminate
information.
Dissemination through festivals, exhibitions and brochures (Mekele cluster)
Presentation at wider, local level, meetings. JAP feedback and review meetings with
citizens, including one-to-one meetings (e.g. ODA). MoFED suggested that people can be
sensitized to the JAP during citizens budget meetings. This was for instance done by SL
Ethiopia. The JAP was presented to 27 cabinet members (executives) to lobby during
budget formulation and approval of items for the next year’s plan.
Involve CBOs and NGOs in the dissemination. Debrief the leaders about the JAP and let
them explain further in their own meeting, for instance during Community Care
Structures and Self Help Group meetings, and the regular NGO-Government forums at
Woreda level.
4 “Ware” is a traditional information exchange mechanism in Sidama Zone: the gathering of people in one of the elders’ house to discuss issues. It offers a good opportunity to spread the concept of SA to all community groups and to scale up in other non-intervention Kebeles. In the ‘ware’, all community groups, elders, women, youth and vulnerable groups discuss equally. 5 These traditional media aim at ensuring that all members of a group or clan are reached with important information, e.g. “dagu” from Afar region stands for the obligation to share any information people received when they meet with other members of the clan.
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7.4 How to mobilize citizens during JAP implementation? It can be challenging to sustain citizens’ interest in SA through the project. Yet at the stage of JAP implementation it is critical that as many people as possible remain on board. This helps to put pressure on implementers to deliver their promises. Moreover, service improvements are the most convincing argument for citizens to engage sustainably in SA.
Use a network of Iddirs (e.g. AFM) or CBOs (e.g. Rift Valley) or religious leaders
(PICDO) to share the JAP and to follow up on implementation progress with the SAC
taking the lead.
Facilitate relationship between the SAC, who is expected to monitor the JAP, the FGDs
organized during the SA process, and the sectors (e.g. ODA) or head of facilities such as
school principles (PICDO).
PDN established a service improvement committee comprised of service users and
service providers, mainly citizens to take part. Some SAC members are included in this
committee.
WCAT supported the Town Water Unit in Debre Tabor to set up a customer forum. 100
Members from 4 kebeles were mobilized to monitor the JAP. WCAT also uses school SA
clubs to mobilize the community to implement the JAP.
Communities are mobilized during regular field visits and meetings to check service
improvements. Public discussions on the SAC progress report are organized that can
take place in council meetings.
HFC uses coffee ceremonies which are conducted every two weeks, to discuss service
improvement progress.
WCAT communities check service improvement through representatives of their SA
forum which was established during the interface meeting.
WSA has established a group called “community basic service monitoring action group”
that will give an input to the SAC and work actively towards service improvement.
TYA organized an experience sharing event to mobilize communities to monitor the
process.
7.5 How is monitoring of the JAP implementation organized?
To ensure an improvement of challenges identified during implementation should be a
continuous process, with supervision activities, monthly stakeholders meetings by SAIP
and quarterly review meetings at a larger scale by SAC with all key stakeholders.
Among others, HFC established a separate monitoring team drawn from users and
providers to monitor the JAP with support of the SAC. The SAC organizes regular
meetings to review progress. Service providers along with the administration meet every
2 months to assess their contribution in the implementation of the JAP.
Three committees established to monitor the JAP – officials, sectors and citizens (Adama
cluster). Following the development of the JAP, a separate sub-committee was
established from citizen, officials, and sectors to closely and regularly monitor the
implementation of the plan and to report to the woreda SAC. During a monitoring
meeting, the three committees present what they observed and evaluate the
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performances accordingly.
PADET established a special subcommittee (JAP committee) during the interface
meeting to follow-up on service improvements and JAP implementation in addition to
the SAC
PDN: The monitoring committee holds a monthly follow-up meeting.
Note that the pros and cons of having a separate committee were discussed and some participants argued in favor as it will enforce JAP implementation and relieve some of the burden from the SAC.
Periodic field visits and (SAC) review meetings on the JAP take place with stakeholders.
The SAC utilized its refreshment budget to mobilize communities in community
conversations about the implementation of the JAP (in 2nd Adama Cluster)
The CRC FGDs can monitor the CRC questionnaire results.
A suggestion box to gather community complaints and other information for the SAC is
implemented by WCAT.
HUNDEE prints and disseminates the JAP among SACs and sectors offices. Monthly
SAC meetings are held, as well as JAP follow up meetings with FGD members, and
HUNDEE project staff has monthly follow-up meetings to monitor the implementation
of the JAP.
ODA provides technical support to the SAC both at woreda and kebele level to
implement the JAP, to prepare and submit timely reports, and organizes the community
to observe the JAP success or failure.
The JAP was evaluated and then presented and discussed at community and woreda
level. (Mekele cluster).
Officials incorporate and evaluate the JAP in their sectors (Mekele cluster). In one case
the government’s structure under the Woreda Civil Service Office, known as Good
Governance Command Post is used to monitor the service improvements.
Box 4: Good practice – action in case of delay in JAP implementation
Live-Addis allocates areas of improvements to certain SAC members. For instance, in water supply as a priority issue in one of the schools the activities were to change the old plumbing, add more taps and a water tank. A SAC member explained that two SAC members who are aware of the issue and have a strong relationship with the school were assigned by the SAC to monitor the progress. These two people then inform the chair of the SAC about the progress every week. Once, the project was delayed because of some technical issue. They immediately reported this to the SAC and the woreda coordinator. We took the matter to the sub-city level and the problem was solved. Now progress is encouraging.
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7.6 Role of SAIPs during JAP implementation
HFC explained that the role of SAIPs should be to follow up and track the changes as well
as provide technical support to the SACs, whereas the SAC follows up on JAP
implementation and mobilizes the community.
SAIPs facilitate the SA process in general, but from the beginning should give the
responsibility to the SAC (Rift Valley) and strengthen SAC members. Help SACs to use
SA tools again, as this will both strengthen their capacity, and serve to check the
satisfaction of citizens with service improvements.
An important role at this stage is to devise mechanisms for sustainability with regard to
empowering and creating networks, like linkages with CBO’s and Iddirs and facilitation
of linkages between SAC and sector offices.
In addition to the plan held by SACs, SAIPs also have specific plans for woreda
coordinators to monitor the JAP (e.g. WCAT). For wider dissemination of the SA
practice, it is important to document the SA process and its results. SAIPs must develop
a detailed progress reporting system. The baseline survey can be used for monitoring and
cross-checking (e.g. in Mekele cluster).
ODA and HUNDEE prepare SAC meetings and organize review meetings. HUNDEE in
addition attends the SAC meetings, provides material support for documentation of the
meetings, fixes meeting time if necessary, and supports how the SAC can continue after
the project.
SAIPs also enable the target sector officials to internalize the reform agenda and to
integrate this into their target plan.
SAIPs allocate budget and facilitate dissemination, monitoring and experience sharing
activities organized by the SAC.
7.7 Role of SAC during JAP implementation
The SACs own the JAP and monitor the implementation. They mobilize the community
and service providers for the implementation and follow-up to check whether
improvement in service delivery is achieved or not.
SACs coordinate and hold the responsible persons accountable for implementation.
SACs organize the SAC members, arrange time for travel and examine the prepared
checklists (e.g. Mekele Cluster)
SACs report and re-plan the SA process.
7.8 How can SA tools be used for monitoring?
Most SAIPs had not considered using the SA tools again during the monitoring process, but they found the question interesting, and came up with the following improvements:
The SA tool has helped us with the standard and will help in the future to monitor the
progress. The SA tool is used as a reference guide, or checklist for service improvements.
We can re-use the tool to check if the JAP has improved the service. For instance use the
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CSC to re-score services to monitor service improvements every 6 months, or CRC once a
year.
We can use the SA tools to assess changes against the baseline.
FGDs can assess the changes in service improvements using SA tools.
7.9 Is the JAP being implemented?
Many woredas have started implementation, but some SAIPs (e.g. WAT) are not fully satisfied with the JAP follow-up, because the commitment from the government side is not as expected, whereas communities have started performing their share for service improvement.
Some examples of JAP implementation:
Schools have taken the lead to improve the water supply situation for primary school
students (SL).
A plan for the construction of a dry latrine facility is in progress. The committee is
following up closely (SL).
Lunch feeding shade. There was no convenient place for students to eat their lunch.
Therefore, a special shade has now been constructed for them (SL).
Roof water harvesting and bins are made available to store the water (PICDO).
A major issue identified was the lack of information. Citizens did not know about
services like improved seed and chicken varieties (NEWA).
The community demanded for a better variety of eggs for improved chicken, but the
government did not have the budget. The community mobilized the required resources,
and then the service providers facilitated the supply of quality eggs (MSCFSO).
During the interface meeting, we managed to identify an idle generator in the woreda. It
has since been moved to the health center where there was no power before.
The government has bought more chairs for students, and a shelter for teachers was built
for which the community contributed labor.
A dormitory was being rented for a very high price, but an investor has now promised to
provide resources to build a dormitory and a café.
There was a water committee, but the community had serious water problems. After SA,
they realized they should not wait for the government to take action, but be proactive.
They opened a bank account and mobilized resources from the community. They used
this as seed money to negotiate the government investment.
More examples of concrete service improvement results per sector can be found in annex 5: Monitoring and Evaluation – Behavior change and service improvements captured by Participatory Video.
Picture: MA partner Abeje Teffera – Yem Consultants
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Box 5: Results cases – education sector A school nearby - The elementary school was far. Students had to cross a river and a forest, so there was a big dropout. They demanded to build a new school that would be convenient for the three Kebeles. During the interface meeting the community and the Woreda Education Bureau both took responsibilities. Community representatives negotiated the land on which crops were grown, and agreed to pay compensation for the crops. Now the new school is going to be constructed (PICDO). Teacher absenteeism addressed - Dawe woreda has a less developed education infrastructure, and most of the schools are located far from the woreda centre. School teachers travel more than 5 hours every month to collect their salary. Because of this, teachers are regularly absent for an average of 4-days per month. Schools are closed and students are not getting a quality education. During the interface meeting, students and parents presented this issue to the woreda administration and education sector officials. The issue was incorporated in the JAP. The matter was taken seriously, and the woreda education office assigned a casher to travel and pay salaries to teachers in their duty station. Teachers’ absenteeism was addressed, and the teaching learning process and quality of education improved. (PDN)
Pictures: MA facilitators
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8. Concrete results and dissemination of SA
This session looked at the capacity of SAIPs to monitor the changes they are bringing about. If there are concrete changes, it will help to disseminate SA. Dissemination is an important component of the FTA-SA linkage agenda, so in this session we also looked into working with the media through FTA. However, first SAIPs need to have good stories about the change they are bringing about: changes in stakeholder behaviour and in the quality of services.
