Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM)

social accountability tools.

Social accountability Monitoring (SAM) and public expenditure tracking system (PETS) approach is citizen-led action to hold public officials and service providers to account for the use of public resources and services delivered. It provides an avenue for citizens to exercise their constitutional right to participate in decisions and processes concerning their own development. FODEO has 6 years’ experience to implement SAM and PETS approach.

SAM and PETS processes are critical in ensuring that government services are delivered as planned and budgeted, are of quality and provide value for money for citizens through SAM and PETS Mechanisms and Tools: These are some of the social accountability mechanisms and tools. They can be applied and adapted to serve different purposes and contexts.

Creating community ownership is essential for the implementation of SAM and PEST mechanisms. Picture shows community capacity building

The following illustrates how FODEO empowers communities through social accountability monitoring and public expenditure tracking. We are enhancing community participation during budgeting and monitoring budget allocations in order to improve service delivery by considering different groups in the community according to government guidelines.

Gender Responsive Budget Analysis

What is it about?

Why is it important?

· Gender responsive budgets are not separate budgets for women, but instead, they are general budgets that are planned, approved, executed, monitored and audited in a gender-sensitive way.

· Gender responsive budgeting does not involve creating separate budgets for women and girls, or simply increasing specific budget allocations directed to these groups. Males and females have different needs, warranting differential allocations of expenditure.

· The basic idea of gender responsive budgeting is to ensure that spending serves the needs and priorities of both women and men, with the aim of reducing gender inequalities.

· Gender responsive budget analysis is a important component of social accountability processes.

· It increases transparency and accountability in the budget process by focusing on where the budget goes and who benefits.

· It helps in pushing the government to spend on critical sectors such as health, education, water and agriculture; where increased spending directly contributes to positive gender outcomes.

· Gender Responsive Beneficiary Assessments can be incorporated into social accountability tools, by including a question in the data gathering process (of the social audits or PETS), that seek responses on how public spending meets beneficiaries’ priorities for that fiscal year. The priorities listed in the responses should then be matched to the spending areas in the budget. This should then be analyzed and a conclusion drawn. Women, men, youth, PWDs, nomadic communities and ethnic minorities should be included in the data collection processes. In addition, there should be a balance on rural/urban respondents to get diverse views.

Community Score Cards

A community score card is a tool applied in a participatory process to rate public services and performance of a service provider (for example, health, education facilities) using scores defined by the community. It aims at identifying failures and gaps in service delivery, and provide feedback to the provider in order to improve the quality, efficiency, accessibility, relevance and accountability in the delivery of public services.

The process brings together the users and providers of a service to identify problems, jointly develop solutions to resolve the service delivery problems identified. They can be particularly useful in monitoring the quality of local service delivery at service delivery points and for measuring the impacts of a project.

Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM)

Community discussion during score card activities

What is it about?

Why is it important?

· Community score cards is a tool through which citizens monitor the quality of community-based public It provides the opportunity for citizens to analyses any particular service they receive based on their personal feelings, to express dissatisfaction, to provide encouragement if good work is done and further suggest measures to be taken if flaws still remain.

· The community score cards help both sides to identify the reasons for poor services and find out solutions for the problems identified. Community score cards allow people to make more efficient use of resources through the monitoring of a particular service or project.

· Enables reforms in service provision as a result of feedback from the consumers of service.

· Provides regular feedback on quality of service-to-service providers.

· Links service providers to the community by empowering citizens to provide immediate feedback to service providers.

Citizen Charters or Service Charters

What is it about?

Why is it important?

A Citizen Charter is a public notice displayed by public institutions which provide public services for the information of the service receivers. The charter should mention:

the types of services available
the service charges or fee
the responsible person providing the service
the service quality or expected standards
the duration for providing the service
the terms and procedures of service delivery
the remedy for non-adherence to standards, or if the service is not available.

A Citizen Charter also signifies a commitment expressed by the institution in the context of a particular service meant for targeted service receivers.
Separate charters are usually designed for distinct services and/or organizations and agencies.

Aims to improve the quality of services by publishing standards which users can expect for each service they receive from the government.
Simple medium for citizens to receive information about the services being provided.
Citizens are well informed about the process, money and time involved in making the service available to them.
Reduces the possibility of a situation where the staff of an office creates confusion about the services and poses unnecessary problems to those wishing to access services.
Helps ensure that the service is speedy and of good quality, that service providers are accountable and transparent.
It may help reduce corruption.

Citizen Report Cards

What is it about?

Why is it important?

