Search Results for: Citizen Engagement World Bank

As governments and the international aid community scramble to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, direct citizen engagement in public health programs has already had a demonstrable positive impact on the success of these programs. While governments in both middle-income and low-income developing countries face the pandemic with support from international aid agencies, the large-scale, rapidly disbursing programs strain weak public delivery systems and provide massive opportunities for fraud and corruption.

This is the first in a new series of PTF articles highlighting the work and the challenges of the organization August, 2020.  Excerpts from an interview by PTF Chair Frank Vogl with Daniel Ritchie, a member of the PTF Management team, Councilor to the President, former President and PTF Co-founder. See the full interview here. Frank Vogl, Chairman of the Board at PTF: Dan, you have been the guiding force behind the PTF for two decades. What has been your most personal satisfaction from all your PTF adventures? Dan Ritchie: I have noticed over the 20 years a significant change in the quality and effectiveness of local civil society organizations in developing countries. When we started the PTF, many of the project proposals we received were vague, unfocused and lightly-camouflaged payroll support projects. Most CSOs had no experience with setting specific goals and benchmarks to monitor progress. They were doing God’s work, and God never asked them to measure! I believe one the PTF’s most valuable contributions has been to train more than 100 CSOs in the use of logical frameworks and a focus on measurable results. CSOs are significantly more capable of project design and implementation and managing their affairs than in the past. My single greatest satisfaction has been the opportunity to work with a community of people dedicated to making the world more just and equitable, often at great risk. I have had the good fortune of visiting more than a dozen civil society organizations we have supported over the years, from Timor L’este to Bangladesh, Uganda, Argentina and others. I have always come away with the most profound admiration and respect. Usually working in very modest surroundings, our counterparts show determination, dedication and courage in working to make their world more equitable and honest.  The diversity and array of our grant recipients have been quite amazing. The majority of CSOs I visited were headed by women. The visits made me proud of our support and convinced that the PTF was making a real difference.  I saw it firsthand. It has sustained my commitment to the PTF. Frank Vogl: How do you assess the progress that PTF has made? Dan Ritchie:  My former World Bank colleague Pierre Landell-Mills and I started PTF from scratch and our first project was in Bulgaria in 2000. We plugged away for several years as the only two full-time volunteers, eventually attracted significant funding and a cadre of almost 50 volunteer project advisers and ultimately supported over 250 projects in 50 countries. As you know, independent evaluations indicated 85% of the projects met their objectives. Pierre and I established the guiding principles that still characterize the PTF—a demand-driven approach set by the CSO recipients, constructive engagement between CSOs and government agencies, results-oriented activities based on measurement and provision of free technical support from PTF project advisers. When we started, there was no such term as “demand side” governance and little recognition of the potential role of civil society in good governance. I think the PTF’s enduring legacy will be that it helped demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt the powerful and effective role CSOs [...]

Strengthening Stakeholder Engagement and Improved Governance in the COVID 19 Response in Ghana’s Upper West RegionDOWNLOAD CONCEPT NOTE The Government of Ghana has mobilized a lot of resources, both financial and physical, to address the coronavirus pandemic. For example, the World Bank is providing $100 million in as short, medium and long-term support to assist the country in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, including  $35 million in emergency support to help prevent, detect, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic through the Ghana Emergency Preparedness and Response Program (EPRP). In spite of these investments, health facilities are complaining of a blatant lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and there is little education about the pandemic. The supply chain of PPEs and other funds received by the government are not transparent and there is a high risk of corruption based on experience with other instances of health problems and recent disaster response and relief. It is obvious Ghana’s government alone cannot bring the situation under control in the coming months, in spite of the many resources available. CSOs are a valuable addition to public services to demonstrate, document and disseminate to the appropriate authorities an example of effective use of resources to alleviate the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic. In view of this background, PTF is supporting longtime partner, SAVE-Ghana, to design and test an approach to implement the Strengthening Stakeholder Engagement and Improved Governance in the COVID 19 Response in Ghana’s Upper West Region, with the overall aim of contributing to increased efficiency and effectiveness in the management of COVID 19 funds and resources. The program is: 1) supporting Ghana Health Services (GHS) to provide information on COVID 19 preventive measures, procurements and distribution of supplies; 2) monitoring of public expenditures on COVID 19; and 3) engaging with authorities to provide feedback to improve COVID 19 response program implementation. The initiative is initially targeting the Sisaala East district and the Sisaala West districts of the upper west region of Ghana, with a cumulative population of 160,000, over a six month period. Due to the deprived nature of the districts, information about resource allocation for a COVID 19 response is lacking among citizen groups who are supposed to be the prime target groups, thus serving as a breeding ground both for the virus and for government officials to abuse the system.

