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As part of the regional consultations, case studies from local
CSOs are presented and discussed. See below for summaries of the
case studies during the consultation in Africa or view these
summaries as a pdf file (pdf 76kb).
Africa Consultation
Civil Society Participation in the Malawi Poverty Reduction
Strategy
Taking the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy (MRPS) as an example,
the Malawi Economic Justice Network case study discusses key issues
of participation in the policy process by CSOs in Malawi. Although
PRSPs called for an extensive broad-based participatory process
that not only involved the government, but also members of civil
society, especially the poor, in the design of policies that will
affect their lives, this was not an easy challenge to overcome in
Malawi. The participation of CSOs in MRPS was ensured through consistent
advocacy by the civil society, while external development partners
also put considerable pressure on the government to include them.
The Malawian CSOs have been engaged in the budget monitoring process
by analysing expenditures in different sectors under PPE (Priority
Poverty Expenditure). The contribution of civil society consisted
of the submission of sectoral networks to the parliament on PPEs
and monitoring citizens' satisfaction with the quality of the public
services using the service delivery satisfaction survey (SDSS).
The study highlighted several important issues: the diverse agenda
of the civil society community makes it difficult to have a common
voice on policy issues; the lack of financial resources and skilled
staff frequently exacerbates their limited capacity to analyse complex
quantitative data; and most important of all, it is difficult to
harmonise the grassroots evidence from different areas of the country
in order for it to be effectively linked to the policy debate.
- Click here for more on the consultation in Malawi
Evidence and Policy: Budget Transparency and Participation in
Zambia
The Institute of Economic and Social Research (INESOR) case study
in Zambia was part of a bigger piece of research in which researchers
from 10 African countries came together to undertake a cross country
analysis to identify major weaknesses in the budget process, explore
how research by civil society can assist in overcoming these weaknesses,
and suggest how a platform for the involvement of civil society
in the budgetary process and decisions can be developed. The major
findings of the study are: i) while the legal framework that guides
the budgetary process in Zambia exists, it is particularly weak
in the area of procuring and managing domestic and external debt;
ii) a substantial number of financial transactions take place outside
the established financial system in Zambia, contributing to under-reporting
of national economic activity; iii) the total resource envelope
of the government is unknown because of weak accounting and information
management systems; iv) government officials' lack of skills in
budget management has brought the watchdog role of various ministries
and institutions under question; and v) pre-budget consultations
between civil society, parliament and government are particularly
weak. The study findings are expected to be a factor in designing
the Parliamentary Reforms programme (PRP) which seeks to improve
the role and accountability of the parliament and other national
intuitions in budget formulation in Zambia.
- Click here for more on the consultation in Zambia
Evidence and Policy: A case study on Land Reform in Mozambique
Cruzeiro de Sul's case study illustrated how advocacy by civil society
led to equitable land distribution in Mozambique. Motivated by the
proposal that no rural dweller should be without land, 200 NGOs,
churches and academics got together and launched a Mozambican civil
society campaign - the Land Campaign. The Land Campaign proclaimed
that in all villages in Mozambique all male and female rural dwellers
have rights to land through occupation. The Land Campaign also maintained
that in order to avoid conflicts over land, partnerships should
be established between rural dwellers and businessmen. In 1997 the
new Land Law was approved after a big struggle between civil society
and the private sector which, to the delight of the civil society,
did not call for privatisation of land. At the same time, the following
suggestions were integrated into the Law: acknowledgement of the
rights of poor people even in the absence of any title in their
name; acceptance of land as security for investment; and a single
system for land owned by families or private sector, putting an
end to dualism. The impact of this relatively more equitable distribution
of land has been evident, with the most notable changes in agricultural
productivity - which has risen 9% per year, an increase of domestic
and international investment, and a dramatic decrease in the number
of landless people in Mozambique. It is easy to realise that the
new land law is a mix of modern and customary (traditional) law
which has helped to minimise the incidence of conflicts over land.
Not surprisingly, the study has also unearthed some interesting
findings: access to credible information is still a challenge for
civil society, with the majority of public sector employees not
willing to share it with the public; there is a communication gap
between different levels of government and, more importantly, between
government and civil society; and the little information which is
available often does not get to the population outside Maputo City
due to the lack of means of communication. Finally, communities
need to be proactive so that they do not become dependent on the
policymakers for change. The study showed that proactive policy
engagement helps to institutionalise a culture of collaboration
with the government which is dynamic, equitable and participative.
- Click here for more on the consultation in Mozambique
Use of Evidence in Informing Policy Process in Tanzania: The
case of ESRF
Economic and Social Research Foundation is a Tanzanian think tank
which is assisting the Government of Tanzania in developing various
policies for the country. ESRF gathers evidence through its wide
portfolio of work such as research, commissioned studies, policy
dialogue and capacity building. In this context, it was asserted
that studies and research undertaken by ESRF have impacted on policy
in Tanzania. Examples include: social and economic impact of HIV/AIDs
in Tanzania; Trade and Poverty issues in Tanzania; the Participatory
Poverty Assessment; and public expenditure reviews. In order to
strengthen its credibility with the policymakers ESRF puts emphasis
on extensive consultation with the government institutions, while
developing appropriate research methodologies, publishing research
papers regularly (i.e. quota expenditure review), organising public
seminars, workshops and policy dialogues and capacity building through
training for other CSOs in Tanzania. The challenges faced by ESRF,
quite appropriately, resonated with the comments made by CSOs elsewhere.