Citizen Report Card is a powerful medium to express the opinions and voice of citizens about the services they receive.
It is a method of providing feedback to government offices after evaluating citizens’ direct experience, observation, and feelings through a participatory survey method.
It is a way for citizens to take their opinions and experience about the quality of a public service to the concerned office using an appropriate approach.
The information is obtained by directly asking questions to consumers of public services. It can also be managed simply by observation.
It aims at disclosing the grievances of service receivers against the providers and assists in understanding the views of service receivers on irregularities in service provision.

Provides service providers with information about how public resources are being used and how the services are impacting on the citizens.
Ensures that information is received about the services being delivered and helping these services to be citizen and result oriented.
Policy makers can listen to citizens’ demands about alternatives and bring these to the policy making level.
Prompt and practical improvements in service delivery can be made by providing information about the effectiveness of service delivery.
Enables assessment of the impact of public policies and programs.
Feedback based on the achievements of the services can influence budget allocations.

Public Hearings

What is it about?

Why is it important?

These are formal meetings at the community level where local officials and citizens have the opportunity to exchange information and opinions on community affairs. It enables the citizens to raise their concerns in front of elected officials and bureaucrats on the one hand and an important feedback mechanism for the officials to gain a better understanding of the citizens’ experiences and views.
It is also an opportunity for citizens receiving local services and officials providing services to share on matters of public interest.
It provides citizens with the opportunity to put forward personal and community related problems to the service providing officials.
It helps make service providers accountable to citizens, and increases transparency in the service provider’s activities.

Makes those holding public positions and providing services accountable to stakeholders.
Increases transparency in public service delivery.
It is also an opportunity for citizens receiving local services and officials providing services to share on matters of public interest.
It provides citizens with the opportunity to put forward personal and community related problems to the service providing officials.
It helps make service providers accountable to citizens, and increases transparency in the service provider’s activities.

Public Revenue Monitoring

What is it about?

Why is it important?

The income government collects determines what kind of programs, projects and services it can conduct. County governments collect revenue using their authority and determine the local programs and service they can provide based on the amount of revenue they have collected. It is necessary for citizens to keep themselves informed about the size of their county budget. This knowledge enables citizens hold their governments accountable for the mobilization and management of the public funds.
Revenue monitoring enables the citizens to know how much money is at the disposal of their government and how the revenue collected has been spent.
Helps citizens understand how the national and county executive have mobilized economic resources.

· Has a positive effect on those who want to learn where and how the available public money is going to be spent for local development and for the greater benefit of the citizenry.

· Enables effective monitoring of government expenditures.

· Reduces chances of corruption and mismanagement of public resources.

· Enhances accountability, improves governance, improves public service delivery and enhanced development effectiveness.

Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS)

Citizen Report Cards PETS are tools to track the flow of public resources i.e. human, financial or in-kind, from the any levels of government to the intended beneficiary at the point of frontline service delivery. It can be used by citizens, through civil society organizations (CSOs) and is also used by government.

They enable citizens, participate in governance processes through the gathering of information and monitoring the flow of public funds and spending to deliver services.

Their effective use can contribute towards ensuring that government budgets are being executed on the ground as intended, and that scarce public resources are being used effectively.

PETS aim at improving the quality-of-service delivery at the local level by generating knowledge among service users, i.e. citizens, and increasing their ability to analyses, monitor, hold their governments accountable and advocate for improvements.

They strengthen the voice of citizens and can amplify attention on issues that may be micro-level in nature or specific to a particular region of a country. PETS are often routinely used for expenditure tracking of priority public service delivery sectors such education and health sectors.

Challenges of PETS

Challenge	How to Address
Access to Information This can sometimes be problematic, as decision makers don’t always want to hand over information to others	Use formal mechanisms, such as writing a letter. Apply to a higher institution if not successful. Outline why you need the information and provide documents to demonstrate. Citizens have the right to public documents. Counties are required to provide it.
Difficult Language Technical nature of documents i.e. budgets, can be difficult for lay people to understand.	PETS teams should be equipped i.e. receive training in advance. Teams should request for simplified citizen’s budget which counties are required to prepare. Teams should seek clarification and further information as needed.
Market Prices Change Sometimes the cost of materials does increase significantly between budget approval and implementation, and this can make it difficult to implement a project within budget.	Where this is encountered, the situation needs to be clearly explained to the community, if it results in materials not being delivered or buildings not finished.
No Reply from Officials This can happen in situations where local authorities see PETS teams as adversaries and do not want to engage with them.	PETS teams should communicate and build a working relationship with the local authorities in the planning stage to build trust and ensure that all are clear about the intentions of the PETS process.
Risk of Bribery PETS team members might be offered inducements or even threatened.	The PETS team needs to have strong relationships with the community and be trustworthy and transparent about its activities
Follow Up Issues It can be difficult to follow up on PETS findings.	The outcome of the process is crucial and should be communicated clearly. Use public forums to highlight issues and work with the community to challenge the relevant authority.

