Strategy

The diversity narrows in the way countries here are governed. From constitutional monarchies to de facto military juntas to one-party rule to permutations of democracy, the region’s political landscape has historically been government-driven. That steadily changed in the past two decades with the rise in strength and confidence of civil society. One result is increasing experience in which citizen groups and government work together to monitor use of public resources.

Constructive engagement—the term for the process—is a defining element in the social accountability (SAc) approach. It involves citizen groups negotiating for space in government decision-making. Negotiation is not necessarily confrontation, however, because the SAc approach in East Asia-Pacific is often more productive when it upholds social order and harmony.

Respect for traditional values is tempered nonetheless by assertive advocacy. Citizen groups in the region bring into the negotiation table informed claims, a firm voice, and practical negotiation skills. This is how the SAc experience in East Asia-Pacific succeeds in holding public officials, politicians, and service providers to account for their conduct and performance.

In recent years, efforts to enhance good governance have followed two directions: in one, government agencies reforming their policies, guidelines, internal operations and service delivery systems; in the other, citizen groups either exposing-and-opposing government or working as subcontracted parties in the implementation of government programs. Both directions seemed to have failed dismally.  The error is not realizing early enough that good governance is driven by both citizens and government.  

The mutual distrust between citizens and government often escalates conflicts and stretches the divide between the two key drivers of good governance.  Social accountability is deeply linked to anti-corruption initiatives.  It seeks to curb fraudulent, collusive, and coercive practices in the use of positions of power and access to public resources for private gain.  This is especially manifested in the systematic unlawful spending of government funds, which social accountability addresses.  It advocates for transparent, equitable, and standardized transactions and decisions.  

In particular, ANSA-EAP promotes the participatory mode in the form of third-party monitoring where citizen groups are able to directly engage government representatives in accounting for their conduct and performance.  Importantly, social accountability underscores the role of citizen groups in advocating for reforms with like-minded reformers inside government.  

The approach includes structured tools—such as report cards and budget monitoring—to gather data and make objective assessments of government performance. The foundational constructs of good governance are: participation, transparency and accountability where often the rule of law is underlined.  Some other manifestations are expressed in the following basic characteristics: responsiveness, consensus orientation, equity, effectiveness and efficiency, accountability and strategic vision.   Citizen-government is integral in all these.  Social accountability is a platform for strengthening key governance attributes.

It is in this context that ANSA-EAP seeks to mainstream the social accountability approach in the region.  Launched in 2008, ANSA-EAP is rolling out its workplan in several phases: Entry, during Years 1 to 3; Consolidation, Years 3 to 4; and Institutionalization, Year 5 and onwards. For the Entry phase of its operation, ANSA-EAP pursues a two-pronged strategy—a geographic strategy and a thematic strategy—with a special focus on youth as stakeholders To carry out these strategies effectively and efficiently, ANSA-EAP performs three major roles as a networking facility, a capacity builder, and an information gateway.  

Geographic Strategy

The geographic strategy is based on situation analysis, an appreciation of available resources (including the strengths and programs of member organizations), planned outcomes, and desired impact. 

ANSA-EAP currently has four priority countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, and the Philippines. Poverty incidence is significant in these countries and service delivery remains a pressing concern. Reform for good governance is a very urgent agenda in all the countries owing to their socio-economic and political situation. They are most in need of social accountability mechanisms.

The following criteria were considered for selection:

1. Relatively open space for development and reform-oriented programs;
2. Legitimacy gained by civil society organizations need to have a relatively high level of inter-organizational coordination, coalition, network-formation and experience in taking on good governance projects;
3. Level of interest from donors and other resource providers; and
4. Potential source of learning and lessons for replication and adaptation in other settings in the region.

Cambodia is ANSA-EAP’s doorway to countries along the Mekong.  Indonesia is the largest Southeast Asian country with a predominantly Muslim population; its population size and political economy offer important sources of learning on how to scale up SAc practices. Mongolia gives ANSA-EAP access to the “East” while the Philippines, home to arguably the most vibrant civil society organizations in the region and where the ANSA-EAP Secretariat is located, provides on-the-ground immersion in actual SAc work. 