These were limited financial resources, low demand from the private
sector, retention of quality staff and an overall development environment
where the agenda is set by different stakeholders making the policy
process complex and varied. The presentation was concluded with
remarks that ESRF has contributed substantially in making development
research in Tanzania credible, so that in the future polices in
Tanzania will have substantial research built into them; policymakers
in Tanzania are now more accommodating to civil society involvement
and therefore to sustain this involvement there is a urgent need
to explore effective ways of financing policy research.
- Click here for more on the consultation in Tanzania
National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), Uganda
National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) of Uganda is part
of an Africa-wide network for Agricultural Advisory Services (AAS)
which was formed in an effort to foster and enhance experience sharing
and lesson-learning on AAS in the Sub-Saharan African region. The
rationale behind NAADS is the failure of the traditional extension
approach to bring about greater productivity and expansion of agriculture
in Uganda, despite costly government interventions. A key feature
of this problem is the lack of effective approaches to empower farmers,
hence the emphasis in NAADS' approach is to empower farmers to demand
and control agricultural advisory services. Coupled with this, is
the need to have efficient and sustainable service delivery. While
NAADS provides the biggest source of financing for advisory services,
through a budget support arrangement involving government and development
partners, there is no clear effort by the government to enhance
the capacity of CSOs in agricultural advisory services and policy
research. While there are several networks in the country lobbying
and advocating with NAADS, i.e. Coalition for Effective Extensions
Delivery (CEED) and Gender Alliance on NAADS (GAN), there is no
evidence to suggest that this has had any impact on policy. Therefore,
although the trend towards private service delivery is positive
in Uganda, there are still important gaps that need to be tackled.
The main reasons for inadequate performance of service providers
revolve around issues of technical competency, use of participatory
and practical extension approaches, and application of knowledge
and skills acquired. Not surprisingly, therefore, progress on development
of private sector oriented service provider networks is quite slow.
This has left service provider firms working in an isolated way,
and not having a common voice to negotiate with local governments,
as well as ensuring farmers obtain value for money.
- Click here for more on the consultation in Uganda
Community Composting Project in Ghana
The case study from Ghana detailed a composting project which was
facilitated by a CSO called Legal Resource Centre (LRC), with two
communities in Accra, namely Nima and Mamobi. The project had the
twin objectives of providing employable skills to the unemployed
youths in the community and managing the composting activities through
active collaboration between the people and the authorities. Analyses
of the policy environment revealed that although the necessary laws
and regulations exist on making sanitation accessible to all Ghanaians,
it was the lack of implementation which hindered their effectiveness.
Composting was not considered to be an acceptable way of using the
waste generated and therefore in rural Ghana this was hardly practiced.
The study drew attention to various factors which influenced the
decision of government on whether composting should be encouraged
through supportive polices including: advocacy and lobbying by LRC
for efficient and affordable sanitation services; cooperation of
the community in generating evidence regarding their needs for sanitation
services; and collaboration between various government ministries
and institutions. The approach of gathering evidence over a long
period of time increased the authenticity of the data, while the
resultant qualitative and quantitative analysis also made it more
credible. The experience also showed that documentation of data
is crucial in making sure there is a better chance of a successful
impact of research on policy.
- Click here for more on the consultation in Ghana
The Role of Civil Society in Influencing Policy in Cross River
State, Nigeria
This case study by Development in Nigeria (DIN) illustrated how
CSOs working on environmental issues have used research and advocacy
to influence policy at both the state and community level in Cross
River State. The issues in which the CSOs have been working include
illegal logging, conflicts resulting from shifting cultivation involving
Fulani pastoralists and local people, and concessions to private
companies to construct roads and other infrastructures in the rainforest.
Various networks, NGOs (CRS Forum for Development, Forest Monitoring
Network, RRDC, One Sky, SPACE and Pastoral Resolve) and programmes
(DFID funded Community forestry project, and programme and projects
funded by IUCN and CIDA) also lent their support in making environmental
polices in the state more pro-poor. Consequently through campaigns
and environmental education programmes, the level of awareness about
the impact of high risk programmes has increased significantly,
community royalties for logging have risen, a logging concession
to a private company by the state government was cancelled - all
of which have led to increased trust between communities and local
CSOs. The successes are due to working through networks, coalitions
and through using advocacy and lobbying to instigate policy change.
Attention can be drawn to several lessons from this exercise: research
has much greater impact when it is topically relevant; members of
networks working together are more effective than if they work separately;
and, most importantly, communication between policymakers, CSOs
and communities should be participatory, open and continuous. All
of these activities together have advanced a more conducive environmental
policy under the present government of Cross River state.
- Click here for more on the consultation in Nigeria
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