Social Audits

1.8. Some tips for conducting a successful Social Audit

When planning social audits, it is important not to ‘spread too thinly’, as time and resources are often limited—prioritize which projects you want to audit.
If you are a civil society organization (CSO) conducting a social audit, you should always feedback to the community with a report at the end of the process, as they provided the information initially.
You need collaborative approaches and good teamwork. Work with project committees who know the services and projects being audited and may be able to help with information and documents.
Documents you will need include: county development plans, budgets, project documents, procurement and contract documents, quarterly implementation reports.
Ensure the information is from a credible source.

Citizen Report Cards

What is it about?

Why is it important?

· Citizen Report Card is a powerful medium to express the opinions and voice of citizens about the services they receive.

· It is a method of providing feedback to government offices after evaluating citizens’ direct experience, observation, and feelings through a participatory survey method.

· It is a way for citizens to take their opinions and experience about the quality of a public service to the concerned office using an appropriate approach.

· The information is obtained by directly asking questions to consumers of public services. It can also be managed simply by observation.It aims at disclosing the grievances of service receivers against the providers and assists in understanding the views of service receivers on irregularities in service provision.

· Provides service providers withinformation about how public resources are being used and how the services are impacting on the citizens.

· Ensures that information is received about the services being delivered and helping these services to be citizen and result oriented.

· Policy makers can listen to citizens’ demands about alternatives and bring these to the policy making level.

· Prompt and practical improvements in service delivery can be made by providing information about the effectiveness of service delivery.

· Enables assessment of the impact of public policies and programs.

· Feedback based on the achievements of the services can influence budget allocations.

1.10. What does the Social Accountability process entail?

The process involves citizens, the LGAs or other public officials and service providers. The following are some typical steps in the process:

Document collation from the Local government authorities. Such documents include the county development plans, approved budget estimates, budget statement for the financial year, project implementation reports, project contracts, reports from the project implementation committee (PIC).
Desk review where analysis is done of the projects that have been started, ongoing, completed or stalled. This would help the social accountability team to list a sample of the projects they would like to assess.
Sampling and identification of the actual projects to be assessed or audited, sampled by thematic area (for example, health, education, water and agriculture). The level of completion (or otherwise) of the project is another criterion applied in sampling.
Consultation processat community and country government level, where the social accountability team holds discussions with both the county executive or assembly, the beneficiaries (citizens), the contractors and other parties relevant for particular projects. Such consultations would seek explanatory views to the information gathered from the review of documents and physical observation of the projects.
Advocacy where CSOs use the findings and conclusions drawn from the social accountability process to engage the duty bearers in order to resolve the outstanding issues that emerged from the process.

1.11. What are the Benefits of Social Accountability?

Social Accountability supports good governance and fosters better service delivery. Institutional accountability mechanisms alone are often not effective in promoting good governance, leaving room for opaque and corrupt practices in the management of public resources. When citizens get involved through social accountability mechanisms they can monitor and hold public officers and elected leaders to account for how public resources are spent and their performance in the delivery of services. Citizens also provide vital feedback on the quality and challenges faced in accessing public services. This helps to improve responsiveness and quality of services, and the rational and effectiveness use and value for money. The feedback loops ultimately lead to better informed policy design and outcomes.
Social accountability can safeguard against wastage, ‘leakage’ and corruption. When properly applied in monitoring implementation, evaluation and audit of services and projects social accountability mechanisms and tools can enhance transparency.
A key benefit of social accountability is that it strengthens the relationships and builds trust between the government and citizen, and between service providers and users. It enables citizens engage with the county executives and elected leaders, influence decisions concerning their development and hold them accountable between elections.
Social accountability promotes empowerment of social groups, social cohesion and inclusion particularly when marginalized, vulnerable and other socially excluded groups are involved and their concerns and interests get attention. It enables bringing all members of the community together around a common interest.

Foundation for Development Organization (FODEO)

Foundation for Development Organization (FODEO)

Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM)

1.8. Some tips for conducting a successful Social Audit

1.10. What does the Social Accountability process entail?

1.11. What are the Benefits of Social Accountability?

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