265 Human Development/Poverty Reduction and Economic 37073 Management August 2006 Findings reports on ongoing operational, economic, and sector work carried out by the World Bank and its member governments in the Africa Region. It is published periodically by the Operations Results and Learning Unit on behalf of the Region. The views expressed in Findings are those of the author/s and should not be attributed to the World Bank Group. Citizen Oversight through Social Accountability: The Malawi Social Ac- tion Fund and the Comprehensive Community Scorecard Process The third Malawi Social Action cesses. The Millennium Develop- Fund Project (MASAF 3) was de- ment Goals adopted in September signed in the context of the Malawi 2000 as global development policy, Government's Poverty Reduction as well as principles of the Com- Strategy (PRS) of April 2002.1 The munity Driven Development (CDD) PRS had the following four pillars: approach, i.e. community empow- (a) sustainable pro-poor economic erment, promoting accountability, growth to empower the poor by en- capacity building, empowering lo- suring access to credit and mar- cal governments and re-aligning kets, skills development and em- the centre to leverage public re- ployment generation; (b) human sources in favour of communities capital development to ensure that were other frameworks that the poor have the health and edu- shaped the content of the project. cation status to lift themselves out The previous two Malawi Social of poverty; (c) improving the qual- Action Fund Projects (MASAF 1 and ity of life for the most vulnerable 2) built strong financial and public by providing sustainable safety accountability systems at the com- nets for those who are unable to munity level. These financial and benefit from the first two pillars; accountability systems largely fo- and (d) promotion of good gover- cused on community infrastruc- nance, political will and mindset ture projects and were critical in which will ensure that public and building the capacity of community civil society institutions and sys- organizations to manage and moni- tems protect and benefit the poor. tor project finances- total budget of The four crosscutting issues of the project, utilization levels and HIV/AIDS, gender, environment release funds, stage of physical and technology development also progress and follow-up on subse- support the MPRSP pillars. quent financial transactions. A decentralization policy that cre- MASAF also trained Project Man- ated the operational framework for agement Committee (PMC) mem- Findings implementing the PRS was adopted bers, community leaders and Gov- in 1998, under which powers and functions would be devolved to the 1 The Government and stakeholders have reviewed the Local Authority and facilitate the overall development framework and it is expected that the effective participation of commu- MPRS will be replaced by a new policy document, the nities in the development pro- Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS). ernment staff at the Local Author- ing of inputs or expenditures (e.g. ment focused on five key issues: ity in community procurement, fi- availability of drugs or funds ap- (a) accountability (b) satisfaction nancial management and monitor- proved for a project); (b) monitoring with project management pro- ing to ensure that sub-projects were the quality of services/projects; (c) cesses (c) performance of project effectively delivered. generation of benchmark perfor- outputs such as water points, As part of efforts towards deepen- mance criteria that can be used classroom blocks, etc. (d) Local Au- ing accountability, the MASAF 3 de- in budget allocation and budget de- thority and the MASAF Manage- sign actively integrated a social ac- cisions - i.e. based on community/ ment performance, and (e) percep- countability framework into the user perceptions on aspects of tions on sustainability of MASAF- project management processes. quality and performance; (d) com- funded projects. The process was This social accountability frame- parison of performance across fa- coordinated by a national peer re- work consists of three mecha- cilities or districts, (e) generating view team led by the Ministry of nisms namely, the Comprehensive a direct feedback mechanism be- Economic Planning and Develop- Community Scorecard process, the tween service providers and users ment, while field activities were Citizens' Report Card and Commu- or communities; (f) building local carried out by extension workers nity Statistics Days. Crafted capacity for performance monitor- at the LA level and supervised by against the need to make services ing and engaging with the civic the District Community Develop- work for the poor and facilitate re- public realm (donors, NGOs, state ment Officers and Directors of sponsiveness from public agencies, actors); and (g) strengthening citi- Planning and Development. these mechanisms place commu- zen voice and community empow- Communities scored the various nities (the demand side of services) erment. aspects out of 100, provided rea- at the centre of assessing the per- Ultimately, the process is aimed sons for the scores and suggested formance of services and public at influencing the quality, effi- areas that needed improvement. agencies, and facilitate citizen ciency and accountability of ser- Key results from the first round of feedback to the service providers vices provided. Just as a teacher the process indicate mixed satisfac- (supply side of services) on service would score the performance of a tion by communities on the vari- performance. In effect, these ac- student in class, communities dis- ous aspects assessed. These are countability mechanisms may be cuss and agree on a score (say 50 summarised below. viewed as a proxy for representation out of a maximum 100) based on where communities directly de- how they perceive the service to Accountability mand accountability and respon- be performing. Similarly, the `ser- Overall scores on