8.1 Factors that have influenced behavior change In small groups, participants discussed the benchmark graphs that showed SAIP satisfaction levels with specific changes in behavior, as reported in the last quarter (see illustration 4). Mixed SAIP groups then discussed:
What is the behavior change you have observed in citizens? What were the
contributing factors?
What is the behavior change you have observed in service providers/local
government? What were the contributing factors?
What follows is a summary of changes observed and contributing factors across the
49 SAIPs.
Illustration 4: Sample satisfaction benchmark in a cluster report
Results – behavior change citizens
Citizens feel empowered to ask for service improvements when needed, because they know they have the right to have access to quality services. Vulnerable groups know they also have the right to be heard, and to get special attention to their needs. Citizens have developed a culture of speaking and asking upfront in public, and make sure they have an evidence base when they speak. Citizens are also more accountable for their own actions for service improvements (e.g. take action if things are not working). Understanding that government
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
PDN EOC APAP RCWDO RCDE
Service providers actively seek the views of citizens
Unknown
very unsatisfied
rather unsatisfied
satisfied
very satisfied
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resources are limited, they have developed a self-help spirit, and they take their responsibility to support with cash and in kind to help improve the services. They no longer have unrealistic expectations of infrastructure development projects; because they now understand that the government has standards, plans and budgets. Participation has increased and a sense of ownership has developed - public services means "it is ours". They are able and motivated to participate in the process of the JAP.
Contributing factors – citizens’ behavior change
Mass awareness raising, ongoing sensitization and SA training play an important role. In many cases this has been supported by mass dissemination of SA messages with Information Education and Communication (IEC) materials and through the media (e.g. reaching 400 citizens and more per woreda). Even more important is the actual participation of marginalised groups in the SA process, and the improved relationships with service providers that people experienced. People feel their discussion culture has improved with the SA tools. Roles and responsibilities have become very clear during the interface meeting, and service providers are becoming more responsive. During monitoring of the JAP implementation, concrete and practical service improvement results are observed (see examples of practical service improvements in section 7.9 Is the JAP being implemented?). Experience sharing visits have enabled more people to change their views about the roles of citizens in holding the government accountable. It also helps when a SAIP has a good relationship with the local government, so that SA is taken seriously by them.
Table 5: behavior change citizens and contributing factors
What changed? Contributing factors:
Sense of ownership: Public service
means “it is ours”
Citizens, including social and
vulnerable groups, know their rights
and responsibilities, participate
actively in the SA process
Empowered and confident to ask for
fair and reasonable service
improvements (in line with standards);
citizens feel they are closer to service
providers and can influence them
Self-help spirit – contribute for service
improvements, and more independent
in finding solutions
Take action if things are not working,
and willing to contribute to the
solution – take initiatives
Mass awareness, ongoing sensitization,
and training
Equal and inclusive participation of
social and vulnerable groups in the SA
process; SA tools build a powerful
evidence base
IEC materials, media
Better relationships with service
providers, who accept SA and have
become more responsive
Clear agreements for actions that have
led to real service improvement results
Commitment of local leaders and SAC
members to volunteer their time, and
have regular meetings
Facility visits; experience sharing visits
Good SAIP relationships with local
government
Knowing that ESAP2 is government
supported program
Already seeing improvements in service
delivery
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Box 6: Results cases - no longer waiting for government to fix problems
A water point was not working due to a dysfunctional valve worth only 100 Birr. The community suffered for a year, while the water committee had 18,000 Birr in their bank account. Before SA there was no way for people to come together and own the problem, because they expected the woreda technical group to fix it (GDA). Citizens started owning their problems, for instance deforestation. After the interface meeting, they established a nursery to grow seedlings (AFSR).
Results - behavior change service providers
SAIPs have observed that service providers have become more accountable and transparent. They are asking for feedback from citizens, and have become more responsive in case of poor service provision. They contribute to improving the quality of services, and seek to providing them based on community demand (e.g. in agriculture sector). They are providing services in a more equitable way, also serving the poor, disabled etc. Almost all of them are accepting the SA program, and are willing to participate. Service providers also developed a better understanding of their responsibilities, and can therefore better discharge these, e.g. the medicine stock should be replenished on time. When they hear the actual experiences and voices of citizens, it influences them during planning and decision making. Some have started mainstreaming NGOs and other investors in their action plans.
Contributing factor for service providers
Although engagement with service providers is challenging at first, the welcoming approach of ESAP2 helps them to come on board. There are also conducive government policies, and new arrangements like the Good Governance Command Posts6. Service providers have also taken part in awareness raising, sensitization meetings, and SA tools training. However, the real citizens’ voice and demand is influencing the service providers most, because it helps them to observe the problems that exists. It is also helpful to have service providers in the SAC, and they are encouraged that community and other investors are contributing for service improvements. In this way, the service providers do not feel attacked: they are part of the service assessment process, and understand that it is part of the job to be held accountable. They have seen the JAP being implemented, and have developed a strong network with NGOs (e.g. in the NGO-GO forum). This enables experience sharing, where they learn from each other about SA and service improvements that have been achieved elsewhere.
6 The objective of ‘command post’ is to coordinate each institutional wing under a central public and government department. Among other things it is also designed to help good governance, deliver quality education and health, and realize the objectives of the one-to-five structure. (Source: The Reporter, 11 January 2014)
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Table 6: behavior change service providers and contributing factors
What changed? Contributing factors:
Willing to support SA implementation and
to cooperate for service improvements as
part of their job / their obligation
More transparent and accountable to
citizens
Better understanding of responsibilities at
different levels: service providers, officials
and council members – to deliver quality
services
Asking for feedback from citizens, and
becoming more responsive to community
needs;
On time to provide the service, and more
committed to work to the satisfaction of all
citizens
More respectful towards their customers
and patients
Collaborating with investors and NGOs
Welcoming approach of ESAP2
Conducive government policies
(e.g. civil service law), and
directives from higher officials
(federal and regional)
Awareness, continuous
sensitization and training for
service providers and woreda
officials
Self-evaluation in FDGs
Citizens voice and demand (face to
face) helps to observe the real
problems that exist
Free discussion with citizens
Part of SAC and JAP
Experience sharing
Supportive MA visits, and FTA
collaboration
Food for thought:
Some SAIPs are at the start of the process and they are still unsatisfied with the change, “because citizens fear, feel hopeless and suspicious, and consider government as sovereign.” This reminds us that behavior change takes time, not just for citizens. While service providers have started to change their behavior, by being more responsive and helping to find solutions where needed, we must ask how this change is going to last? It is important to find ways to anchor SA within government systems (see more in section 13.3 SA institutionalisation – what’s next).
8.2 Most significant change stories SAIPs have been commenting that the quarterly report format does not give enough space for specific case stories. The MA therefore introduced a new format to collect “Most Significant Change” (MSC) stories (see annex 3: ESAP2 Most Significant Change – story format). The format was introduced through a demonstration case at the learning benchmark: an interview of one of the participating SAC members, a citizen or service provider.
After the interview, participants were helped to understand the format based on the interview questions they had noted down during the demonstration. They learned the following:
The format only has 6 questions, but in the demonstration we saw the interviewer
use a lot of questions to get the story out of the stakeholder.
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We must probe, ask follow-up questions, to get the stories out of the interviewee.
This is a simple way to develop and document a results based case story.
It is important to capture key issues to be included in a story, like how each
stakeholder was involved.
Following the demonstration, participants practiced interviewing the SAC members present in the workshop and documented the stories using the MSC format (see box 7). Woreda coordinators did most of the interviewing and the rest of the SAIP groups observed the process and gave feedback at the end. Some participants used their mobiles to document the stories.
8.3 Engaging the media with interesting stories Next was a presentation on how to approach the media. It is high time for some of the SAIPs to showcase the service improvements they brought about thought the effective facilitation of an SA process in their respective operational areas.
Box 7: Most Significant Change - Education sector in Afdem woreda
This most significant change story was shared by Ato Eyob Beyene, an SA committee member working in the education sector at Afdem woreda of Ethiopian Somali Regional State through an ESAP2 project implemented by CFID. Ato Eyob became involved in SA when he attended the project launching workshop, and he currently serves as the secretary of the SA committee.
According to Ato Eyob, the most significant change is the construction of new high standard toilets. Before the SA program, Ferah Wersame Secondary School had no toilets and students were dropping out of their classes due to this. The change is especially significant for female students, but also for boys and teachers. Ato Eyob explained that the change happened through SA tool implementation, which helped the community to express their views. Students, teachers and other service providers, the PTA committee and the SA committee were involved in the process. During SA tool implementation, they participated in focus group discussions, interface meeting and lobbying of the local government.
By Fedun Tadesse, PC AMUDEAES
8.3.1 Preparation – document your work:
Collect best practices and MSC stories
Organize some of it in fact sheets to inform the public
Include quotes and pictures of people
Prepare and arrange for media to meet with interviewees
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8.3.2 How to get the media to come? Step 1: Prepare a media kit for journalists including:
Organizations vision, objectives, what you do
Press release in Amharic and English (with your contact details)
Fact sheet about specific projects and achievements
Step 2: Make a list of media interested in your work
Reporter Newspaper has a social page
Shenger Radio has different programs focusing on social issues.
Sinksar
Find the contact details of the reporters (call media land line number - usually second page of the newspaper).
Step 3: Establish contact with Media
Establish contact – arrange media event
Go and visit them
Inform them about what you do
Agree on ground rules
Organize a creative event which you think will attract the attention of the media. The
media will not come because you send an invitation, you need to be creative, e.g. have
MSC stories.
Pursue other options than prime time news coverage:
Shift from national TV coverage to local media
Collaborate with FTA, as they have resources. All regions have secured air time from
the regional radio stations and this can be used to disseminate SA.
Also note that each woreda has communication person. FTA can link the SAIPs with
the government communication offices.
Publicize the SA achievements during the annual FTA days as there will be media
coverage.
8.3.3 Good to know
Good to know about the media:
Press Conference - contact the media a week before
Reporters are always late. - Tell them that the event will start 30 minutes earlier
than you actually planned for.
Plan for Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at the latest, because publishing is
Thursday and Friday!
Good to know about the behavior that is expected of you:
Do not lie, if you do not have the answer it is fair to say “I will get back to you / I do
not have the information right now”.
If you promise to provide information, keep your word
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Approach the MA for support at any stage, contact:
[email protected] for media support
[email protected] for PR/COM or M&E
The MA collected contact details PR/communication person for each SAIP and will establish more regular interactions with these persons to provide support where needed and to monitor good media practices that might be interesting for others to learn about.
