Group Learning Exercise on the Citizen Report Card Approach

							          INSTITUTIONALISING CITIZEN
           PARTICIPATION AND SOCIAL
        ACCOUNTABILITY IN URBAN LOCAL
          GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS

                        Round Table 2
               ‘INCLUSIVE URBAN GOVERNANCE’




Dr. Meena Nair, Head – PGRG, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore . 28 January, 2010
  SPACES FOR CITIZEN PARTIPATION

• ‘Structured’ spaces OR spaces determined by the
  service provider / government
      – Mainly monitoring committees, e.g., SDMC for schools
        under SSA, Rogi Kalyan Samitis under Primary Health
        Care, VHSC, VWSC
      – Assumption/context – presence of community members
        means representation
• ‘Informal’ spaces OR spaces created outside the
  government
      – Through accountability initiatives by individual citizens,
        civil society groups and NGOs
      – Assumption/context – present citizen ‘voices’ to exert
        pressure from outside the system

Dr. Meena Nair, Head – PGRG, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore . 28 January, 2010
         ROLES OF NGOs/CSOs IN THE
              PUBLIC DOMAIN
• direct service provision
• advocacy (including rallies, consumer boycotts,
  sit-ins, letters to the media and government
  officials, meetings, petitions, public interactive
  platforms)
• acting as citizen representatives on regulatory
  and state asset holding company boards
• citizen education



Dr. Meena Nair, Head – PGRG, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore . 28 January, 2010
    FUNCTIONS BY CSOs TO PROJECT
           CITIZEN VOICE
• Accountability Interventions
      – Independent budget analysis and tracking – Participatory
        budgeting, Public Expenditure Tracking, Budget analysis
        by CSOs / Think Tanks
      – Interactive platforms – Public disclosure initiatives, public
        hearings, open houses
      – Public Interest Litigation
      – Community management of local services
      – Performance feedback and advocacy mechanisms e.g.
        Citizen Report Cards, Community Score Cards
      – Right to Information Movements



Dr. Meena Nair, Head – PGRG, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore . 28 January, 2010
         PUBLIC AFFAIRS CENTRE AND
           CITIZEN REPORT CARDS
• Vision
      – Work towards improving governance in India
• Challenges observed in public service delivery
      – Poor Access to Public Services - Inefficiency
      – Indifference, Apathy - Non Responsiveness
      – Rampant corruption, Extortion by `Agents & Middlemen’-
        Weak Accountability
      – Loose Systems & Weak Integrity - Abuse of Discretion
      – Lack of strong community representation – Low Demand
        for Good Governance



Dr. Meena Nair, Head – PGRG, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore . 28 January, 2010
      PUBLIC AFFAIRS CENTRE AND
    CITIZEN REPORT CARDS (contd.)
• One way of tackling this could be to…
      – Strengthen citizen’s voice to raise demand for
        change and reforms
                               AND
      – Strengthen provider’s responsiveness to
        facilitate citizen participation and involvement
• Citizen Report Cards
      – A survey-based accountability tool for service
        delivery improvement
      – Not an opinion poll but user feedback
      – Collaborative, not confrontationary approach

Dr. Meena Nair, Head – PGRG, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore . 28 January, 2010
          CITIZEN REPORT CARDS AS AN
             ACCOUNTABILITY TOOL
• Type of information generated…
      •    Availability, Access & Usage
      •    Quality & Reliability
      •    Incidence & Types of Problems
      •    Responsiveness of Service Providers
      •    Cases of Bribes - Extortionary Vs Voluntary
      •    Overall Satisfaction
          Across sectors, geographical regions, demographic profiles – income, gender

• What has worked….
      •    Legitimacy of Representation
      •    Informed Advocacy
      •    Creative use of Public Forums
      •    Combining Protest with Engagement
      •    Recasting Citizen Voice within the broad ambit of Citizen Rights

Dr. Meena Nair, Head – PGRG, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore . 28 January, 2010
       VARIETY IN IMPACT OF CRCs
 AGENCIES DISCUSS PERFORMANCE WITH CITIZENS IN OPEN
  FORA IN BANGALORE
 SYSTEMATIC CITIZEN WATCH DOG ROLE IN LOCAL GOVT. IN
  TERNOPIL, People’s Voice Project, UKRAINE
 FORCING POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN MUMBAI SLUMS
 INDEPENDENT APPROACH TO MONITOR PRO-POOR
  SERVICES IN ZANZIBAR, ETHIOPIA & TAJIKISTAN
 LOWER LEVEL OFFICIALS CITE FINDINGS TO SEEK FUNDS &
  SUPPORT IN MUMBAI, INDIA
 POLITICAL LEADERSHIP ASKS FOR MORE DIRECT FEEDBACK
  IN DELHI, INDIA
 REGULATORY BODIES SEEK INDEPENDENT VOICES IN KENYA
 BENCHMARK LOCAL SELF GOVERNMENTS IN INDIA
Dr. Meena Nair, Head – PGRG, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore . 28 January, 2010
    Designing the Interventions
 Sensitizing stakeholders – CRC “Road Shows”
  - One day exploratory workshops to create awareness
  and common understanding among the state and non
  state actors; carry out the critical “9” assessment and
  create an initial “buy-in”.
 Forming a broad based “Implementation Consortium”
  [utility leaders, higher level government functionaries,
  CSOs, media & donors]
 Capacity building of the Implementation Consortium
  - Methodology Training & Back end support
  - Quality checks and orientation during field work
  - Support for analysis & Reporting
  - Support to strategize post survey communication &
  advocacy
Dr. Meena Nair, Head – PGRG, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore . 28 January, 2010
                          THANK YOU!




Dr. Meena Nair, Head – PGRG, Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore . 28 January, 2010