Social Accountability in the Context of Transition in Arab States

1. Social Accountability in the Context of Transition in Arab States UNDP Regional Governance Week Cairo, November 2012 Jeff Thindwa World Bank Institute

2. Ways to Enhance Government Accountability? Varying success with these. What key lesson is success often depends on direct participation of the people 1. Rules and Regulations – administrative procedures, audits,… 2. Market Principles – privatization or contracting out to private sector and NGOs 3. Independent Agencies – ombudsman, vigilance commissions,… 4.“Social Accountability”

3. Defining Social Accountability ** ordinary citizens & CSOs participate in exacting accountability “an approach towards building accountability that relies on civic engagement”

4. DIAGONAL • Citizens directly engaged in horizontal accountability institutions • VERTICAL • Citizens and other non-state actors directly seeking/enforcing accountability of government Social Accountability and Other Accountability Forms • HORIZONTAL • Within government/checks and balances institutions

5. Organizing Framework for SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY • Participation • Stakeholder influence and control. Ensures ownership, sustainability, risk mitigation, public support of reforms • Collaboration • mechanisms for answerability and collaborative action • Transparency • Openness, accessibility of government at all levels. ACCOUNTABILITY • Joint solutions • Multi-stakeholder coalitions • Collaborative leadershipteams • ANSA Arab world • Demystifying and visualizing budget data; Disclosure mechanisms; Access to Information; stakeholder capacity building for users • Support for non-executive participation and monitoring • - Parliaments • - Media • - CSOs

6. Oversight by Non-State Actors: A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective • Public Accounts Committees (PACs) • Oversee implementation to guarantee proper budget execution • Service Delivery Monitoring Tools: Citizen report card, citizen score card, social audit, procurement & contract monitoring • Independent Budget Analysis Multi-stakeholder oversight • Budget Oversight • Public Hearing • Social Audits to oversees the processes • External audit & budget oversight

7. Focus on citizen engagement in accountability relationships Increase capacity of state to respond to public needs and effective oversight and redress State Improve enabling environment for citizen engagement in governance and public decision-making Politicians / Policymakers Independent Accountability Agencies Compact Voice Citizens/Clients Providers/Agencies Formal and Informal Social Intermediaries Willingness & Capacity to Respond and Account (political, socio-cultural, legal, and economic factors) Client Power Enhance capacity of social intermediaries to provide effective participation and oversight (to inform, monitor, and improve service provision) Improve capability ofcitizens to engage in governance Willingness & Capacity to Demand (political, socio-cultural, legal, and economic factors)

8. Citizen Engagement in Public Financial Management Budget Formulation Participatory Budgeting Porto Alegre, Brazil Performance Monitoring Zambia service delivery monitoring Nepal Social Audits Philippines CheckMySchool Procurement Monitoring Budget Review & Analysis DISHA, India IDASA, S. Africa Citizen Engagement Budget/Expenditure Tracking (Including Public Procurement) Uganda PETS ( Education and Health Sectors) – Philippines Procurement Watch

9. 2. Framework & Measurement: Examples The Power of Transparency and Monitoring: Primary Education in Uganda US$ per Student 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 1990 1991 1993 1994 1995 1999 Intended Grant Amount Received by School (mean)

10. How Social Accountability Works Enabling environment Legal Framework Bridgingmechanisms Information Political conditions Technology • Monitor:monitoring and oversight of the public sector through mixed methods (social audits; procurement monitoring, independent budget and policy analysis • Information from this will inform stakeholder demand – and the cycle continues. • Response: Actions to respond specifically to expressed demand (procurement monitoring reports); incentives to public officials linked to how they respond. Voice Strengthened Capacity of Government and Civil Society for SA

11. Framework for WBG support for Social Accountability in MENA • Strategic Level • Social Accountability mainstreamed into Country Strategies (Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt) Scope of SA interventions and outcomes in strategies • Political economy analysis • Access to Information: Capacity-building Better understanding of SA by civil society, governments, media and the private sector is enhanced (Morocco, Jordan,Lebanon, Tunisia ANSA-Arab World as a network of SA practitioners in MNA • Operational Level • Mainstreaming Social accountability into Bank • operations (Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon etc)