PTF will host a Lunch and Learn session at the 2019 GPSA Partners Forum on Wednesday, November 20th to discuss practical ways to maximize CSO engagement to accelerate progress towards SDG16 in operations funded by International Financial Institutions (IFIs). This session will address what can be done to address the gaps between: (a) what CSOs can do using social accountability methods to improve governance and reduce corruption in IFI funded operations and what they are actually programmed to do; and (b) what is programmed and what is actually implemented. PTF will present ideas to kick-off the discussion drawing on its recent study, Expanding Civil Society Contributions to the Governance Agendas of Sustainable Development Goals and International Financial Institutions. Speaker Bio  Dr. Vinay Bhargava is the Chief Technical Advisor and Board member of the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF). He has taught international development policy (MDG/SDGs) and practice (International Financial Institutions) courses at George Washington University, USA and at Kobe University, Japan. He is a former Country Director and former Director, International Affairs at the World Bank. He has delivered seminars and written books, articles and reports on fighting corruption particularly through citizen and civil society-led programs. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and U-4 Anti-corruption center. 2019 GPSA Partners Forum: Social Accountability and the Challenge of Inclusion November 19 – 21, 2019 Preston Auditorium, World Bank, Washington, DC The Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA) will once again convene its partners, a global network of practitioners and thought leaders from across civil society, governments, academia, foundations and business, alongside World Bank professionals to put the spotlight on the power of collaborative social accountability in addressing governance challenges and improving development outcomes. Now in its sixth year and hosted at the World Bank in Washington DC, the Global Partners Forum has become the convening event for the social accountability field, for taking stock of opportunities and challenges and pushing for even greater impact. The 2019 GPSA Forum will focus on the role of social accountability in meeting the challenge of inclusion in public governance. New dynamics as well as continued evolution of the field, unpacked in the next section of this brief, call for social accountability practitioners, researchers and development partners to challenge themselves and think about what the foundation of their task is today and how the frontiers of social accountability are evolving. The aim of the 2019 GPSA Global Partners Forum is to equip GPSA stakeholders to promote, design and implement better social accountability mechanisms that can help to solve the challenge of asymmetries of power through more inclusive policy-making and implementation, building on social accountability’s foundations but with an eye toward its frontiers. The Forum will, in plenary discussions, highlight innovations and build shared perspectives; in partner-led breakout sessions, break new ground through knowledge sharing and capacity building; and, in key speeches, underscore the imperative of collective action to tackle exclusion in all its forms and build more inclusive governance. As a field-shaping initiative, the Forum will assess what opportunities social accountability processes have created thus far, where the challenges towards [...]

Participants will discuss and learn about state and quality of evaluation approaches, findings and gaps in the emerging field of citizen and civil society engagement in enhancing development effectiveness in general and of public services in particular.

The Citizen Action for Results, Transparency and Accountability (CARTA) program was a unique monitoring model that aimed to provide donors and development agencies with more specific and real-time information on the impact of their projects. By building the capacity of local CSOs to conduct donor project monitoring, CARTA strengthened ownership of outcomes, reduced the propensity of corruption and increased overall citizen engagement.