Illustration 5: ESAP2 website and YouTube channel
Watch the Participatory Videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/ESAP2Channel/playlists
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9. Sustainability
SAIPS were given a format to score their efforts among a range of sustainability factors. Project Coordinators provided the consolidated scores to the workshop facilitators, who subsequently selected areas of good practice for sharing, and areas where practice or insight needed to be boosted. Based on the scores SAIPS were given selected sustainability factors to take to a market place, using an open space mechanism. Participants were requested to “vote with their feet” to go around and learn from their colleagues on their preferred sustainability factor.
Illustration 6: Average sustainability factors of SAIPs
Scoring: 1 = not done yet, will consider it now; 2 = have started to think about it; 3 = have started it; 4 = working well / in place
A summary of interesting learning points is presented below.
Motivation of SAC members: HIDA visits model facilities, clarifies the
importance of SA volunteering, and maximized results through regular monitoring
and rating. REST also takes a multi-pronged approach, by selecting people with
intrinsic motivation, and by creating an institution based SAC (i.e. CBOs are
represented in the SAC) that has written government support.
SAC technical capacity to lead the SA process: WAT explained their approach,
which is to support the SAC, to plan wisely and to organize follow-up activities.
Resource mobilization strategy for SAC: Some SAIPs observed that SACs need
an office, furniture, stationary and transport allowance. The question is only how?
One option could be to create a strong link with the sector offices and CBOs. Some
SAIPs have convinced government offices to allocate a small operational budget and
provide stationary, or plan to do so.
3.4
2.9
2.1
2.1
2.3
1.9
2.8
2.8
3.1
3.1
2.2
1.9
Motivation of SAC members
SAC technical capacity to lead the SA process
Resource mobilization strategy for SAC in place?
SAC has plan to continue after project end
Plan includes scaling beyond kebeles
Plan includes scaling to other sectors
Linking with existing traditional structures
Linking with CBOs / FBOs
Linking with government structures
Linking with councils (kebele/woreda)
SAC introduces new government officials to SA
Initiatives at facility level
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Some SAIPs suggested Income Generating Activities (IGA) for SAC, but this requires SACs to become a legal entity. Others proposed to arrange discussions with communities after the JAP has been developed to support and contribute the SAC. In case of resource mobilisation from the community, there has to be a legal receipt. SAIPs use government structures or Iddir to collect money from communities for the SAC or for JAP implementation. If there is no legal and transparent way for community contribution, people will become suspicious and commitment can decrease. MfM linked the SAC with the Community Care Coalitions (CCCs) so that they will support the SAC sustainability to discharge its responsibilities. The CCCs are established by the government to mobilise resources for development and social services in each Tabia (Kebele level in Tigray). MfM has also linked the SAC with the woreda council to collaborate on SA activities (e.g. in Endamekoni Woreda the council has allocated budget to support the SAC to monitor the implementation of the JAP.
Box 8: Good practices – creative resource mobilization Members of the Seleme saving association, composed of 25 women, were involved in the SAC. They prepared coffee and tea at home and thus saved the money the SAIP7 allocated for refreshments. They used this money to buy nails for the new fence of the school. This was a good incentive for men to also do their part. The men brought wood and contributed free labour to construct the fence.
SAC plans to continue with SA after project end: SAC members have signed a
MoU among them. According to HUNDEE, the MoU serves for a longer term. SAC
members have prepared an action plan covering a period from 6 months to 1 year
which is aligned to HUNDEEs action plan which is being monitored. AAWA
explained that two woredas have already produced their 2007 action plan which is
approved by the woreda administrator, and this will be continued with other SACs.
Plan includes scaling beyond kebeles / sectors – It is good practice to invite
representatives from neighboring kebeles to participate in SA processes (e.g.
HUNDEE – PPB) and in interface meetings, and to organize kebele exchange visits.
Some SAIPs have invited other sector officials during SA implementation, and have developed capacity of the SAC to implement SA in any sector, by showing improvements in sectors from elsewhere, and by motivating the community to initiate new SA processes. One SAIP is planning post JAP implementation to establish a technical team for SA process application in other kebeles, and to provide the action plan to the woreda administration so as to make it part of the woreda plan to expand SA experience to other kebeles.
Links with existing traditional structures CBOs / FBOs:
AFSR: Link the SAC with elders, as they play an important role in the dissemination of
information, and give their blessing to any SA event
WAT: Link the SAC with women development groups, and CSOs like WAT and TYA.
7 SAIP name and location could not be traced from the cluster report.
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TYA: 6 CBOs participate in PPB, and they are members of the SAC and JAP. They are
playing their role in community mobilization, in planning and monitoring of the JAP.
ADCS: OMCA- Faith based organization, woreda and kebele level Iddir leaders,
traditional and clan leaders.
Suggestion to consider creating a new society of accountability (i.e. association) for CBO
and FBO leaders that can link with government programs and structures.
Link with government structures: Several SAIPs have worked with FTA at woreda level to publicize SA process at different woreda level meetings (e.g. HUNDEE). Others have FTA as a member in each woreda SAC (e.g. PADET), or link the SAC strongly with PFM. Others are influencing government bodies like the woreda cabinet, woreda council and respective sector offices (e.g. WAT) to put SA on their agenda.
SAC introduces new government officials to SA: TYA explained that a number of practices are in place: new government officials are included in the JAP monitoring committee; review meetings are continuously organized for all government officials, and capacity building and SA refresher training is in place. WAT mentions an orientation by SAC members, refresher training, and update on the JAP in case of government staff turnover. CFAFI mentioned immediate empowerment of new government officials and SACs members. Other practices were to invite new staff to different meetings and SA training, to use quarterly review meetings to sensitize new staff, and to develop personal contacts, to use different brochures and other SA written materials, or participatory video.
Box 9: Good practice - Sustainable links with the council
This is a summary of the SOS Sahel experience, as explained by a SAC member. Some FGD members are also council members, and some council members, including the speaker, are in the kebele as well as the woreda SAC. This helped citizens to raise SA issues in the council, and to get the support of the government administration. Councils have monthly meetings and since SA issues are development issues, the council debates on it in their meetings. Kebele councils meet every Friday to discuss progress with development activities, so here we can check if activities in the JAP are done. Anything that came out as a result of the link? After we developed the JAP the following problems were immediately solved:
Road to the health center
New staff was recruited
Supply of medicines was reorganized
Behavior of health staff improved
The council and sector officials have accepted issues raised by citizens. Citizens have understood that if they work together, and continue to express their needs, than SA will be sustained.
Initiatives at facility level:
HIDA has started a number of initiatives, such as mini-media and SA club at schools,
and celebrating an SA day at health centers.
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EOC uses notice board on making the activities and budget transparent. These notice
boards are bright and made visible. They also promote to clean up the suggestion boxes
and adjust information boards.
We have another project called Humanitarian and Accountability Partnership (HAP),
including a compliant management system with six standards.
Box 10: SAC Gudamale Kebele, Awassa town – established in 2002
This SAC was established under ESAP1 in 2002 (Ethiopian calendar) by AFSR and is still working. The selection of the SAC members has proven to be crucial for sustainability, especially the commitment of the members. Due to the workload, the kebele administrator was not selected as chairperson of the SAC, and this has avoided frequent turnover of SAC members. The school director of the Ediget Bandent school has been the chairperson from 2002 till now. Due to transparency of activities, the community remains fully involved with labor, material and financial contributions to implement the planned activities.
Picture: Ato Demile Yismaw from MoFED engaged with participants in Shahemene
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10. Grants and Financial management
The grant and finance team presented the budget utilization of SAIPs, and the burn-rate in two categories of expenditures: 1) program and 2) monitoring and evaluation (see illustration below). These two categories were selected because the MA observed that most of the SAIPs burn rate was low, and needed further discussion with the SAIPs. The team also prepared an overall observation on grants and financial management performance for the period January 2013 - June 30, 2014 (see annex 4), which considered the observations of the internal and international auditors as well as other compliance issues.
Illustration 7: Sample Grants and Finance graphs
The purpose of the session was to update the SAIPs about their budget utilization/burn rate status (expenditure of the disbursement as a percentage of the total contract amount), and to discuss improvements in terms of future action to spend funds wisely. The group assignment had two questions for discussion, namely:
Discuss what bottlenecks you are facing?
How can you increase the level of activities and spending in program deliverables
and in M&E?
The bottlenecks mentioned by the SAIPs and the possible solutions for increasing their burn rate in program deliverables and M&E are summarized in the table below.
Table 7: Bottlenecks for spending, and activities to spend more money wisely
Bottlenecks Activities that contribute to increase the burn rate
Delay in project agreement signing with the government (zone and woreda)
Revisiting the overall budget and come up with budget modification;
Staff turnover Including sustainability related activities;
Initial delay in budget release from the MA Including experience sharing activities for learning;
Some PC and project staff not aware of the budget, so they cannot help spending it wisely
More budget transparency within the project team
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Some participants said that they did not have access to the overall budget and that they did not know the status of their organizations financial management. They also mentioned that sharing this kind of information helped them to see their status. They agreed to work with their respective management team to look into different alternatives to increase their burn rate.
It was evident that woreda coordinators were even less aware of the financial systems and the budget available for different project activities. Also, several partners questioned the fact that finance officers were not present at the benchmarking sessions. The MA will organize separate sessions with finance officers, because the number of participants in the learning benchmarks is simply getting too high and too costly.
The overall impression is that the session helped participants to see the financial management part of the ESAP2 program and implementation. They also suggested having further discussions with their finance team. The MA team also suggested SAIP staff to have a discussion with the respective finance teams every quarter, in order to know and understand their status and to get solutions at the right time.
Picture: PC from OWDA gets advice from the MA grants coordinator
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11. SAIPs learning and exchange
This session was organised to encourage SAIPs to take more initiatives to network and learn from each other. One of the SAIPs was invited to present an exchange experience, and subsequently other SAIPs added their own initiatives. The following events may inspire even more exchange and learning.
RTG, JECCDO, OWDA and WCAT organized an exchange meeting in Metehara. The presentation is included in annex 6. The SAIPs sought advice from the MA on which SAIPs work in similar sectors, and also on how to organise the visit.
Picture: PC of RtG presents the SAIP exchange meeting in Metehara.
Examples of other experience sharing initiatives:
Before RTG organized an exchange, OWDA arranged experience sharing with SAC
members to prepare.
PDN: Experience sharing with other SAIPs was undertaken in which people from
other kebeles were also invited.
RCDE - experience sharing with SAIPs that participated in ESAP1 learned a lot about
sustainability, and scaling for instance inviting administrators from adjacent kebeles,
and sector heads from other sectors. "In one case the education head was so
impressed that he wanted to organize scoring in schools the next day."