12. CIVIL SOCIETY AND SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY Stakeholder Consultations in programs, projects and AAA with two-way communication mechanisms Regional Network of Social Accountability Practitioners – ANSA-Arab World (Affiliated Network for Social Accountability) 7 COUNTRIES: Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, West Bank & Gaza STAKEHOLDERS: CSOs, government, media, private sector Platform for  Awareness raising, Capacity Building and Networking Objectives expected/Outcomes 4 Strategic Pillars : Access to information, freedom of associations, budget transparency and participatory M&E of service delivery • Officially launched network (March 2012) • 7 SA Country Profiles • ATI CoP – Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia and Morocco • Baseline survey

13. Information is the oxygen of accountability. It is at the center of government accountability, and without it the foundations for citizen driven accountability are completely undermined. • One of the most important contributions to improving governance in this region as it makes slow but steady transition is therefore to support transparency and disclosure efforts including adoption of ATI legislation. ACCESS TO INFORMATION • ATI is central to government accountability, • Key priority in MENA is supporting governments with adoption and implementation of ATI legislation, and with disclosure laws/policies/practices • Key priority for ANSA Arab World • ANSA and World Bank Institute: support for ATO coalitions in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia , working for adoption and effective implementation of ATI reforms, supported by country action plans • Partnerships with UNESCO and Open Society • Open Government Partnership:P Potential to expand access to informaton and citizen engagement in the context of the Open Government Partnership – ongoing Knowledge exchanges • generated demand in current member countries (AFR and LCR) and other countries interested in joining OGP (Morocco, Tunisia)

14. Lessons about Social Accountability from other Countries in Transition: the Philippines, Indonesia, and Turkey • Active citizen engagement requires enabling conditions: access to information; freedoms of association, assembly • Government outreach to civil society is critical to building trust • Proactive disclosure of information by the government about its plans during transitions helps manage expectations of citizens • Important to invest in improving service delivery through partnership with civil society and service users • Engaging with a broader range of stakeholders during transitions increases the legitimacy of the new government and increases sustainability of reforms

15. Lessons Philippines: From People Power revolution - to pro-accountability citizen engagement – e.g. in public finance management, public procurement, education. Indonesia: New legislation on freedom of association , expression created enabling conditions for citizen-based accountability e.g. community-driven development, natural resource management, education, local government. Turkey: Despite difficult transition and setbacks, broadly progressive reforms created a better environment for civil society and guarantees of civil and political rights.

16. Some MNA examples Morocco: Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation for Education Service Improvement initiative has coalition of parent associations and school staff, to share knowledge and establish partnerships with local community leaders. Resulted in improved student reading and comprehension skills, enrolment , retention, and community maintenance of public schools.  Egypt: Community score card (CSC) pilot is supporting the Ministry of Education’s National Strategic Plan; has citizens monitoring school performance to increase accountability of school management for academic learning. Tunisia: Social and Economic Recovery Program promotes participatory monitoring of health, education, and social assistance services, and to strengthen legal framework for civil society participation; promotes transparency and independent monitoring by facilitating access to data. Yemen: Water User Associations (WUAs) use community-based water management as channel for response to community priorities and citizen participation in decision making. The Social Accountability for Service Improvement initiative uses this mechanism to improve the performance of the Sana'a water utility.

17. Lessons from MENA • Active citizen participation in public affairs requires an enabling environment. • Government outreach to civil society is critical to building confidence and trust. • Supply- and demand-side approaches can work in a complementary way. • Reform = long process based on credibility & effectiveness of formal/informal institutions. • Invest in improving service delivery through partnership with civil society and citizens. • Bottom-up processes through decentralization & CDD enable citizen participation, empowerment & improvement of services. • Proactive disclosure by government of information about its plans during transitions helps manage expectations of citizens. • Engaging with a broader range of stakeholders during transitions increases the legitimacy of the new government and increases sustainability of reforms. • Effective, efficient and responsive delivery of basic social services through government can help rebuild and restore stability in the country.

18. Thanks! Jeff Thindwa jthindwa@worldbank.org World Bank Institute