Engaging citizens is both good governance and essential for effective, accountable and sustainable development as it increases local buy-in and prevents miscommunication, corruption and other abuses. PTF offers strategic advice to international financial institutions (IFIs) on how best to engage citizens, stakeholders and CSOs for better development outcomes. We have worked with the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank and World Bank on strengthening their engagement with civil society. We are currently developing guidelines and operational tools to help European Investment Bank (EIB) clients and staff engage more meaningfully with all categories of stakeholders. OUR SERVICES × Our Services Technical Assistance: We connect experts with local leaders to jointly develop plans, support implementation and evaluate impact. Networking Services: We link organizations with similar goals and complementary skills to provide mutual support. Knowledge & Learning: We share lessons by hosting events and publishing findings to advance our collective understanding on governance challenges. Analytical Services: We provide analytic and advisory services on institutional development and improving citizen engagement. Project Funding & Management: We provide grants accompanied by technical assistance to CSOs undertaking good governance and anti-corruption projects. Close Featured Work Deepening Civil Society Engagement for Development Effectiveness The new development paradigm embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, and the Addis Ababa development financing framework reflect the emerging worldview that civil society has an important role in development. The implication for the ADB is that opportunities for supporting more and deeper collaboration with civil society organizations (CSOs) will increase as its Developing Member Countries (DMCs) pursue partnerships with CSOs in implementing the SDGs. PTF provided technical assistance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to strengthen CSO participation in the Banks’ operations. Strengthening AfDB Engagement with Civil Society In October 2012, the African Development Bank (AfDB) adopted a Framework for Enhanced Engagement with CSOs (CSO Framework), which provides the architecture for enhanced cooperation between the Bank and CSOs, in line with its 2013-2022 Strategy that envisages CSOs as key partners in the development of Africa. As part of this Framework, an Action Plan will be developed and implemented to increase attention to the mainstreaming of CSOs participation to Bank policies and operations. PTF developed the draft Action Plan to implement the Framework over a period of two years. Related Experts Steve BurgessAdviser Aloysius OrduBoard Member Past Programs 1 2 NextPoverty Alleviation Fund 2 (PAF-2)Enhanced Vocational Education and Training (EVENT)Community Action for Nutrition (CAN)Bangladesh Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (BRWSSP)Local Government Support Project (LGSP II)Social Investment Program Project (SIPP-II)Rural Access Improvement and Decentralization Project (RAIDP)Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development (RERED II)Reaching Out-of-School Children Project II (ROSC2)School Sector Reform Project (SSRP) Related Content Expanding Civil Society Contributions to the Governance Agendas of Sustainable Development Goals and International Financial Institutions PTF joins TAP Network 2030 as a Partner The Role of CSOs in Myanmar’s Transition from Military Rule to Democracy Enhancing Development Impact, Sustainability and Ownership of Development Projects through Citizen Engagement: Lessons from the CARTA Program Literature Review on Citizen Engagement in Health Service Delivery Released Practitioner Oriented Research Collaborations in Practice New Frontiers in Citizen Engagement in [...]

On October 11, the Partnership for Transparency sponsored a panel on civil society roles in engaging citizens World Bank projects at the World Bank Civil Society Policy Forum. The event brought together speakers from the World Bank Citizen Engagement Secretariat, the World …

The Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) hosted a seminar November 3, 2016 to explore the experience of citizen engagement in health service delivery. Representatives from USAID and the World Bank participated as discussants …

On October 7, 2016 the Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) co-sponsored a panel at the World Bank’s Civil Society Policy Forum entitled “Civil Society and Development: Six Global Trends and Lessons from Nigeria.” PTF, along with the Africa Middle East Progressive Initiative (AMEPI), presented PTF’s newly released report on Global Trends in Civil Society Engagement and what those trends mean for Nigerian CSOs …