Rethinking Accountability in Africa – A Practitioners’ Perspective

It is widely recognized that there is need for state authorities to report and explain to their citizens about the use and management of public resources, and the development of a framework of how citizens could demand and enforce accountability from those in power. However, I have seldom seen a publication clearly explaining methodologies to enforce accountability in the African contexts. Therefore, the new book Social Accountability in Africa: Practitioners Experiences and Lessons comes at the right time.

In this book published by the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA) and edited by Mario Claasen and Carmen Alpín-Lardiés, about fifteen practitioners lay emphasis on demand side governance initiatives to support citizens and civil society to exact accountability from those holding public positions in trust. But what precisely is social accountability? One of the authors, Derek Luyt, recalls that the South African Centre for Social Accountability (CSA) defines it as “the right to obtain justification and explanation for the use of public goods and services from those responsible for their management and use”. This definition makes clear that citizens should demand accountability from both government and non-governmental service providers.

Divided in three part – civil-society led accountability, government-led accountability and working in partnership –, this publication is made of case studies that discuss the civil society and government efforts at supporting accountability mechanisms.

Country Experiences

The CSA is reported to have sought to improve accountability in one of the poorest and most ineffectively governed provinces of South Africa, the Eastern Cape, by developing accountability monitoring methodologies seeking information on key state processes including planning and resource allocation, expenditure management and public integrity management. Lessons are drawn from government-led accountability in Malawi looking at the Ombudsman’s role in ensuring accountable public service. The report highlights the Kenyan experience of the Public Service Reform and Development Secretariat in building a results-based public service in the country. In Mozambique, the success of parliament in providing effective oversight role in the use of funds to fight HIV/AIDS pandemic is underscored – the usefulness of forging partnerships between the state and non-state actors is highlighted here, as well as in other country experiences.

The book provides rich empirical analysis and arguments on the choices and strengths between vertical accountability and horizontal accountability as vehicles to enforce social accountability. The results of a survey conducted in twenty sub-Saharan African countries on socio-political governance touch upon critical issues, such as who should be responsible for making sure that members of parliament, the president or local councilors do their jobs. Respondents provided diverging views with regards to whom the government must be accountable to. Some think government should be accountable to political parties, others to parliament, while too few think to the voters themselves – though the voters should be the ultimate controller of power. Analytical tools used include political modeling using multiple regressions.

The critical role of the media is also extensively discussed in the publication in terms of informing the public about issues relating to governance, service delivery and accountability and their relationships with other civil society organizations and the state.

Sierra Leone, where I am from, has experienced most of the above highlights with respect to enforcing social accountability in public service systems. The country has a proliferation of oversight institutions within the government and non-government institutions. There are many quasi-government institutions to regulate public service delivery operations such as the Ombudsman, Office of the Auditor General, the Human Rights Commission, and the Anticorruption Commission. These institutions have been successful to an extent in delivering their mandates. Numerous civil society organizations are also working on socio-economic justice. There is a flourishing fourth estate – the media – which is advocating for the repeal of the criminal libel laws of the country and the passing of the freedom of information bill. The media has been active since the end of the civil war in articulating the concerns of the citizenry regarding national governance.

Challenges

Enforcing effective social accountability faces serious challenges in African countries, though at varying degrees. Some of the challenges detailed in the book are included in the following list:

• Weak incentive system in the service delivery process creates resistance to change. As one of the authors puts it bluntly: “For a government official with a minimal salary there is very little incentive not to commit corruption”. The initial beginning of the Ombudsman in Malawi was characterized by threats from public servants probing into their manner of resource management; in Uganda some Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) specialists in government have narrated their ordeals receiving threats from public officials regarding published M&E reports; in Sierra Leone some highly placed public officials have accused Results-Based Management officials of wanting to take their jobs.
• Incentives for media practitioners are also low in Africa, in addition to low capacity of many; the capacity, especially of local Civil Society Organizations, also leaves a lot to be desired in their advocacy for social justice.
• The vast majority of the citizens lack awareness of their basic rights and the capacity to hold their power-holders to account.
• Elite capture of the ordinary citizens along regional and ethnic lines discourages social accountability.
• An electoral system based on proportional representation is not believed to be a desired approach to enforcing social accountability.
  

Lessons

• Inculcating a sense of nationhood and integrity in public officials is a major tool to ensuring effective service delivery for the people.
• Strong leadership is a must for effective service delivery. There is a strong need for champions and pilots in the process.
• The results coordinating institutions should only serve as catalysts, results coaches and mentors; the primary responsibility for enhanced service delivery rests with the line management of the respective Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
• Working in partnerships pays in the advocacy for results.
• Understanding contexts is important in enforcing social accountability.
• Change hurts, and hurts most those living on bad management.
• Many African countries would not have experienced civil wars if they followed good governance advice. The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) self-assessment report of Kenya predicted the post elections violence that engulfed that country in December 2007, running into January 2008. As highlighted in the publication, this violence would not have taken place if the ruling government heeded the recommendations in the report.
  

Conclusion

Social Accountability in Africa is a valuable resource to guide results practitioners and available to everyone here. It presents various perspectives which could serve as development tools in the campaign for good governance in Africa. No where in the book, if not mistaken, was my country Sierra Leone mentioned but every aspect of it fully mirrors Sierra Leone for her struggle to enforce accountability in public service. I recommend that all AfCoP members read it and would like to know your country’s experience with regard to accountability.

Sheka Bangura
AfCoP Core Management Team member
Monitoring and Evaluation Expert
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Sierra Leone