Social Accountability In Ethiopia: Establishing Collaborative Relationships Between Citizens and the State

By Dr. Samuel Taddesse

Social Accountability in Ethiopia is a comprehensive guidebook with numerous examples on the use of social accountability—a process by which citizens, communities, policymakers, and government officials are engaged in constructive dialogue about justifications for policies and actions, among other elements. It offers detailed and thorough discussion of how social accountability tools are used to objectively assess government service delivery performance and the mechanisms used for addressing service delivery deficits in constructive and collaborative processes between citizens and government actors. It also discusses how the social accountability practice can be sustained, regularized and mainstreamed in government service delivery decisions. It also enables citizens to voice their needs and concerns and work collaboratively to enhance the access, quality, and equity of the public services they use.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Jan 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781483477558

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Taddesse

Copyright © 2017 Dr. Samuel Taddesse.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-7756-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-7755-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017918534

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 12/18/2017

Acknowledgments

This guidebook was inspired by the ongoing social accountability work in Ethiopia. During the evaluation of the first Ethiopia Social Accountability Program (ESAP1) and an assessment of the current program (ESAP2), I met several people—too many to name—who have enriched my understanding and knowledge of social accountability in Ethiopia, and how it has facilitated improvements in basic service delivery in the targeted woredas. Indeed, from their testimony and my own research social accountability has improved access to basic public services. It also has promoted dialogue and collaboration among citizens and between the state and communities and has the promise of actualizing good governance throughout Ethiopia. However, social accountability needed precise definition in local languages, and the social accountability tools used by facilitators in the field needed streamlining and restructuring. There is also a need for a legal framework for anchoring social accountabilities firmly as a domestic initiative to sustain it.

In the process of writing this guidebook, I have gained many insights into the workings of social accountability in Ethiopia, thanks to numerous discussions with my friend and colleague Ato Workneh Denekew, a social accountability expert. He has worked on both ESAP1 and ESAP2, and his field experience has shaped my thinking and approach to the guidebook. I am very grateful to him and appreciate his involvement and encouragement in the drafting of this guidebook. I also would like to recognize Dr. Fenta Mandefro Abate for providing valuable discussion and comments to enhance the guidebook message.

I also acknowledge Per Egil Wam, my team supervisor at World Bank Ethiopia during the evaluation of ESAP1 and the design of ESAP2. We had several invaluable discussions during and after the review period that enriched my knowledge of social accountability.

Finally, I thank my wife, Menbere Tsheay, for being my sounding board and allowing me a quiet time to work on this guidebook, and my son, David Samuel Taddesse, for his untiring graphic design assistance. Needless to say, I take full responsibility for any errors or omissions. I welcome readers’ comments. Please send comments, feedback, or questions to my email address: [e-mail]

Introduction

Social accountability is a governance mechanism that transforms transactions between ordinary citizens and public service providers into constructive engagement. It is a process that makes public service providers responsive and accountable to the needs and demands of ordinary people. At the same time, social accountability enables citizens to collectively voice their needs and concerns and work collaboratively with government decision makers and service providers to enhance the access, quality, and equity of the public services they use. It is a process that promotes and fosters the collective action of citizens to demand better and more equitable public services. Both the Ethiopia Social Accountability Project Pilot Program (ESAP1) and the Ethiopia Social Accountability Project Phase 2 (ESAP2)¹ have brought about tangible results through the collective actions of citizens. These programs enhanced SA awareness; enabled citizens to coordinate and consolidate their voices; and promoted collaboration and trust among local government officials, service providers, and communities. As a result, both programs have improved the delivery of education; health; water; and sanitation, agricultural, and rural road services in the communities where social accountability has been implemented.

The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) and FDRE’s decentralized governance structure provide ample opportunities for citizens to participate in socioeconomic development and public service delivery. The current, weak organizational capacity of local governments is a result of insufficient human capital and financial resources, and this situation, coupled with the incomplete decentralization of decision-making to local authorities, has impeded constructive engagement and dialogue between citizens and the state and limited local government’s responsiveness to citizens’ demands. As the experiences of participants in ESAP1 and ESAP2 have shown, social accountability can play a critical role in building the capacities of both state actors and citizens and in enabling constructive dialogues between local government and citizens to improve public service delivery and ensure accountable governance.

Moreover, the FDRE’s ambition to elevate Ethiopia to lower-middle-income country status by 2025² makes it doubly urgent for the government and its citizens to cooperate and collaborate in service delivery and economic development by using social accountability mechanisms. According to the FDRE’s second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II), transforming the economy and elevating the population’s standard of living require mobilizing and deploying a vast amount of domestic resources. For example, tax revenues would have to increase by 30 to 35 percent per annum. Here too government-citizen collaboration, trust, and a more legitimate government are crucial to increasing tax compliance and mobilizing citizens for popular participation in economic development. The nature of social accountability’s participatory and direct, face-to-face dialogue can create bridges and strengthen the relationships and interactions between the government and its citizens in their efforts to achieve a better future.