accountability siveness from those in the public vice provider' or the agency being across the components indicate a trust, as opposed to going through assessed performs a self-assess- less than satisfactory perfor- policy makers or through elected ment and scores its own perfor- mance, with only four of the 40 LAs representatives. mance based on the perceptions of scoring above 70 out of 100 in any staff or people working in the one component. Up to 40% of the The Comprehensive Community agency. A key stage of the CCSC LAs had scores of less than 50 out Scorecard (CCSC) process is the interface meeting between the of 100. Criteria used to judge lev- service provider and the commu- els of accountability included open- Of the three mechanisms under nity where common concerns are ness in the identification of sub- the SAc framework, the Compre- discussed and a joint action plan projects, procurement of project hensive Community Scorecard for reform or performance improve- materials, reporting on project fi- process has been applied on a wide ment is agreed. nancial and physical progress to scale. The community scorecard the wider community by PMC or methodology uses various partici- Results of the first round of the LAs and CBOs, and transparency patory techniques, including social CCSC in the selection of beneficiaries audit, community monitoring and under the public works Local Au- citizen report cards. It aims at fa- The first round of the CCSC was thority Managed Projects (LAMPs). cilitating citizen feedback on vari- implemented in over 500 commu- Major concerns by communities ous aspects and allows for (a) track- nities countrywide. The assess- included perceived tendencies by 95 out of 100, respectively. Low co- with the provision of funds (100 out the LAs to impose contractors and operation between the communi- of 100), but expressed concerns suppliers of project materials on ties through their leadership and with delays in the disbursement of communities, and the `firing' of PMCs and CBOs managing the second tranches for sub-projects people on LAMP projects without projects was cited as a key concern requiring subsequent tranches, warning or explanation. The gen- among communities throughout with scores of 50 or less out of 100. esis of Social Support Projects and the country. Complaints about the In order to improve the levels of the management of the project ac- low wages under LAMPs compared support to communities and en- tivities by CBOs was also perceived to the tasks (15 meters of roadwork sure that constraints were identi- to be less than transparent, with per person) were said not to be com- fied in time, LAs needed to in- cases where community leaders mensurate with the wages. In crease their frequency of supervi- and the wider community were re- some LAMPs, foremen were said sion to sub-projects, pay wages on ported not to have known how the to wield a lot of power, including time and improve their `customer sub-projects were identified. selecting and removing beneficia- care' skills, especially with regard Cases of `ghost workers' in LAMPs ries for unskilled works. In addi- to accounting staff when assisting were also identified in some project tion, communities viewed PMCs' PMCs and during the payment of sites. participation in LAMPs as being wages. The MASAF Management Suggestions for improvement in- crowded out by LA staff and fore- Unit needs to take another look at clude the need for LAs to ensure men. PMC roles were said not be the procedure for accessing subse- that MASAF procedures are ad- clearly understood or appreciated quent tranches with a view to hered to so that communities are by LA staff. streamlining and quickening the allowed to participate, as agreed in In view of this, suggestions to process. the project documents, and this improve project management in- should be reinforced during sub- cluded the need to clarify roles for Performance of Project Outputs project launch. In order to curb PMCs under the LAMPs, more in- Regarding the performance of ghost workers, the PMC should volvement of the community lead- project outputs/services, commu- check and verify the number of ership (keeping them in the loop) nities were satisfied with water people receiving the wages against in the management of sub- points that had been completed the number who actually worked. projects, and the need for MASAF and were in use (80 out of 100), to re-examine the issue of wage pointing out that the water points Project Management transfers. had improved access to potable Communities assessed the per- water; the roads rehabilitated un- formance of the various agencies Local Authority Performance and der LAMPs had improved access to managing MASAF- funded activi- MASAF Management Unit Perfor- other services (health, markets ties. Key markers identified and on mance etc), and received scores of up to the basis of which scoring was done While communities were satis- 80 out of 100; wages on LAMPs had were, among others, physical fied with support from LAs that in- provided additional income to in- progress of the project, quality of cluded appraisal and approval of dividuals and households to meet facilities created, organization of sub-projects and supervision dur- basic needs (up to 80 out of 100). work and payment of wages under ing project implementation, they However, satisfaction levels were Local Authority-managed projects. expressed dissatisfaction with the low (below 50 out of 100) with re- The overall perception on perfor- LA staff with regard to impolite gard to many of the Social Support mance appeared to be fair with only behaviour when assisting PMCs Projects and Education sector sub- 4 of the 19 LAs that had submitted with accounts and during payment projects that had not been com- the CSC reports scoring less than of wages on LAMPs, delays in the pleted by the time of the exercise. 