Internal experience sharing was organized by EOC- DICAC, among the project
woredas. “Other SAIPs have also visited us and we all learned a lot.”
Experience exchange among project woredas: SOS Sahel, we are working in 3
regions, so we organized an exchange of 3 days experience sharing among these
regions, including a field visit.
SOS Sahel experience - 28 people participated in an exchange visit of SAC and
government members to Hawassa, where they admired the school director who made
a significant change. Very high community mobilization in that area, and they know
the budget. The school never closes throughout the day. The director knows the
status of each family and their student children. They were able to clear the land
which was occupied by OXFAM.
SOS Sahel, CFAFI, AFSR and AFD share the same compound and have signed a MoU
to regularly exchange and learn from each other on SA. They have a monthly
meeting.
CFID organized a 3 days visit with AFSR.
SAIPs are encouraged to continue to organise such exchange, and the MA is always ready to assist with advice and to participate where possible.
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12. Learning groups and areas of improvement
Participants worked in mixed group settings. At the end of each day, they were brought together in more coherent groups to review what has been learned, and what this means for future practice or actions. The learning groups were organised as follows:
SAIP teams
Citizens
Service providers
FTA/BoFED/MoFED Officials
External – donors, NGOs etc
The results of both learning group sessions were presented during the closing remarks at the end of the workshop. Each group shared insights gained during the workshop, and how this may help them in the future. We have captured “typical” presentations from various clusters that represent the richness of the Learning Benchmark workshop experience for all participants.
For SAIPs, this learning benchmark workshop also served as Mid Term Self-Assessment. The improvements they suggested have therefore been given below with more detail. Based on their lessons, each SAIP submit an MTSA form in the two weeks after the Learning Benchmark workshops (see Annex 7: SA project Mid-Term Self-Assessment). The MTSA forms that were received on time are summarized in annex 8: MTSA summary.
12.1 SAC members
We learned important lessons on gender, and we will work in particular on this issue to
ensure that women voices are heard and considered in the budget – with respect to the
local context.
We learned more about the need to prepare well for interface meetings, and to carefully
select the facilitator.
SA serves the needs of citizens, and we have learned that we have to reach citizens more
broadly by using different information and communication media.
For our future work, we have learned how to mobilize different stakeholders who are
decisive, influential and who attach importance to the service improvement needs of the
poor.
We feel motivated to sustain the changes that have been achieved so far.
We will share what we learned with other SAC members, and work intensively for SA.
This was the first time that SAC members, citizens and service providers were invited to the Learning Benchmark workshops. They were pleased with the presence of decision makers (i.e. BoFED and MoFED representatives) in the workshop, and astonished by the fact that so many other SAIPs other than the ones that work with them exist and are operating all over the country. Citizens appreciate the government of Ethiopia for allowing the SA to be implemented in this inclusive manner. Service providers observed that demands of citizens vary from place to place, but they are ready to listen and are open to be accountable. Overall, the SAC members appreciated the experience sharing with others. Although the demands of citizens vary from place to place, we are ready to listen to the demands and are open to be accountable. One of the SAIPs recommended considering to invite target sector officials to the next Learning Benchmarks workshops.
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12.2 Summary of improvement actions by SAIPs These Learning Benchmark workshops served as a Mid Term Self-Assessment for SAIPs. During the workshop, in the learning groups, SAIPs identified key lessons and actions to improve. After the workshop, they
Social Accountability tools – Very helpful comparison among SAIPs: it enabled us to see ourselves. We will revisit our FGDs formation and process. We will introduce coffee ceremony in the FGD process. We learned about how to link PPB with CSC. We realized that SA tools can also be used during the monitoring phase to check if JAP implementation is to the satisfaction of citizens.
GRB tool - The GRB session was “inspiring”, “a good reminder”, “an awakening”. We will empower women to express their needs rather than to have mere participation. We will review our action plan to incorporate the GRB tool. We will empower the SACs with the concept and application of GRB.
Right people on board – Empowerment matrix is very powerful. We will survey the important and influential stakeholders in the whole SA process. We will do a more thorough stakeholder analysis and develop an appropriate empowerment strategy for voiceless citizens. We will involve stakeholders according to our empowerment matrix, and improve our strategies to empower stakeholders who are less influential. For instance we will improve existing linkages with formal and informal institutions, and establish a zonal SAC network to get more influence for service improvements.
Interface meetings –We learned to carefully identify who should participate in the interface meeting, and how to prepare for it with stakeholders. We will plan and implement a proper facilitation of the interface meeting. We have to improve our facilitation skills.
JAP - We will link the SAC more effectively with CBOs for dissemination of the JAP. We will get the JAP stamped by woreda and kebele officials, and post the JAP to disseminate it further. We are considering a ‘separate monitoring committee’ to monitor the JAP. We will work hard to mobilize citizens to assess customer satisfaction after JAP implementation. We learned a lot about the role of the SAC to lead and work closely with citizen groups and council, which is unlike what we knew before coming.
Sustainability - We were keeping sustainability to a later stage, but now we realize that it should be from the beginning a key element and we have gained insights in that regard. For instance we would now like to establish a service users forum, and establish SA clubs at schools. We will further strengthen the SAC capacity, for instance to link it with local organizations like Iddir, to make a strong link with the Woreda Council, and to improve resource mobilization. We want to facilitate experience sharing for scaling up to non-targeted kebeles and adjacent woredas. We will develop a sustainability plan to scale to other sectors and kebeles. We will continue to link with FTA for joint review and joint monitoring.
Behavior change and service improvements - We will improve our documentation and reporting of success stories and good practices, as we are seriously limited in this area.
Media - We have understood the importance of working with the media for visibility and sharing of learning and of project results. We now have a broader perspective in identifying media to promote SA instead of focusing on only one prime channel.
Grants and Finance – We will review our project budget and utilize it more efficiently.
Learning among SAIPs – We have better understood the need to hold experience sharing in a coordinated manner, for instance CFAFI, AFSR, AFD and SOS Sahel have made a forum in Addis Ababa, and developed a MoU for it. Cooperation among SAIPs is
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important, and we are inspired to arrange more experience sharing events. We will work to establish SAIPs – Government forums.
SAIPs appreciated “the well-organized workshop that helped us to see our performance and the areas of improvement we should make”. They appreciated the fact that service users and providers were invited – “innovative”!
“The methodology of the Learning Benchmark workshops is amazing and we were really able to learn from each other.” PC REST “We have learned from each of you and for that we sincerely thank you”
PC HUNDEE
“ESAP-PSNP collaboration is in the making. A thorough stakeholder analysis and integration of GRB are vital for achievement. SA is not just service delivery improvement, but is trust building. Continue the good work in linking up with the council and among each other.”
Buli Edjeta, PSNP consultant – World Bank “Thank you very much for your good work in this workshop. I think it was well organised and the participants were very active in the group work, which is always a good sign.”
Chiara Pittalis, Governance Section - Irish Aid
12.3 BoFEDs We appreciated the government of Ethiopia, the SAIPs and the MA for organizing these
sessions. ESAP2 is contributing to the government effort to bring about good governance.
We appreciated the approach, the possibility of engaging all participants without boring them, time management and other skills of the facilitators. They have played a real facilitation role, which is much more difficult than training. Most of the sessions were interactive including the seating arrangement which is inviting for more discussions among participants.
We observed that women participants, though they are very few, including the facilitators, are really empowered in this group. In SA, participation of both men and women is stressed for the prioritization of issues.
We as BoFED understand what our role should be and how to support this important program, and have enhanced our understanding through this experience sharing. For instance, we learned about the need to identify the right strategy to empower/work with the stakeholders using the empowerment matrix.
We call for continuing improvement of the communication between SAIPs and BoFED for collaboration, and we will continue to monitor and review the work of SAIPs in our respective regions (e.g. BoFEDs of Amhara, Gambella and Tigray regions already conducted SA project monitoring).
We better appreciate the need to institutionalize SA to ensure its sustainability.
“SAIPs are so committed for their work. They treat issues and report the challenges. The activities identified at every facility, and those included in JAP are impressive. Know that the Grievance Redress Mechanism can help SAIPs and SAC members to enforce the JAP.”
A representative of the Federal Ombudsman at Adama Cluster
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13. Executive Directors Day
Immediately after the learning benchmark workshops, the MA honoured the PV makers for documenting SA activities and engaging citizens in SA through PV. The PV Oscar award was held at the Executive Directors Day (EDD), organized on 29 August 2014 in Addis Ababa, where directors of all 49 SAIPS and 57 sub-partners came together to share experiences, and to discuss sustainability and institutionalization of SA, in collaboration with MoFED and its FTA program.
13.1 Oscar competition – Participatory Video 70 PVs of 5 minutes each were submitted by 14 SAIPs for the ESAP2 Oscar competition. The PV makers were assessed based on the strong SA message and creativity of the video, as well as their ability to engage citizens in community dialogue and through social media.
Redeem the Generation (RtG) won the first prize, consisting of the PV Oscar trophy and a set of video camera equipment while Amhara Development Association (ADA) and Action for Self Reliance (AFSR) won the second and third prizes respectively.
Box 11: Participatory Video explained by the Oscar winner – RtG
“We have learned from this PV experience that it is important to capture the sense of the community, because otherwise, when trying to implement programs you might miss important things. Through the videos we were able to both capture and measure the change in the community that SA projects brought about and how service providers and service givers have experienced it. Two of our staff participated in the PV training in February 2014. When they came back from the training, they informed everybody so we all became aware and were encouraged to assist them when making the videos. They made five videos about the health sector in Matehara. After sharing the videos with the community they would see themselves and others and became encouraged to participate themselves. Now we are trying to train more staff on PV so that we can capture all the SA programs.”
Melaku Sebhat, Executive Director RGT
Government Expenditure Management and Control Program Director Ato Musa Mohamed from MoFED handed over awards and certificates to winners and participants of the PV Oscar competition.
The videos show interviews, conversations and practices among different SA stakeholders from community groups, service providers, woreda officials, SAC members and others. PV is a form of media addressing in which a group or community creates its own film. PV is also a great way
of bringing people together, giving a voice to vulnerable groups or individuals and solving problems within communities since everyone is encouraged to be part of the video
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production. Consequently the videos are shown in different communities, sparking debates and discussions.
Over 28 participants from 14 SAIPS were trained in PV making in two rounds in December 2013 and February 2014 in Addis Ababa and Adama respectively. The MA is currently conducting a third round of PV training for an additional 11 SAIPs in the first week of September 2014. The PVs have been made available on the ESAP2 YouTube channel over the past two months via playlists on www.youtube.com/esap2.
13.2 Participatory Video for monitoring and evaluation Opportunities and challenges were discussed regarding linking PV with monitoring and evaluation in the organisation, and SAIPs identified how to overcome them.
