CSPP National Seminar

The third national seminar of ODI's new Civil Society Partnerships Programme's (CSPP) Regional Consultation in Southern Africa was held in Lusaka, Zambia, on the 17th February 2005, in collaboration with the Institute of Economic and Social Research, University of Zambia. The seminar provided a forum for representatives from policy research institutes and non-governmental agencies to discuss the opportunities and challenges for CSOs to use evidence to inform policy, learn about the latest worldwide research and practice in this area, share experiences about ongoing activities and identify opportunities for collaborative work.

The Institute of Economic and Social Research presented a case study from Zambia - Evidence and Policy: Budget transparency and participation. This case study highlighted how to: enhance the research capacity of CSOs; make the government more transparent; identify major weaknesses in the budget process; and to build a credible platform for the involvement of CSOs in budgetary policy making and decisions.

The main concerns expressed by participants at the seminar were as follows:

The Constitution Review Process and the PRSP are good examples of processes in which CSOs have been effectively involved in Zambia. CSOs need to campaign on processes and issues and form international and local networks.
Validation of research is very important, for example by involving government officials as Peers Reviewers.
Need to use qualitative and quantitative methods to validate research.
Need for transparency and accountability now that the government wants to introduce direct budget support. There is a need for CSOs to be involved especially at budget implementation.
CSOs have reservations on the decision by DFID to give block grants to government, more so that evidence has shown lack of transparency and accountability in the budget process.
CSOs capacity in evidence research is lacking and the activity is costly. There is therefore a need to build capacity of CSOs. It has been observed that capacity building takes time.
In Zambia there is evidence that research influences structural change, but actual implementation of policy tends to lag.
Because of lack of transparency and accountability total budget envelope is not known by people outside the system.
Need for CSOs and government to be pro-active on issues i.e. CSOs and government should work hand in hand.
Need for Auditor Generals Office to be autonomous.
There is need to package research evidence in a manner that is effective.
Need to harmonize official statistics from different government departments, which tend to differ.
There is limited access to information and statistics in some government departments.