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What you find on this page as you scroll down: > Introduction > Editors Choice > Good Practice / Case Materials > Useful Web-sites and partners > Opinion pieces / discussion platforms > Other knowledge resources: tools, reports, books, ... PLEASE NOTE: This resource corner is work in progress. What you find here is a first mock-up of an eventual web-based and interactive resource corner and includes a preliminary selection of documents and resources. This resource corner is currently being peer reviewed with the intention of becoming fully functional by end of September. You are also invited to scan over the current resource corner. Should you have any comments or suggestions on how to improve the resource corners, please add a comment on the bottom of this page or send an email to contact@lenCD.org A vocal civil society is critical for a functioning society. No meaningful discussion on strengthening national capacity is possible without recognition of the existing and potential role that non-state actors can play in supporting state institutions in exercising good governance and delivering basic services. The AAA jointly commits developing countries and external partners to enable the development of civil society and private sector capacity to play their development roles more fully. This statement is important to the debate on CD from a number of perspectives. It recognizes that: · “National” capacity means more than “state” capacity. Non-state actors have a legitimate role to play in the development process and therefore should be part of any national CD process. It also means that our understanding of ownership needs to be one that recognizes the participation of non-state actors as stakeholders. · Efforts to improve service delivery should recognize the actual and potential role of non-state actors in the provision of services that complement the public sector, particularly at decentralised levels. · Efforts to strengthen governance in areas of accountability and transparency should recognize the potential role that non-state actors can play as policy dialogue partners and stakeholders in the monitoring and evaluation of state performance (good governance and service delivery). · To fulfill their roles, non-state actors need assistance in developing their own capacities to exercise their rights and responsibilities, while an appropriate institutional and legislative framework is needed to facilitate their engagement. · Non-state actors can be effective providers of capacity development support to both state and non-state actors. This knowledge corner highlights a range of resources that explore these multiple dimensions of non-state participation in country CD processes. The role of civil society and the private sector in supporting state formation and nation building in the context of fragile environments takes on special significance, and is also addressed in the knowledge corner on fragile environments. > Editor’s Choice Voice, accountability and civic engagement: a conceptual overview: Discussion Paper #14, UNDP Oslo Governance Centre. (URL: Missing) This discussion paper provides an overview of current thinking on voice, accountability and the role of civic engagement in promoting more responsive democratic governance and sustainable development. It reviews recent reports, studies and evaluations of key donors and institutions and lays out lessons learnt in promoting voice and accountability mechanisms and strengthening civic engagement. These lessons include the importance of political relationships in the functioning of state institutions, the recognition that the creation of voice can be a messy, conflictual and difficult process, and the need for development practitioners to focus on both ‘voice’ and ‘accountability’ simultaneously. Source: UNDP
Civic Engagement in Policy Development M. Adil Khan 2008 Access full text How have states attempted to bring civil society organisations into policy discussions and policy development? What lessons can be learned from these attempts? This chapter from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs World Public Sector Report 2008 examines initiatives to promote civic engagement in policy development. It argues that political leadership, institutional changes and capacity-building are of crucial importance for the success of participatory initiatives.
Capacity Development for Policy Advocacy: Current thinking and approaches among agencies supporting Civil Society Organisations ODI 2006. Working paper 260 http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/136.pdf Capacity building is likely to become increasingly important throughout the life of the Civil Society Partnerships Programme. The team recognises that it is important, early on, to develop a clear understanding of current principles and practice in capacity building for Southern organisations involved in using research-based evidence in policy processes, and establish a common position and vocabulary as a starting point for engagement with potential partners.
Mutual Accountability Mechanisms: Accountability, Voice and Responsiveness This note makes the case that strengthening accountability is a critical CD strategy. The capacity of any system requires appropriate feedback loops to self-regulate, adapt and effectively achieve its objectives. This applies to living organisms and people, to organizations and to societies. In any given society there are a multitude of accountability relations and thus also a wide range of entry points for accountability as CD strategy. This implies further unbundling how accountability mechanisms actually work as well as identifying in more operational ways what can be pursued as promising strategies and instruments.
