Civil Society Support for Demand-Side Governance: Building a Network from the Ground Up

Demand-side governance, in which citizens and communities engage in holding their governments accountable, is a crucial factor in improving governance and public administration, but one that is difficult to support and strengthen through traditional “supply-side” means
A new model based on building regional networks aims to harness the capacity of civil society to strengthen government accountability to its citizens.  The Affiliated Networks for Social Accountability, or ANSAs, have now been established in Africa, East Asia and Southeast Asia with support from the Bank’s Development Grant Facility.  Jointly managed by the World Bank Institute and the operational regions, ANSAs provide a knowledge platform; foster networking among practitioners; conduct training and research; and provide grants to practitioners engaged in demand-side governance initiatives.

The African network, which delivered its annual stakeholder conference May 19-20, 2008 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, now boasts 1,600 members and manages a website that receives up to 4,500 hits per day.  Hosted by the Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria, South Africa, ANSA-Africa (www.ansa-africa.net) brought together more than 140 practitioners from 30 African countries at the recent conference, and is finalizing social accountability profiles in 13 African countries.
ANSA-EAP, housed at the Ateneo School of Government in Manila, was launched in February of this year.  Through videoconferencing, it brought together teams working on demand-side governance initiatives in Cambodia and Papua New Guinea for the launch, and has already assisted in the delivery of the first “social accountability school” in Cambodia in partnership with the region’s Demand for Good Governance Project and the Licus-funded PECSA program.

“There are a rapidly growing number of applications of social accountability tools and approaches not only in the region but all over the world,” said Philippine country director Bert Hofmann in his remarks at the launch of ANSA-EAP.  “The Philippines is a fitting location for ANSA-EAP given the strength of civil society here and the many positive experiences to date.”

The DGF has provided $5.5 million in seed-funding in support of the ANSA model, with other donors contributing to each regional initiative. A small global seed fund included in the grant to establish a third ANSA facility—ANSA-South Asia--will be used to develop ANSAs in other regions and to foster development of a global network.  ANSA-South Asia will be launched in FY09 and housed at BRAC in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

“The ANSA networks are a way to strengthen implementation of the Bank’s Governance and Anti-Corruption Strategy (GAC) by supporting a local institution’s capacity to provide assistance and technical advice,” said Mary McNeil of the World Bank Institute who manages the ANSA initiatives in Africa and East-Asia Pacific with regional colleagues Carolyn Winter (AFTCS) and Andrew Parker (EASSO).  “ANSAs are set up to strengthen the capacity of local practitioners who better understand the political context of implementing such approaches.”

The GAC urges the Bank to “continue to support initiatives that enable citizens to access information and participate in the development of policies, spending priorities and service provision.”  Increasingly, social accountability tools—citizen and community scorecards, participatory public expenditures tracking surveys, participatory budgeting, and social audits, among others—are being mainstreamed into Bank lending to ensure the efficient use of resources and improved accountability in the delivery of public services.  Demand for practitioners who can help implement such approaches is high, and the ANSAs’ role is to make that capacity available at the local level, while at the same time scaling up successful approaches across countries and regions.

“We need to strengthen the capability of CSOs and community groups by building their capacity, by strengthening such pan-African conferences and partnerships, and by creating regular dialogue and information exchange forums that enable us to create a vibrant civil society in Africa” said Eshetu Bekele, the executive director of Poverty Action Network of Civil Society Organizations in Ethiopia, at the opening of the recent ANSA-Africa conference.

Looking towards the future, each of the ANSAs hopes to continue to grow and gain membership, increasing their reach and connecting practitioners in this effort.