Thematic Strategy

ANSA-EAP’s thematic strategy intersects with its priority countries. This strategy supports mainly local SAc efforts dealing with service delivery (education, health, local infrastructure), procurement monitoring, extractive industries, climate change, and the youth.

The quality of local service delivery influences poverty reduction and sustainable development directly in most East Asia-Pacific countries. Service delivery systems are efficient if they are people-centered, have clear standards, are fair and accountable, and follow good practices. Good governance is not the only factor that determines the quality of service delivery but it does play an important role. Ultimately, government is responsible for providing basic needs. By mainstreaming the SAc approach, ANSA-EAP seeks to intensify the connection between service delivery and good governance.

The focus on procurement monitoring is a response to the growing number of citizen-government partnerships in this particular sector, and rightly so, since ultimately, it is the State (government), through frontline organizations and institutions, that is responsible for delivering public goods. Procurement monitoring has long been a major concern for donors, given the fact that many corrupt practices stem from the use of funds channeled as aid, development loans and grants. In the past, procurement monitoring was seen as a purely anti-corruption initiative—that is, monitoring with policing, confrontations and possibly, shaming as its end goals. Beyond putting in precautionary measures and finding the loopholes in government procurement systems, the social accountability approach in procurement monitoring also institutes more sustainable governance practices. 

Social accountability in the extractive industry (EI) is particularly relevant to Indonesia, Mongolia, and the Philippines. It is a fragile area in governance since it is among the high-revenue generating industries in which efforts to track revenues have begun but citizen monitoring has not yet taken root. There is a clear need for corporations, citizens, and government to work together to integrate SAc into the EI value chain.

SAc in climate change is a more recent focus. ANSA-EAP’s interest in it comes from the urgency of the ongoing climate change debate. ANSA-EAP believes good governance is critical to ensure effective climate change response—in mitigation and in adaptation—at the regional, national, and local levels. The SAc approach, which is based on constructive engagement between citizen groups and government, should be integral in any mechanism for such a response.

ANSA-EAP gives special attention to the youth because they will provide East Asia-Pacific’s next generation of leaders, advocates, and reformers. The donor community is drawn strongly to this sector for this reason. ANSA-EAP knows the window of opportunity to educate the region’s young on SAc and good governance has become smaller. This makes it all the more imperative for ANSA-EAP to continue investing in youth SAc activities that emphasize moral, social, and civic values formation.

Youth serves as the primary example of an effective interface between geographic and thematic focus. 

ANSA-EAP invests in the young by making available a platform that gathers young learners, promoters and partners of social accountability from different places through sharing of ideas, stories, tools and other resources that makes them vital contributors to good governance.  

The ANSA-EAP Way 

ANSA-EAP is a networking facility for networks. Its aim is to mainstream the SAc approach among existing groups already involved in good governance work. ANSA-EAP defines social accountability as constructive engagement between civil society and government. SAc requires four conditions, also known as the Four Pillars of Social Accountability: (1) organized and capable citizen groups; (2) responsive government; (3) sensitivity to context and culture; and, (4) access to information.

By itself, each pillar is already a powerful enabler of SAc. Together they create synergy. They empower an active citizenship that, partnered with ethical government, brings about real change.

One of the pillars—sensitivity to context and culture—is especially relevant in East Asia-Pacific. It provides a link with deeply valued beliefs, practices and norms. Because of this respect to local sensibilities, the link effectively localizes concepts of good governance and of the SAc approach. This accounts for ANSA-EAP’s mandate to build SAc practice on a foundation of cultural diversity. 

Sensitivity to context and culture also guides ANSA-EAP when it establishes networks based on theme or sector. These networks tend to reflect the region’s rich cultures; they allow for the formation of diverse communities of SAc practice. ANSA-EAP works to capture the local knowledge and experience of these communities; it then makes the knowhow available to others in the same country as well as to the rest of the region.