Table 8: Challenges and opportunities to use Participatory Video for M&E
Opportunities How to use these
Dissemination of PV via social
media – real stories from the
people to promote work and
organization;
Documentation of results;
Clearly shows progress in a
project – community in a
participatory way
Room to include PV in the M&E systems of an
organization – also for other projects
PV will help to have quality documentation
step by step of the SA process from the
beginning to finalization (which is a weakness
now). This is to document and promote work
and will help with resource mobilization
Opportunities far outweigh the challenges –
PV really supports a constructive dialogue
needed for SA: it is empowering for
vulnerable people (especially women, young
people, disabled and PLWHIV/AIDS) and
other social groups to make their voice heard;
It is an excellent way to promote work
through social media;
It is a good input for dissemination of SA in
the collaboration with FTA: with media and
radio.
Challenges How to overcome them
Lack of equipment: camera,
microphone and a tripod;
It is demanding to produce just a
few good minutes of video;
Management to agreement to the
time input
Budget support was a big debate
– how to prioritize it in the
project budget;
Collective action of SAIPs for resources
M&E officers to be trained in PV
Dedicate own (M&E) resources and make PV
one of the key strategic activities in M&E
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Questions and Answers – Participatory Video for M&E
Question: The communication and PR officer was not accepted in the project budget. Where available they can be involved in PV, but they need to come on board where MA can train / support on SA. Anseer: The MA gives high priority to project coordinators and staff who are directly involved in the SA program and who are involved as M&E officer, but PR/Communication staff have been invited to SA training before, and some have taken part in the PV training.
Question: Does ESAP2 provide equipment support? Answer: MA ESAP2 suggests financing PV from the budget lines for Monitoring and Evaluation and/or from community meetings budget. Budget modifications are always possible when well argued. However the budget for such initiatives is limited. Therefore, organizations themselves could make PV one of their priority strategies and could raise and allocate funds for equipment for instance.
Question: Does ESAP2 involve national level media for the PV? Answer: This PV Oscar event was our first activity to involve national media, and make them aware of the ESAP2 program and the results the program is already achieving, although the project only finishes by the end of 20158.
Question: Does ESAP2 build local capacities in PV? Answer: Yes, already a team of local trainers is developed to conduct the PV training. This process has started since February and is continued in September 2014. Also individual SAIPs build capacities in PV in their own organization.
Question: Do communities have a say if the video can be disseminated through social media or other meetings or platforms? Answer: The SAIPs have been trained and instructed that they should always ask the permission from the community in advance if the videos will be broadcasted, but they also have to ask for their permission again after the videos have been presented at the community dialogue meeting.
Impact of the presentations and discussions of the Executive Directors meeting
PV makers from two organisations (ADA and AAWA) reported after the meeting, that their Executive Directors have promised to obtain appropriate camera equipment to stimulate PV making in their organization. The EDD event triggered an increased interest for PV making and many organisations see the benefit for using this tool for monitoring and evaluation purposes and documentation. ‘The real life stories are captured in the community” expressed some of the SAIPs.
13.3 Learning Benchmark results The main lessons and results from the learning benchmark workshops (see chapter 1) were presented to the Executive Directors and discussed. One of the interesting aspects was the role of the council and regional parliaments.
8 During the EDD the MA was able to announce an extension of the project implementation period for the First Group of 30 SAIPs with an additional nine months until 30 September 2015.
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Box 12: Good practice: Regional Council Tigray
The Tigray regional council social affairs standing committee chair attended a woreda interface meeting organized by Tigray Youth Association (TYA). During the event the chair learned that Woredas are achieving exemplary results through their SA activities (e.g. Kola Tembein Woreda of TYA). This encouraged the committee to monitor SA activities, and also to create a viable collaboration with SAIPs operating in the region. The council affirmed that high level support and enforcement is necessary for the implementation of JAPs at Woreda level, and also acknowledged the need to mobilize resources for issues that are beyond the Woreda budget. Taking advantage of the momentum, TYA invited the council to its review meeting at the regional capital where the speaker of the house was in attendance, among others. This was followed up with more meetings among all the 5 SAIPs in Tigray region (TYA, MfM, REST, ADCS and WAT). The speaker of the regional council is currently leading the establishment of a regional collaboration taskforce with the SAIPS, and the group has drafted an MoU to guide the envisaged collaboration.
13.4 SA institutionalisation – what’s next The MA briefly presented some of the key outcomes of the Social Network Analysis survey, which is available on the ESAP2 website. One of the main findings is that the SA network is functioning well, but highly dependent on the MA. This is not good for sustainability. The Executive Directors have a fairly dense network that could perform learning functions in the future, but the strength of this network does not filter down into their organisations: networking among the ESAP2 projects is weak and regional networks are virtually non-existent.
The MA will contribute to the development of a mid–term strategy to make SA a lasting concept within the Ethiopian society. To achieve a successful institutionalization of SA, it is crucial to involve the different sectors more actively in the SA process. In addition, the MA will map and streamline SA related activities, supported by other institutions to avoid any overlap and/or duplication of activities. With strong performing SAIPs, discussions will continue to create so-called regional SA related hubs, which are expected to take the lead in gradually disseminating the SA message at regional and local level. Participating SAIPs at the EDD elected 5 organisations (HUNDEE, JECCDO, REST, RVCWDO and NEWA) to discuss future possibilities and the role of the MA in establishing centres of excellence and/or creating a pool of SA expertise. All in all such activities should ideally result in an overall government strategy on SA which will make it possible to also allocate a budget for SA related activities both at federal and regional/local level in Ethiopia.
Areas of institutionalisation work that have been identified are:
How do citizens get access to information about sector/region specific service standards,
plans and budgets? Helpful government practices, e.g. FTA, citizens’ charter, good
governance post.
How do the SA tools work out in practice? Sector specific adjustments of SA tools,
capacity to use the tools for service users and providers, cultural and gender sensitivity.
What is the nature of service improvements that are occurring across sectors? What is
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the investment from citizens and local governments to make these changes happen?
What are reasons for non-response? What regional or national policy lessons may be
learned from this experience?
How to sustain the SAC and/or the function it performs? Linking with existing
organizations, traditional structures, councils and government mechanisms for citizens
participation – sustaining inclusion of vulnerable groups, gender mainstreaming.
How to spread SA beyond the project kebeles and woredas? Partner efforts to spread the
SA messages and practice, peer-to-peer strategies, likelihood of spread without SAIPs
How to sustain the availability of SA expertise? Pool of SA experts and Centres of
Excellence
Picture: Rolf Hunink – team leader of the MA at the Bahir Dar workshop
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Annex 1: Participants in the learning benchmark meetings
Cluster-1 (Central Oromia)
Cluster-2 (Central Oromia)
SAIP No. of staff
SAIP No. of staff
RCWDO 12
HUNDEE 10
EOC 10
ODA 9
PDN 12
WCAT 11
APAP 9
HFC 11
RCDE 9
MENA 9
Total 52
Total 50
date 11 - 12 august
date 14 - 15 august
place Adama
place Adama
Cluster-3 (Central Oromia)
Cluster-4 (Central Oromia)
SAIP No. of staff
SAIP No. of staff
YMCCD 10
PADET 10
JECCDO 11
Cheshire 10
UEWCA 12
AAWA 8
SOS Sahel 15
HIDA 9
WSA 11
Total 48
Total 48
date 14 - 15 august
date 22 - 23 august
place Shashemene
place Shashemene
Cluster-5 (South)
Cluster-6 (South)
SAIP No. of staff
SAIP No. of staff
GDA 10
PICDO 12
AFSR 11
AFD 9
KMG 7
Save Lives 8
ADV 8
Love in Action 11
AEPA 7
GIEDA 7
Total 43
Total 47
date 14 - 15 August
date 22 - 23 August
place Hawassa
place Hawassa
Cluster-7 (West)
Cluster-8 (Tigray)
SAIP No. of staff
SAIP No. of staff
ILU 11
TYA 11
VECOD 10
WAT 11
SWDA 10
M4M 11
ECC 8
ADCS 9
EWLA 9
REST 9
Total 48
Total 51
date 22 - 23 August
date 18 - 19 August
place Adama
place Mekele
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Cluster-9 (Amhara)
Cluster-10 (East)
SAIP No. of staff
SAIP No. of staff
NEWA 12
NSAC 11
MS 11
RTG 7
ADA 10
CFID 9
EIFDDA 12
OWDA 12
MLYAM 8
AMUDAEAS 12
Total 53
Total 51
date 18 - 19 August
date 18 - 19 August
place Bahir Dar
place Dire Dawa
Total SAIP staff 491
SAC members:
Citizen representatives 49
Service provider representatives 49
Total SAC members 98
Other guests:
BOFED 44 Deputys, Channel one, FTA and NGO desk
MOFED 10 Channel one, FTA, EMCP. Etc
Development Partners 8 Including, WB, DFID,Irish Aid, EU, Kfw, Aus aid, UNICEF, ….etc
CSOs 11 1 non ESAP NGO per region
sectors 5 5 thematic sectors targeted by ESAP- ministrial level
Ombudsman 2 Director & GRM coordinator
Charities and Societies Agency 5 Director, NGO monitoring units
PSNP 2
Management network relations 5 CSSP, CSF,TECS
Others total: 92
GRAND TOTAL PARTICIPANTS 681 (= invited)
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Annex 2: Draft Action Plan FTA-SA linkage
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Channel One Programs Coordination Unit
Draft Work Plan to implement FTA-SA Linkages
Period: from …… to ……..
S/N Key Activities Tasks to be performed Deliverables/Output Responsible Body Due Date Current Status 1 Distribute Summary of the
approved study report to BoFEDs
Prepare summary report
Summary report prepared and distributed for use
MoFED/COPCU-SA team Early July 2014
The report summary has already been prepared. It will be distributed together with the Action Plan and Implementation Guideline.