50 out of 100 across all the three payment of wages and low super- In addition, under education, cases components assessed. The lowest vision levels by LA staff. With re- of inadequate learning materials and highest recorded scores were gard to the MASAF Management (e.g. text books), inadequate staff in the LAMPs (13 out of 100) and Unit, communities were satisfied houses and the lack of teachers, especially in very remote areas, tors on borehole projects. Further, to include representatives from were cited as key concerns. messages specifically tailored to- the media who are seen as criti- Suggestions for improving perfor- wards creating and sustaining cal in raising awareness and sus- mance included the provision of awareness on community level taining momentum on issues to more water facilities so that more O&M obligations needed to be re- be followed up. people could be reached than would inforced through Information, Edu- Scope of the exercise: Conducting be the case with the current facili- cation and Communication (IEC). the process using a reasonable and ties; the need to quickly complete representative sample would im- sub-projects so that benefits could Experiences and Lessons For prove the quality of the process. Institutionalisation start accruing to beneficiaries; and Due to the huge number of sub- in education sector projects, con- projects (over 500) involved in the On the basis of experiences with sidering the provision of text books first round, the capacity to super- the first round of the community and staff houses as part of the sub- vise was overstretched, resulting scorecard process key lessons were project to close observed gaps. In in procedural lapses in some sites. learned, which included the follow- addition, the government should Moreover, organizing interface ing. consider the training of teachers meetings proved difficult, as LA Local-level capacities: With proper and ensure that they are available staff in the District Executive Com- orientation and guidance, Local in all schools. mittees were not able to attend all Authority staff and extension work- the interface meetings. ers are capable of facilitating the Sustainability Issues Follow-up on action steps: A clear community scorecard process. In Most communities were aware of and focused program for follow-up particular, they are better able to the need for community-level at all levels needed to be put in facilitate community level follow- mechanisms for sustaining project place, which would assist in mak- up action on issues arising from outputs (e.g. creating asset main- ing the plans for improvements the process. Moreover, since exten- tenance committees and estab- actionable. This reinforces the sion workers are based in the com- lishing maintenance funds), al- need for efforts to build capacities munity, or have specific areas of though in others the levels of at the local level for follow-up, and jurisdiction, this process can be awareness were low. Issues on creating awareness among citi- facilitated easily and efforts should sustainability included the per- zens to demand improvements on focus on improving facilitation and ceived `lack of vision' by CBOs re- the basis of issues raised. documentation skills at that level. garding how the activities would Efforts should also be made to bring Conclusion continue post-MASAF, the non- pro- community based institutions into vision of maintenance tools for the framework so that with support In effect, the first round of the water facilities to community wa- from extension workers, they can CCSC was a benchmarking exer- ter point committees by borehole facilitate the process and follow up cise for the areas that were as- drilling contractors, delays in train- on agreed action steps. sessed. Key areas requiring im- ing water point committees for National-level collaboration: At the provement include the frequency completed water projects and asset national level, involving a cross- of supervision by Las, which is maintenance committees for other section of stakeholders including currently low, ensuring fair play in facilities. civil society organizations facili- the recruitment of beneficiaries While the scorecard process was tated the harnessing of capacities under LAMPs, reporting to the also used to sensitise communi- to guide the process. This also has wider community by PMCs, CBOs ties, the training of asset mainte- potential for creating a national- and LAs on financial progress, and nance committees in the operation level team that would oversee fu- improvement in the manner that and maintenance of water and ture initiatives, as was demon- community PMC members are other facilities created in opera- strated through the orientation of treated by LA staff. Overall, there tion and maintenance needed to be LA teams and field supervision. has been widespread appreciation followed up, as should be the provi- However, in future rounds of the of the process by communities who sion of tool kits by drilling contrac- process, the national team needs have called for the process to be conducted regularly to strengthen of sub-projects goes beyond provid- tween communities and LAs, as citizen oversight and accountabil- ing community contributions and well as promoting citizen feedback ity so that all those managing the includes requesting financial to ensure responsiveness from the project know that they are under records from PMCs and LA staff. public realm. `public scrutiny'. Responsiveness by LAs on the ba- After the exercise, anecdotal evi- sis of issues that were identified dence indicates that communities has improved as evidenced through This article was written by have become more critically aware increased supervision levels in Murphy Kajumi, Monitoring and that their role in the management some LAs. MASAF is currently Evaluation Specialist, MASAF, working with LAs and partners to Malawi. For more information, e- institutionalise the process at the LA mail mkajumi@masaf.org and community levels. It is expected that once institutionalised, a framework will have been created to facilitate mutual accountability be-