Unique to the ANSA-EAP approach is the intense partner relations it fosters with SAc practitioners and advocates in the region. The relationship is usually marked by an open, continuing connection with the partner. There is a high level of technical assistance, which is ANSA-EAP’s method of instilling in its partners a deep appreciation of the SAc approach.

Building Partnerships through Networking of Networks

ANSA-EAP enhances and strengthens strong partnerships among citizen groups and between citizens and government.  This is an important step towards building a community of social accountability practitioners.  Through existing national, regional and global partners, the ANSA-EAP network helps develop the capability of citizen groups and government to engage constructively with each other.  ANSA-EAP builds on what many groups and existing networks have accomplished and are already good at. 

Developing learning partnerships is complex and needs to be strategic so as to capture the most impact.  While ANSA-EAP uses social accountability tools that assume a certain level of technical capacity or expertise, it also cannot discount the possibility of learning from others in building such capacities.  Hence, the mutual learning-in-action approach is not an approach that relies on a one-way flow of knowledge from “experts” to learners.  Symbiotic sharing and learning with others can further enrich the existing approach. 

Capacity Building through Learning-in-Action

Learning-in-Action marries predetermined frameworks with actual field visits and mentoring setups.  The importance of this approach is that it gives partners the opportunity to validate and deepen the learning through actual, on-the-ground work. 

Learning-in-action uses a mix of structured and informal learning to increase knowledge as well as ownership of social accountability practices. This approach is what heavily informs the grant and technical assistance support strategy that ANSA-EAP provides. ANSA-EAP assistance—whether in the form o capacity building, technical assistance and sometimes fund provision—is always intended to promote partners’ initial appreciation of social accountability in the context of their actual work and, in the long term, institutionalizes social accountability in their way of thinking, feeling and doing.

Promoting Access to SAc Resources by Generating Knowledge Generation and Distilling Information 

ANSA-EAP helps its partners access adequate, appropriate, and timely information. Disseminating information is an irrevocable part of mainstreaming SAc.

Partly because of its sensitivity to context and culture, ANSA-EAP avoids offering a standardized knowledge solution to its partners. Instead, it assists its partners to capture their information and then develop that information into knowledge products. The knowledge is drawn continuously from partners—and in many cases, delivered to other stakeholders by them. This makes knowledge generation and dissemination more sustainable, even without ANSA-EAP.

From print and online publications to multimedia, ANSA-EAP knowledge products have the flexibility of customization, improvement, adaptation, and appropriation.

TALES, TOOLS, TECHNIQUES: ANSA-EAP FRAMEWORK FOR CAPTURING SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY STORIES

Tales. The case story tells the tales of social accountability practices, especially innovative ones elaborating on the context in which the stories take place, the participants and groups involved, the methods used, and the outcomes achieved. It captures the issues or presence of conflict and efforts towards change. It tells stories of sacrifice, dilemma, how citizens are mobilized and the victories including small wins that indicate extent of outcomes so far achieved through measurable indicators and/or testimonials.

Tools. The case story is likewise expected to present the tools and the instruments used in social accountability practices. It looks at whether or not the tools are aligned with laws and policies (whether national or local). The tools are presented on how these promote transparency and access to information, encourage competition or collaboration, and facilitate standardization. It also looks at whether the tools utilize innovations in technology, and are simple and easy enough to understand and to use.

Techniques. Techniques refer to how the tools are formulated and/or used given specific contexts and circumstances. The paper will look at the extent of participation in the formulation and use of tools, including stakeholder engagement, provision of observers, and presence and effectiveness of feedback mechanisms. It will present the clarity (or lack of it) of objectives and outputs from the perspectives of stakeholders. It will investigate how the tools are adapted to local situations, and whether the tools are supported by training and capacity development, and if the tools are translated to the local language.