Send the summary report to all BoFEDs MoFED/COPCU-SA team End of August 2014
2 Develop Detail Action Plan to implement the linkage
Conduct kickoff meeting for the preparation of the Action Plan(Brainstorm ideas and agree on the action plan format)
Action Plan developed and distributed for implementation
Members of the FTA/SA Linkage study team
Early July 2014
Meeting conducted on July 01,2014
Prepare the 1st draft Action Plan
MoFED/COPCU-SA team End of July
2014 The 1
st draft is prepared
Circulate the 1st draft action plan to members of
the study team for comments MoFED/COPCU-SA team ,, ,, Done
Provide feedback on the draft Action Plan Members of the FTA/SA Linkage study team
1st week of
August 2014
Prepare the 2nd
draft by incorporating comments from members of the study team as appropriate
MoFED/COPCU-SA team August 8-10, 2014
Circulate the 2nd
draft action plan to members of the SA Steering Committee for comments
SA Steering Committee Secretariat
August 11,2014
Finalize the Action Plan by incorporating comments from members of the steering committee as appropriate
MoFED/COPCU-SA team August 12-14,2014
Discuss and approve the Action Plan SA Steering Committee August 15, 2014
Distribute the approved Action Plan to BoFEDs and other concerned bodies for implementation
MoFED/COPCU-SA team End of August 2014
3 Prepare Guidelines for the implementation of the linkage
Prepare a draft guiding note with clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of key actors to implement the linkage
Guidelines prepared and distributed to BoFEDs
MoFED/COPCU-SA team 1st week of
August 2014 Preparation of the draft guideline is started
Circulate the draft note to members of the study team for comments
MoFED/COPCU-SA team August 8, 2014
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S/N Key Activities Tasks to be performed Deliverables/Output Responsible Body Due Date Current Status Provide feedback on the draft Guidance Note Members of the study
team August 9-13, 2014
Finalize the Guideline by incorporating comments from members of the study team as appropriate and share it to BoFEDs
MoFED/COPCU-SA team End of August 2014 in FTA annual review workshop
4 Establish Linkage Coordination Committee at regional level
Identify Committee members Linkage Coordination Committee established
BoFEDs Sep-Oct 2014
Establish the committee based on the implementation guidelines
Issue Terms of Reference as per the guideline
Conduct a regional kickoff meeting with the presence of representatives from the study team
5 Organize ESAP2 MA led capacity development trainings/workshops, and learning events
Conduct regional Learning Benchmark workshop
Workshops conducted and capacity of implementers and partners enhanced
ESAP2 MA Ongoing The2nd
benchmark workshop is scheduled to take place in 6 cluster areas(Adama, Bahir Dar, Mekele , Sahsemene, Dire Dawa and Hawassa) from August 11-23, 2014
Jointly facilitate training on Social Accountability and selected tools(esp GRB and PPB)
MA in collaboration with Budget and Gender Affairs Directorates of MoFED particularly in PPB and GRB related trainings respectively.
Ongoing The ESAP2 MA will organize GRB training in Addis from August 7-8-, 2014
Provide training to woreda PFM members and relevant BoFED staffs to strengthen linkage facilitation skills.
BoFED-COPCU supported by ESAP2 MA
Periodically B/Gumuz BoFED with the support of the ESAP2 MA provided a 2 days training to BoFED staffs and PFM members represented from 40 woredas.
Arrange awareness raising sessions to officials and council members at different level(regional, woreda and kebele level)
BoFED-COPCU with support from MA/SAIPs and MoFED
Periodically
6 Facilitate SAIPs led Social Accountability rollout trainings
Facilitate SA rollout training by SAIPs Trainings conducted and Local level capacity on SA issues enhanced
SAIPs Periodically
Conduct rollout training and invite PFM members and local officials from woredas
SAIPs ,, Trainings are planned to be conducted July-Sep 2014 in regions of Oromia, SNNP, and B/Gumuz.
7 Organize FTA/SA Review Workshops/Meetings
Conduct FTA Annual Review Workshop Workshop/meetings conducted and proceedings/minutes prepared
MoFED-EMCP/FTA Focal Point
End of each EFY
Annual review workshop for 2006 EFY is planned to take place on August 27-28,2014
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S/N Key Activities Tasks to be performed Deliverables/Output Responsible Body Due Date Current Status Invite MA and MoFED-SA Focal Points to participate in FTA workshop
Prepare workshop proceedings
Conduct ESAP2 stakeholders review and experience sharing meetings
MA/SAIPs End of each quarter
Meetings for 2014 are planned to take place in July, Sep & Dec.
8 Develop Guidelines for FTA Pre/Post Budget Discussion Forums
Prepare draft guideline Meetings Conducted, comments collected and Guideline finalized.
EMCP-FTA Early Sept 2014
Draft Guideline has already been prepared. Meetings will be conducted to discuss on the draft guideline in selected regions and woredas.
Arrange meetings to discuss on the draft guideline - Invite MA, SAIP operating in the region/woreda, and MoFED SA team to participate in the discussion
,, ,, Sept-Oct 2014
Finalize the guideline by incorporating the comments as appropriate and distribute for use
,, ,, End of October 2014
9 Arrange participatory planning and citizens-state collaboration work
Facilitate woreda interface meetings and develop a reform agenda. SAIPs to invite FTA/PFM team and other regional linkage implementers
Interface Meetings conducted and Joint Action Plans developed.
SAIPs Ongoing
Jointly follow up the implementation of service improvement Plans
SAIPs PFM members
Ongoing
Social Accountability committee to promote objectives of both FTA and SA among citizens.
SAIPs SAC
,,
Involve PFM in the woreda Social Accountability committee
SAIPs ,,
Involve woreda Social Accountability committee representative in PFM committee as members.
EMCP-FTA Woreda PFM chair
,,
Arrange pre and post budget discussion forums facilitated by FTA team
FTA/PFM team Periodically
Involve members of Social Accountability committee in the pre/post budget discussion forums and BLTs
,, Ongoing
Align the SA process with the FTA budget process
SAIP and FTA At beginning of EFY
FTA and SAIPs to harmonize their work plans and jointly facilitate community activities.
,, Ongoing
Discuss pooling of resources (money, skills and ,, ,, ,,
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S/N Key Activities Tasks to be performed Deliverables/Output Responsible Body Due Date Current Status logistics) for community consultation meetings.
10 Undertake progress monitoring and reporting
Develop linkage implementation progress reporting format in consultation with members of the study team
Reporting template developed
MoFED/COPCU-SA team Early Sep 2014
Prepare and submit implementation progress reports to (whom) on quarterly basis
Progress reports prepared and submitted
BoFED/FTA, MoFED/COPCU-SA team
End of each quarter
Provide closer technical support to regions and woredas
MoFED/BoFED Ongoing
Conduct joint field visits to closely follow-up and monitor implementation of activities in common
Field visits conducted and reports / minutes for meetings prepared
MA/SAIP and MoFED/BoFED
End of each quarter
Undertake implementation progress review meetings among ……
Federal TWG End of each month
Conduct oversight meetings SA Steering Committee End of each quarter
Participate in regional Pre-JRIS Missions WB,MA/SAIP,MoFED/BoFED
Every six month
11 Disseminate linkage related documents and information
Prepare ESAP2 News Flash taking into account FTA related issues
Documents prepared and disseminated
MA Periodically News Flash for the remaining period of 2014 will be prepared in Sep and Dec 2014
Identify and share linkage related good practices to regions
EMCP-FTA and ESAP2-MA
Periodically
Work together with media disclosure(for common issues)
EMCP-FTA and ESAP2-MA
Ongoing
Include SA related issues in disseminating FTA issues through MoFED’s website; and the vice versa.
EMCP-FTA ESAP2-MA
,,
12 Promote institutionalization and sustainability of various transparency and accountability initiatives
Strengthen and enhance local accountability structures such as Kebele assembles, woreda & regional councils, Women & Youth associations, and PTAs in schools to promote and ensure institutionalization and sustainability of FTA and SA activities in the country through the provision of FTA/SA related capacity building efforts, and inviting their members to various events and review meetings. In addition, promoting local officials and service providers to apply SA tools in their work and monitor their services.
Representatives trained and participated in review meetings. Service providers apply selected SA tools to monitor their services.
ESAP2 MA, SAIPs, Govt DPs
Ongoing
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Annex 4: ESAP2 Most Significant Change - story format This format is designed as an additional tool for SAIPs to collect qualitative information about the most significant change that has been achieved through their SA project. It helps to systematically record and report on service improvement results (quality and access), as well as on the processes that have led to these results (citizen mobilization and service provider response).
Project Coordinators, M&E Officers, and Woreda Coordinators use the format to interview selected individual stakeholders, such as citizens (including a selection of social and vulnerable groups), service providers at facility level, woreda officials, and council members. The format can only be used by a competent interviewer, as it requires probing and follow-up questioning that invites stakeholders to tell their experience with as much detail as possible.
The recording is also important: as much as possible the words of the interviewee (story teller) should be used. It is therefore recommended to tape the interview, or to capture it on video. It is also recommended to take pictures of the interviewee, possibly at the facility where things have changed.
The most significant change stories will be used for a number of purposes including:
Documentation of program-wide qualitative information that is otherwise difficult to
capture
Analysis of processes that have achieved change in the behavior of stakeholders
Compilation of typical service improvements (quality and access) that can be achieved
through SA
As a collection, the most significant change stories will help the MA and SAIPs to understand stakeholders value, to improve what we are doing, to celebrate successes, and to be accountable to the people whom we are serving as well as to the development partners (donors).
1. Background information of the story teller If the interviewee wishes to remain anonymous don’t record the name, but always record the other background information
Name of the story teller:
Age:
Sex:
Type of stakeholder (tick – and specify as indicated): o Citizen (specify social or vulnerable group) o Service provider (specify sector, position, facility) o Government official (specify position) o Council Member (specify position/organization)
Specify:
Location (Region/Woreda/Kebele):
Sector:
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2. Questions to understand the current situation/context of the story teller
2.1 Tell me how you (the storyteller) first became involved with Social Accountability?
2.2 What is your current involvement with Social Accountability?
3. Questions to understand the most significant change experienced by the interviewee (story teller)
3.1 From your point of view, what has been the most significant change that has resulted from Social Accountability in your woreda/kebele?
3.2 Why is this change so significant for you? (compared to before)
3.3 How did such change happen? Who was involved? How?
3.4 What is the impact of this change on your life? On the life of the community as a whole?
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Sample Most Significant change stories – Dire Dawa Cluster
Mohamed Mussei, Age 29, government official/ woreda finance, procurement officer sector health
I was invited to a woreda launching workshop organised by CDSA. As a result I was elected to be the member of the woreda SAC. Currently, I am the chairperson of Guled Woreda SAC.
The significant change that has resulted from SA is: behavior change among the community, because there is high participation now to improve service delivery. It is significant because service improvements make me happy. The result is a fruit of my effort as well as of my colleagues. I gained respect and recognition in the community.
The change happened as a result of awareness and sensitization activities carried out by CDSA, and FDGs and interface meeting in which service providers, service users, religious leaders, women groups and others participated. The impact of this change on my life is gaining respect and recognition among the community. For the community it is the service improvement as a whole. There is now solar energy at the clinic, so it is much easier for services at night, like delivery.
Mr Haji Juhar Mohammed, Woreda SAC chairman
I was invited by the WC and selected by the community on the SAC committee.
