Governance and Transparency Fund (GTF) series: ‘Demanding accountability from the bottom-up: examining what works, what does not work, and why'

This event will represent the first of six discussions around the broader theme of ‘demanding accountability from the bottom-up: examining what works,what does not work, and why'. These themes reflect on the four years of implementing Governance and Transparency Fund (GTF) programmes such as Mwananchi,  in various parts of the world.  This event considers how a number of GTF programmes and projects focus directly on building grassroots capacity to demand improvements in state provision of public goods, especially by hitherto marginalised groups (women, disabled people, youths).
The speakers and discussants have been selected to provide a critical review of this theme before facilitating an open discussion among participants so that they can provide their experiences as well.

As media celebration of women’s role in the 'Arab Spring' revolutions clearly demonstrates, there is growing interest in the value of women's participation in the shaping and reshaping of governance systems and processes. But when the 'real decisions' start to be made – from household to district, national to international – women disappear. What needs to change to ensure that women’s voices really count?

Development actors have long raised concerns that the impact of demand-side governance projects cannot be sustained. Drawing from WaterAid’s experiences in India and Uganda this event will explore what kinds of approaches different Governance and Transparency Fund projects have sought to develop and implement in order both to ensure the sustainability of their interventions, and to help partner organisations become self-sustaining over the long term? What efforts have been most effective and why, and what are the challenges that still lie ahead?