Capacity Building of Southern NGOs: Lessons from International Forum on Capacity Building (IFCB) This paper reflects on the debate on capacity development from the perspective of southern civil society organizations. It is a synthesis of lessons from various global, regional and local initiatives undertaken by the International Forum on Capacity Building (IFCB). > Good Practice / Case Materials Developing Capacity Through Networks: Lessons from Anticorruption Parliamentary Coalitions, The World Bank January 2005, Issue No. 10 National, regional, or global networks of parliamentarians are proving important vehicles for enhancing their capacity and the effectiveness of parliaments and parliamentarians in developing countries. The networks have been particularly active in fighting corruption and mitigating its negative impacts on economic and human development. This Capacity Development (CD) Brief reviews the activities of several such networks worldwide at the individual, regional, and global levels that are making a difference in the ability of parliamentarians to address corruption in their countries.
Parliament's Role in Poverty Reduction Strategies World Bank Institute 2008, Issue 26 Parliaments play a crucial role in improving governance and public service delivery. Those countries with strong parliamentary oversight have been able to shape policy directions and priorities. This article explores the growing role of parliaments in crafting poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) since the process was first launched in 1999. Although the parliaments of many developing countries still have a long way to go before they will maximize their ability to strengthen the outcomes from country-level poverty reduction strategies (PRSs), the first decade of the poverty reduction strategy process has produced some important examples of the ways that parliaments can get involved, shape the debate, and learn from the experiences of legislatures in other countries. The cases of Tanzania and Malawi illustrate how parliamentary committees and parliaments can develop in terms of policy leverage and leadership.
Communities of Practice for Local Capacity in Central Asia: The Community Empowerment Network, World Bank Institute 2005, Issue 11 In 2002 the World Bank Institute and Europe and Central Asia Region (ECA) launched the Community Empowerment Network (CEN): four national networks linked through regional activities that would build the capacity of communities and development partners to implement community-driven development (CDD) projects. CEN has to date had clear successes as well as difficulties—particularly in linkage to World Bank operations and improving local coordination with multiple donors. CEN’s experience points to specific lessons that could be applied in creating other communities of practice, for example, emphasizing peer review among countries and establishing clear indicators of progress as well as a number of specific administrative lessons.
Madrid Conference Paper on Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Processes UNDP 2006, conference paper # 7 Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Processes (MSEPs) are (structured) processes that are used to ensure participation on a specific issue and are based on a set of principles, sometimes inspired by the rights-based approach to development1. They aim to ensure participatory equity, accountability and transparency, and to develop partnerships and networks amongst different stakeholders2. MSEPs can create the conditions for confidence building and trust between different actors and serve as a mechanism for providing mutually acceptable solutions and win-win situations. The inclusive and participatory nature of the processes promotes a greater sense of ownership over its outcomes, and consequently, strengthens its sustainability. MSEPs also stimulate transparent and inclusive decisionmaking, strengthened stakeholder networks, accountability, and a sense of empowerment, thereby contributing to improved governance.
Civil Society Engagement in PSIA Processes
Brazil: How Participatory Budget-Making Can Improve the Quality of Life Ten years ago, the Brazilian Municipality of Porto Alegre created an innovative system to manage municipal funds: people join officials and locally elected leaders to decide on investment priorities, actions and public works, and build a participatory budget. The results demonstrate that community involvement, transparency and accountability can improve the effectiveness of public expenditures. Concrete changes have come to Porto Alegre, along with a revival of the sense of citizenship and the realization that it is possible to actively participate in public affairs. The citizenry of Porto Alegre has acquired a form of democratically management that was dubbed an exemplary urban innovation by the 1996 UN Conference on Human Settlements in Istanbul.
Estonia: The innovative use of foundations to implement national policies Since 1996, Estonia has been using foundations as a legal and institutional mechanism to support national policies and programmes in areas as diverse as the environment, infrastructure development, facilitation of exports, entrepreneurship and foreign investment, educational reform, social integration, information technology, and preservation of art and culture. While the jury is still out on the impact of foundations on national development, the case does offer food for thought, both in terms of the merits of providing targeted capacity development support to them, and, more importantly, in considering how they can strengthen a government and beneficiary groups.