Before, health professionals did not come to the health centre, but now they are strong, with better services and the community also began to ask for more services to meet their needs. To bring these changes, the community, CBOs, SAC, government officials, service providers and AMUDEAES are involved. The impact on my life is that I am getting better health services when I go to the health centre, and indirectly my family members are also getting better services now than before. For instance, concerning ambulance services, the officials used to use the ambulance for themselves, but now we get the ambulance immediately when we call the health centre. In addition, the medicine shortage problem in the pharmacy is also solved. We get medicines with fair prices at this moment.
Adefrese Alemu, 48 male, citizen and member of the SA committee East Newerse Woreda, education sector
AMUDEAES established the woreda and kebele SAC and Adefrese was selected as chairperson, to facilitate project implementation and cooperation among stakeholders.
Before, people, especially vulnerable groups like PLWHA, PWD, women group, elderly, youth and others were not given the opportunity to voice their demands, but now, as a result of SA, these groups are voicing to the concerned bodies. The change is significant because such groups were not given attention by decision makers, and there were no platforms at all where they could discuss their issues, and demand their entitlements. It is now that these people come out of their house and discuss their issues publicly.
The change happened because the project established FDG for each specific group, so they can actively discuss among themselves, and then share and prioritise together with others. Service providers are also trying to bring out the gaps on their side to improve the services.
To see marginalised groups come out and discuss their issues is a significant step forward
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and Ato Adefrese is pleased with such a change. Since the project is at the start, he expects much more impact in the future.
Debebe Mekonet, 29 male, Government official, Oromia, Metahara, Ol Kebele
I was nominated to be a SAC member, and currently I am the chairperson.
The most significant change is that users and providers communicate together to see what is going on and to solve problems. I used to expect everything from the government, but now I know that it concerns me, so I need to be involved. I can play a role in solving service problems. The community also understands their right to ask proper services from the government.
Ismael Farah Je, 41 male, citizen
I participated in a sensitisation meeting, and got the idea about the SA project. I am now in the SAC to strengthen the service delivery for our community in education and health.
There is a big change in the community links with service providers to improve the service delivery system. I am proud now to ask the administration and service providers to improve. There is also an increased contribution in developing services, like financial or manpower or ideas. Through sensitisation there are more linkages between all stakeholders. The community started talking about their needs, and they are ready to contribute on any issue raised.
Debebe, 29, male, service provider, Metehara kebele 1
I was selected by the community to be involved in SA. I am currently the chairperson of the SAC. The most significant change that has resulted is the proper linkage between service users and providers, and their collaboration to solve social problems. The attitudes towards each other have changed. There was a culture to leave everything to the government, and people were afraid, but now everything is solved through dialogue. The change happened due to the SA intervention in our area.
Mesele Jilma, 46, male, service provider, education, Afar, Awash Fentale woreda
I was selected by my organisation to be trained by RTG. I am the chair of the SAC. We have 9 members, and similar structures in the kebeles. Citizen empowerment is the most significant change. It is my satisfaction, because it is my duty to provide services for the people. This change happened due to the strong partnership between citizens and service providers, and council after the capacity building training, orientation and continuous sensitization. I feel empowered for service provision, because it is now more accessible. My children also get improved education.
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Annex 5: Observations on overall grants and financial management performance of SAIPs
Strengths Weaknesses
Most SAIPs have met the reporting deadlines which is very much appreciated;
Lack of understanding on the procurement plan and contract registration as well as failure to follow the right procurement procedures during procurement;
Financial report quality becomes better and better from time to time which is also good;
Most SAIPs spend more than the budgeted amount even beyond the permissible rate;
Most SAIPs are responsive in case of missing documents;
Some SAIP financial reports lack proper documentation to substantiate the reported costs;
Some SAIPs submit the right forecast on time;
Loose partnership between lead and sub-partners. Review meetings have not taken place that much between the lead and sub-partners. This needs to be improved.
Rate of delivery/implementation of the project was very low as activities were not completed as per the plan.
Requirements for reporting schedule and details are not incorporated in sub partner’s agreement with the lead.
Key ESAP2 full-time project positions, such as the project coordinator and project accountant are, apart from the ESAP2 project, also in charge for other projects implemented by that SAIP. However the salary of these two positions is charged for 100% to ESAP2.
Detailed reports for quarterly review meetings, monitoring and evaluation field visits and each training and workshops sessions are not prepared.
Most of the budget modification requests lack justification and the budgets are not detailed enough to see reasonability which needs to be improved.
Most SAIPs do not attach the right budget forecast with the quarterly financial report
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Annex 6: Presentation Exchange Visit Background:
Event- Experience Sharing
Time- July 16-18, 2014
Organizers- RTG , JECCDO and OWDA
Host- RTG (Awash and Metehara towns)
Organizations- RTG, JECCDO, OWDA and WCAT
Regions- Afar, Amhara, Dire Dawa, Oromia, SNNPR and Somali
Participants- ESAP2, SAC members, Citizens, service providers and woreda officials
Methodology:
Intra and inter organization experience sharing
Field visit
Mini exhibition
Groups discussion on selected issues
Presentation of experiences and video
Participants’ shared experiences on:
How they have been implementing SA (e.g. functioning of SAC, Recognition of SAC
RtG)
The three party : citizen, executive and council
The importance of having good relation with government officials and sector offices RtG
How to ensure that vulnerable groups benefit from service improvements: OWDA
How SA can be sustained and what needs to be done in the next few months to ensure
that.
How SA can be scaled up to other Kebeles/sectors
Some of the learning
MoUs – SACs & Sector offices JECCDO
Who participates in the IM
Wereda council approval of JAP : JECCDO
Ensuring vulnerable groups also benefit from service improvements
Establishing/strengthening site level structures for sustainability, e.g. SA clubs. WCAT
Information Dissemination: using local media, IEC materials
Consider Context
Working with influential people - Elders and clan leaders group at afar
Dagu of afar
SA FTA linkage RTG
• Linkage between participants in the SA process and institutions or association • Concern from facilitators ? • How far is the role of SAC?
Message from MA and World Bank officials: Sustainability , Dissemination, Scale up
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Annex 7: SA Project Mid-Term Self-Assessment format
Objective: to measure the SAIP performance and progress made towards achieving outputs as well as documenting lessons learnt.
Name of SAIP: Project operational area:
Social Accountability Project performance assessment criteria:
Assessment / explanation
Relevance of the project:
Are the right things being done - to what extent is your SA project really contributing to service improvement? Explain
Effectiveness:
Are your project objectives being achieved or expected to be achieved? If so explain.
What specific results have been achieved so far?
Efficiency:
Are the project actions and results achieved in an economic way?
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Social Accountability Project performance assessment criteria:
Assessment / explanation
Sustainability:
What mechanisms are in place to sustain SA?
To what extent will the positive benefits and practices of the SA initiatives continue after the project funding ends?
Recommendations:
What specific recommendations do you have for improving the implementation of the SA project?
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Annex 8: Summary Mid-Term Self-Assessment results of 34 SAIPs Following the learning benchmark workshops, SAIPs were required to fill out the Mid-Term Self-Assessment (MTSA) aimed at measuring the SAIPs performance and progress made towards achieving outputs as well as documenting lessons learnt (see format annex 7). The following summary report shows the major issues identified from the MTSA reports received from 34 SAIPs as of September 30, 2014. The mid-term self-assessment is based on the following social accountability project performance assessment criteria:
1. Relevance 2. Effectiveness 3. Efficiency 4. Sustainability 5. Recommendations
1. Relevance of the SA Project
As it is explained by SAIPs, the SA projects are relevant and contributing for service improvement due to the following reasons:
More than anything, the awareness of service users has dramatically increased. Service users know their rights, entitlements and responsibilities, and they are contributing to and demanding for better quality public basic service delivery. The attitude of service providers towards the service users has also improved due to their increased awareness. Service providers and service users have started to see one another as allies for better quality public basic services. Nothing is more important than this to improve service delivery.
The activities such as capacity building trainings organized for the citizens, as well as the service providers and government officials enables citizens to voice their service entitlements, and enables service providers and government officials to respond to these requests of citizens.
Through the application of the SA tools, citizens and service providers developed joint service improvement plans and are implementing these plans.
In general, the SA projects have been designed based on the local service problems, and the projects are systematically addressing these problems, as could be seen from the work done thus far. SAIPs have not observed negative trends that affect projects progress and their expected contributions to service delivery improvements.
Projects have been creating awareness on the part of users, and have been challenging service providers to think about the effectiveness and quality of the service. Previously, service providers would seek community participation for certain pre-determined objectives, but now the focus is on how to address problems identified through pro-active engagement of citizens.
Service providers have started making assessments regarding their service provision after the implementation of SA. SAIP report that service providing institutions gave training and awareness creation programs on how to improve their service delivery system.
Communities in the targeted kebeles have developed a sense of ownership about the project. Improvements in the selected sectors are in high demand by communities, and they are contributing resources for service improvements. Both the communities and the service providers have accepted the project and implement it.
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The right people (vulnerable and socially excluded) have been selected to participate and to loudly voice their rights.
The SA projects promote community participation, a sense of development ownership among the community, citizens’ demand for service entitlements, accountability and transparency in government service delivery, good governance, democratization and inclusion of all the different segments of society. The projects are not only relevant to the improvement of basic service delivery through social accountability, but they are also very relevant to the success of the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) and the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
Even second batch SAIPS have no hesitation to claim that the project is contributing to service improvements. Citizens now begin to raise their concerns in relation to the various issues related to the services that are being provided. In the long run, these efforts will definitely contribute to service improvements.
According to SAIPs, most of the service problems identified by the service users are being solved.
The relevance of SA activities can be seen from the changes that have occurred: service providers realized that they have the duty to serve the citizens in an accountable manner and that they can be held accountable by citizens, service users have gained knowledge on their entitlements and started demanding these; the implementation of the JAPs is followed up by Woreda SACs and Kebele SACs; community views and priorities are considered in the Woreda planning and budgeting for 2007 (Ethiopian calendar); the needs and concerns of marginalized community members are being considered; community participation has been enhanced; access to and quality of services provided has increased, and basic service facilities have improved through renovation of existing equipment, materials, and service points, as well as through the provision of additional ones. There are also improvements in the service and physical inputs that are required for the improvement of service delivery. The SA activities implemented in all the target Woredas have also challenged service providers and officials in all basic service sectors to assess their respective service delivery using the knowledge they gained through the training on SA issues.
The implementation of SA projects in the target Woredas has also helped to further ground FTA where it was not known and implemented as expected. SA projects are reported to have given impetus to FTA to post the Woreda budget plan and to implement FTA activities in all Kebeles. This has improved the budget transparency process of the Woredas.