Social accountability was initiated in Ethiopia in 2006 as a component of the Protection of Basic Services (PBS) project, funded through a multidonor trust fund (MDTF). The World Bank, the government of Ethiopia, and the latter’s development partners introduced the PBS project to strengthen service delivery at the district, town, and village level, building on local government’s decentralized structure. The project also required the government to spend donated funds on essential public services in an accountable and transparent manner, while maintaining its financial commitments to these essential public services.³ The aims of the PBS project’s civic engagement component, as originally conceived, were

• to achieve financial transparency and accountability;

• to establish social accountability, which includes building the capacity of citizens and civil society organizations to engage in these processes; and

• to strengthen the government’s grievance redress mechanisms.

Following the evaluation of the pilot project⁴, ESAP2 was designed and implemented as a follow-on program. ESAP2 was launched in 2011 but its effective implementation did not start until 2012. ESAP2 is anticipated to conclude sometime in 2018, and ESAP3 is expected to launch soon after. As of August 2017, ESAP2 has worked in 223 urban and rural woredas (districts and municipalities)–that is, in less than 25 percent of the woredas around the country. Since 2008, social accountability activities have been carried out in all nine regional states, as well as in Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa, targeting five sectors: education, health, water and sanitation, agriculture, and rural roads. However, the scaling up and continuation of these initiatives in Ethiopia depend on the government’s continued commitment and political will, as well as the development partners’ financial support.

Purpose of the Guidebook

This guidebook provides a functional definition of social accountability within the Ethiopian context. It also presents a straightforward description of how selected social accountability tools are applied and used by ordinary people, civils society organizations and service providers to evaluate access to and monitor the quality, quantity, and equity of public services. It also provides logical steps for designing and implementing effective, efficient, and sustainable social accountability mechanisms that promote and foster improved public service delivery through a collaborative engagement process between communities, policymakers, and frontline service providers.

A longer-term objective is to contribute to the national effort to take social accountability beyond the five public service sectors to the critical spheres of public policymaking and governance. The guidebook also provides a framework for applying social accountability approaches to strengthen and deepen the government’s political will and create an environment in which social accountability initiatives can thrive and grow as a way of doing business. It discusses methods for building and strengthening the capacity of citizens, including marginalized and vulnerable groups, to engage in collective action to demand improved and better quality services and make their voices heard. It also outlines the primary byproducts of enhanced and deepened social accountability practices as well as the legal and regulatory framework that is necessary to achieve them.

The guidebook describes a context-specific approach to designing and implementing effective, efficient, and sustainable social accountability interventions. It also discusses how to conduct a context analysis as a prerequisite for implementing a full-fledged social accountability intervention, and guides the reader in that effort. In this guidebook, the word context is defined and understood as

• the legacy of historical interactions and relationships between the government and citizens, whether collaborative, passive, or combative;

• the level of maturity of the various governance reform initiatives in the country and their impact on promoting transparent and accountable public service delivery;

• the extent to which citizens and service users are capitalizing on the Ethiopian government’s efforts to demand accountability from service providers;

• the quality of public service delivery and the competence of public service providers;

• the status of community social capital—mutual trust, and the openness of the community to carrying out effective and inclusive collective action;

• the literacy of the target community and its bearing on social accountability initiatives;

• the community’s widely held values, social norms, beliefs, and cultural institutions and how these influence citizens’ engagement in social accountability initiatives;

• the economic status of community members as a whole and its effect on access to public services; and

• the situation of civil society organizations and their roles as capacitators and interlocutors between the demand and supply sides of the governance equation.

The guidebook also asks and addresses the following fundamental questions:

• What is social accountability?

• How can the transformation of the transactions between citizens and public service providers from clientelism to active citizenship and collaboration occur? What is the theory of change?

• What social accountability tools exist, and how can they be used in the Ethiopian context?

• Who are the key social accountability stakeholders? What are their roles?

• How can social accountability interventions improve access to—and the quality and equity of—public services?

• How can social accountability initiatives contribute to and influence national, regional, and local government policy and decision-making processes and outcomes?

• What are the key steps in designing and implementing effective, efficient, and sustainable social accountability interventions?

• How can social accountability interventions be sustained and institutionalized in government and society as a way of doing business?

These questions are addressed through a review of the relevant literature, an assessment of the Ethiopian experience with the pilot project and ESAP2, and through my work in other countries. The literature review will illustrate how other countries have used or adopted social accountability programs and how the effectiveness and performance of social accountability initiatives vary by country. Lessons learned from the review of ESAP1 and ESAP2 will facilitate the design and implementation of more robust, cost-effective, and sustainable social accountability initiatives in Ethiopia.

Target Audiences

This guidebook is intended to serve the needs of social accountability practitioners, government decision makers and officials, frontline public service providers, and civil society organizations. It also can be used as a resource by academic and research communities within institutions of higher learning.

Guidebook Structure

Chapter 1 defines the concept of social accountability and seeks to establish clarity on what it is and what it is not. Chapter 2 provides a theory of change for social accountability; it identifies and describes the desired outcomes, the cause-and-effect relationships among intervention outputs, and the outcomes of social accountability activities. It also discusses how change is measured. Chapter 3 describes the various social accountability tools used in