India: Citizen report cards to improve public service performance Citizens grading government agencies for performance and publishing the results in the mass media: this is the essence of the report card methodology initiated by the Public Affairs Centre in Bangalore. The centre conducts client satisfaction surveys among lower income groups, assessing their approval of public service providers such as electricity and water supply departments. The findings are publicly shared as report cards, setting new standards of public accountability. A credible methodology of surveying, tabulation and quantitative analysis underpins the approach, and the report card experience has now been replicated worldwide.
This case examines the role of Christian churches as institutional actors within Papua New Guinea’s governance and service delivery landscape. It discusses their existing capabilities to engage in advocacy and policy related work, as well as to function as a partner of government in the delivery of social services. In so doing, it looks at the interplay of endogenous change processes and the development of capabilities to see how this has translated into the performance of various church-based institutions and the capacity of the church sector as a whole.
Russia: Strategic Positioning and trade-related capacity development This case explores the evolution and transformation of a trade-related capacity development initiative aimed at supporting Russia’s accession to the WTO. At the outset, the programme focused on training provision and short-term technical assistance and worked mainly with government authorities. Lack of impact led to a rethink of strategy and an overhaul of the programme. The new programme aimed at developing a sustainable institutional capability across the government and private sector divide that could respond to emerging needs and serve itself as a provider of capacity development support and catalyser of change. This was achieved through a partnership arrangement between the Canadian Centre for Trade Policy and Law and a newly established policy institute led by Russian trade experts.
South Africa: Women analyse the budget, and parliament heeds the gaps The South African Women’s Budget Initiative analyses budgetary allocations across sectors of the South African economy and assesses whether these are adequate to meet specific policy commitments. A collaborative venture involving. Parliament and civil society organizations, the initiative has a strong advocacy component, particularly around gender. Besides demonstrating how this kind of partnership can increase accountability and transparency in public expenditure planning and monitoring, this case also shows how civil society expertise can complement a government’s own capacities, in the process strengthening policy formulation overall.
A Review of Parliamentary Scorecards in Africa http://www.acbf-pact.org/knowledge/documents/Working_Paper_14.pdf This study seeks to establish the state of parliamentary scorecard development, challenges to its future development, and possible routes forward to develop a universal parliamentary evaluation framework using a scorecard methodology that will assist African parliaments, civil society, donors, scholars, and other stakeholders in their work. The purpose of this study is to review the place of scorecards in the measurement of parliamentary performance, with particular interest in the prospects for using scorecards with African parliaments.
> Useful Web-sites and partners Impact Alliance Resource Center http://www.impactalliance.org/ev_en.php?ID=1163_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC This section of the Impact Alliance web site contains resources covering a wide variety of capacity building themes. The resources include documents, web links, events, discussions and much more. There is a specific focus on topics related to organizational development and institutional strengthening--including a growing library of core management themes relevant to organizations serving the interests of civil society. Theme pages of particular interest to this resource corner include: Advocacy http://www.impactalliance.org/ev_en.php?ID=1171_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC Anti-corruption http://www.impactalliance.org/ev_en.php?ID=12417_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC Capacity Development http://www.impactalliance.org/ev_en.php?ID=2943_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC Good governance and social accountability http://www.impactalliance.org/ev_en.php?ID=45974_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC Human Resource Management http://www.impactalliance.org/ev_en.php?ID=2976_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC
GSDRC topic guide on voice and accountability http://www.gsdrc.org/go/topic-guides/voice-and-accountability This guide introduces some of the core debates and considerations around designing and implementing effective voice and accountability (V&A) interventions. It looks at the changing context of V&A work, tools for citizen engagement and how to measure the impact of V&A work. It explores relevant debates around deepening democracy, citizenship, rights, power and representation. It also highlights ways to develop pre-conditions for and create spaces for participation, including poverty reduction strategies (PRS), poverty and social impact analysis (PSIA), decentralisation and other participatory approaches to development.