2. Effectiveness:
The following are the major results of the SA project, which have been achieved so far:
The willingness and commitment of local government to respond to the citizens
service needs had increased and immediate actions have been taken (e.g a strong
fundraising community movement has been started both by the community and the
support of the local government).
With the orientation and capacity building training activities and SA tools application
exercises, the awareness of citizens and citizen groups on their service entitlements
has increased. As a result, the communities in the target localities have started to
claim responsive and quality service provision. Communities have developed a sense
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of ownership of the services, and this has resulted in better community participation
in and contribution to the service delivery improvement. In many localities, the
community members applied SA principles and tools to demand improved service
delivery in non-target sectors of respective Woredas.
Participation of women and vulnerable groups has been ensured.
Service users have been empowered to know their rights and are able to hold the
service providers accountable.
Service providers have acknowledged communities entitlements towards improved
basic service delivery.
Through frequent sensitization workshops and trainings organized at Woreda and
kebele level, service users, service providers and local government officials of the
target Woredas and Kebeles have gained awareness of citizens’ rights, entitlements
and responsibilities to contribute to and demand better quality service delivery.
The relationship and collaboration between service providers and users have highly
improved.
SA tools, CSC and PPB, realized by SAIPs and service providers and receivers.
Service users (citizens) in the intervention Woredas and Kebeles have assessed the performance of basic service delivery using CSC and engaged in constructive dialogue at the Interface meetings. From the interface meetings, reform agendas were derived that lead to improvement of service delivery in the target basic service sectors. JAPs were developed from the reform agendas that guide the realization of the service delivery improvements. The views and concerns of citizen groups were well addressed in the JAP that directly targeted to the service delivery improvements at a specific time period. Citizen groups also participated in the Woreda development planning and budgeting process and the budget of the Woredas have been shaped based on community priorities. This clearly indicates that citizen groups are empowered to actively participate in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the plan and budget execution that affects their lives as per the citizen engagement policy and strategies of the government.
Mutual agenda and actions plans of basic services delivery reform have been set and
execution has started.
Budget allocation for the Woreda and target sectors has improved and increased.
The community with service providers have rehabilitated health posts, school fence,
and constructed latrines and conducted combined desk maintenance.
Capacity of Woreda and kebele level SACs built to institutionalize the application and
mainstreaming of the SA concepts, tools and process during and after the project
period.
Strong Social Accountability Committee (SACs) created to run SA in Woreda and
Kebele levels.
Woreda and kebele level social accountability committees have been created that are
operating to promote social accountability in their respective Woredas and Kebeles
and facilitate the implementation of Joint Action Plan. To strengthen the Woreda
and Kebele SACs, trainings and periodic review meetings and experience sharing
events were organized and implemented.
SACs established and strengthened in each target Woredas and kebeles.
ESAP2 is properly linked with community based organizations like Iddirs and they
are acting accordingly.
Regular dialogue between government and citizens institutionalized.
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3. Efficiency
The project activities have been undertaken with minimum costs. Most of the project activities are being done on a voluntary basis.
Different public gatherings like Iddirs, religious centers and other regular forums were used to sensitize ESAP2 without paying much.
Budget earmarked for monitoring activities is extremely low; the monitoring activities have been conducted mainly by merging with other program activities.
The project actions and results are achieved in an economical way by utilizing the allocated budget for intended project activities plan without incurring additional costs. In addition project actions such as ongoing sensitization, SAC regular meetings, and other activities were successfully carried out without incurring any costs.
The project actions and results achieved thus far, are undertaking economically as planned. Many activities are conducted using opportunities, like free use of Hall for meeting with collaborating government offices, and sensitizing SA concepts during local gatherings like Iddir. As much as possible dissemination on the concept of SA to wider communities is taking place by committed SAC members. The software nature of the program is such that it could be done with limited resources, unlike hardware projects.
In the case of HUNDEE, PPB processes were originally planned to be supported by an external consultant. However, the process is facilitated by the project personnel and the money allocated for consultancy was used to support transportation of the PPB forum members. Project implementation documentation was planned to be carried out by external consultants; however, knowing that the price requested by the bidders was very high compared to budgeted amount, they negotiated with government communication offices of respective Woredas and facilitated the video recording of Woreda Interface Meeting proceedings with a very small allowance. In the area of administrative costs, despite the huge travels required, they managed to use the per diem and travel costs very economically compared to the actions carried out and results attained. Their effort to include participants from all kebeles of the target Woredas on launching workshops and interface meetings has resulted in reaching out to the wider public to share important messages and lessons from the process. This also indicates how economically the resources of the project were used.
The budget allocated for SA project is being utilized for the desired purpose. No expense is made for the purpose other than the project agreement. In the case of ODA, they implemented double activities by saving their budget. For instance, they conducted two rounds of community score card operation in all Kebeles, while the allocated budget was only for one round. OWDA plans to discuss with the community on how to conduct community score card without expecting funds from an external body.
4. Sustainability
Woreda and kebele level SACs are capacitated to continue to play a crucial role in sustaining SA in their respective woredas and kebeles. Some SAIPs report that SA clubs have been established in target schools. The government structures at all levels are also capacitated and started showing great interest to sustain SA concepts and tools beyond project intervention in sectors and kebeles.
Communities are strongly reflecting their commitment. In one case, communities in
the entire target kebeles have started mobilizing resources on a sustainable basis (e.g.
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they opened saving accounts and started saving) to improve the services provided
and contribute community’s share whenever any service providers want to deliver
additional development services now and in the future.
Woreda administrations incorporated a plan of target kebeles in the Woreda’s yearly
plan; Several SAIPs report that Woreda councils evaluate the project on a regular
basis.
The emphasis given by the government to the issue of good governance as a key element to boost accountability at all levels of the government machinery is a good input that help ensure the sustainability of the SA project.
The projects linked SAC to community, CBOs and to other government structures, aiming that these existing structures will continue to use SA tools and practices in the future.
Maintenance of large number of citizens in SAC to hold “citizens in the driver’s seat principle” in place.
Where feasible, the compositions of the SAC are not individuals, but rather institutions represent the community, like Women’s, Farmer’s, Youth’s, People with Disability, and People Living with HIV/AIDS associations are represented to make the SAC institution based.
Building the capacities of the SAC and the community at large on the concept of the SA and SA tool application ensures that there is a mass based support for SA.
5. Recommendations
5.1 Recommendations for MA
Increase the frequency of monitoring support from the MA Create competition between SAIPs based on the status of ESAP2 implementation. Detailed trainings to SAIP Directors, program managers, and finance and
administration sections, for common understanding about SA implementation. Past SA trainings have included only the ESAP2 project staffs.
Gather best practices from the country and abroad that help for the betterment and the sustainability of the SA projects.
To strengthen the SA process in the long term, there should be regular capacity building in the implementation of the SA process.
The SAC should get legal recognition. Trainings on documentation, communication, case story writing and M&E, has to be
considered.
5.2 Recommendations for SAIPs – SA project improvement
Continuous trainings and experience sharing events need to be facilitated for SAIPs
and SACs to improve their implementation capacity. It is also very important to allocate some budget for SAC meeting ( at least for the
monthly Woreda based Woreda and Kebele level joint SAC meetings to cover their transportation costs and refreshment)
Multi-tool approach especially implementing CSC and PPB jointly is very important for the two tools are very integrated.
Giving SA trainings for other NGOs to mainstream ESAP2. It is better to include all sectors or services so that citizens can identify all kinds of
service problems without any limit. Some basic services are highly interrelated, which
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makes it very difficult to solve one service problem without solving the other. Citizens also question us why we restrict them to certain service problems.
Properly link FTA and ESAP2 in all project areas. Empowering Iddirs to overtake the SA project. Sharing good practice of one project area to others. Giving refresher training for stakeholders. Media out-reach should be used as a tool to disseminate the process and findings
(local and national) so that SA culture is mainstreamed in all over the country’s development.
There should be a generic standard for the formation of SAC for all SAIPs and all the activities done during implementation and timing should be similar across all SAIPs, etc.
Implement SA project in other Woredas not yet reached by the project. Formal establishment of ESAP2 forum in the regions all over the country. Allocate a matching fund that would contribute to covering issue identified that have
significant budget implications, and that are beyond the financial capacities of the community and the local government to solve.
Institutionalization of SA through service providers, formation of strong SAC at Woreda and kebele level can also secure its sustainability.
Partnership among SAIPs must be strengthened and transparent. Local media should create opportunity for SAIP to use free time spaces to
disseminate SA implementation. In order to improve/strengthen the project implementation, monitoring the day to
day progress of the project and addressing the potential source of barriers through communication with the concerned bodies will be crucial.
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Annex 9: M&E - Behavior change and service improvements captured by Participatory Video
Participatory Video (PV) is an excellent means to capture qualitative information about processes and results in terms of behaviour change as well as service improvements. PV makers identified the SA results they were able to capture with stakeholders in the PVs for each of the sectors.
Education sector
Behavior change:
Community participation enabled service providers to respond and act;
Expression of interest/people are claiming their rights;
Proud for what has been done;
Behaviour change of people, they speak up;
Budgeting improvement
Service delivery level – School facilities:
Library/books (number)
School hygiene/toilet cleanliness
Facilities construction by community participation
SA club establishment
Hiring janitors (for cleaning at the school)
Health sector
Behavior change:
Citizens are requesting their needs & entitlements;
Citizens have come to understand there is a responsible body for any service delivery
gap;
Constructive dialogue between service users, providers and woreda officials
(dialogues as inputs & better planning)
Ownership
Initiation for improved service in the future
Budget transparency
Responsiveness of service providers
Service improvement:
Speedier service, and service according to the ethics (i.e. approach, dress, providing
the service)
Additional manpower, budget, rooms
Additional service – ambulance
Regular sanitation/ cleaning activities by the communities
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Water and sanitation sector
Behavior change - providers and users:
Started responding to requests
Sense of competition
Understood accountability for service delivery
Started reporting to the SAC
Enhanced community participation and contribution
Less served groups started getting involved and made their voice heard
No service improvements captured on video yet.
Agriculture sector
Behavior change:
Users ask questions and demand for their rights (for example many users claim that
water is the highest priority)
Service providers and users take up their responsibilities
Service improvement
Delivery of inputs such as fertilizer and seeds has improved and they are delivered
timely
Rural Roads sector
Behavior change:
The attitude has changed/ increased SA awareness
Community participation and ownership improved
Service users decided to increase new road accessibilities/demand
Able to identify standards
They know the road as a nerve and did not want to miss it
Service delivery level
Community road constructed for free
Damaged road constructed/ maintained
Watch the Participatory Videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/ESAP2Channel/playlists