GSDRC topic Guide on Service Delivery http://www.gsdrc.org/go/topic-guides/service-delivery How can we ensure that basic services reach the poorest? What is the best way of involving service users and ensuring that providers are accountable to them? Are non-state service providers pro-poor, and how should the state engage with them? What are the particular challenges for delivering services in conflict or fragile environments? This guide provides an introduction to a few of the key recent debates for development practitioners involved in the provision of basic services, particularly health, education, water and sanitation. It includes academic articles, donor reports and case studies from a range of developing countries.
Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA-Africa): Accountability in Service Delivery 1. Develop cross-country collaboration on social accountability and demand-side governance initiatives; 2. Provide technical assistance to different countries so the quality of social accountability initiatives is greatly enhanced; deliver training programs on specific tools and techniques; and 3. Share country experiences and lessons from social accountability and demand-side governance initiatives regionally and globally.
Capacity.Org Resource Corner on Accountability http://www.capacity.org/en/resource_corners/accountability Building on Issue 31 of Capacity.Org journal on accountability, this resource corner explores the issue of capacity development for accountability and good governance from diverse perspectives. It highlights citizen-led initiatives from around the world, as well as the ongoing international dialogue emanating from the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, aimed at enhancing mutual accountability in donor-recipient relationships. > Opinion pieces / discussion platforms Coming Soon...
> Other knowledge resources: tools, reports, books, ... Debating the Provision of Basic Utilities in Sub-Saharan Africa (URL access problem)
Can Privatisation and Commercialisation of Public Services Help Achieve the MDGs This working paper argues that reliance on private sector provision will fail to address the central challenges of public sector delivery. The process of privatisation creates an incentive framework that undermines, rather than strengthens, the accountability and capacity of the State to provide accessible and affordable services.
PPP for Basic Services Delivery (Human Development Viewpoint)
McKinsey, the management consultancy, conducted case studies on 13 nonprofit organizations that engaged in capacity building over a 10 year period. The research led to the creation of the ‘Capacity Framework’ which defines seven essential elements of nonprofit capacity. The elements are:
New Directions in State Reform: Implications for Civil Society in Africa There is a gap between the discourse of civil society and the pressures for state reform in many countries in Africa. Whereas civil society discourse celebrates the power of social groups and organizations to contribute to the institutional changes necessary for democracy and development, the debate on state reform cautions against such optimism.
A note on capabilities that contribute to the success of non-governmental organisations Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are increasingly important actors in the field of development. They are diverse, in terms of their organisational form, structure and culture, and the issues they address. Correspondingly, the capacities that NGOs need in order to deliver on their mandate range across a broad spectrum.When asked,NGOs themselves list an interesting set of capacities that they believe make them sustainable and effective.
Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Processes Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Processes (MSEPs) are (structured) processes that are used to ensure participation on a specific issue and are based on a set of principles, sometimes inspired by the rights-based approach to development1. They aim to ensure participatory equity, accountability and transparency, and to develop partnerships and networks amongst different stakeholders. MSEPs can create the conditions for confidence building and trust between different actors and serve as a mechanism for providing mutually acceptable solutions and win-win situations. The inclusive and participatory nature of the processes promotes a greater sense of ownership over its outcomes, and consequently, strengthens its sustainability. MSEPs also stimulate transparent and inclusive decisionmaking, strengthened stakeholder networks, accountability, and a sense of empowerment, thereby contributing to improved governance. As part of its wider mandate to support the implementation of capacity development themes raised in the Accra Agenda for Action, LenCD has begun developing a set of seven web-based resource corners. Each resource corner consists of six sections: i) a narrative orientation text ii) top ten web-based publications iii) good practice/ case materials iii) list of useful web-sites and partners, iv) opinion pieces/ viewpoints v) list of additional knowledge resources. Eventually these resource corners will be accessed via a knowledge platform offering a range of functionalities that will facilitate interactive sharing and dissemination of knowledge and experiences related to the capacity development themes. Content of each resource corner will be regularly updated with the support of a resource corner adviser, while various interactive events/ facilities such as blogs, ediscussions and working group are also envisaged. |
Civil society and Private Sector Engagement - Ownership and Accountability |