69347 NUMBER # 3 APRIL 2011 MENA LOCAL SERVICE DELIVERY INITIATIVE: PROMOTING SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND DEMAND FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE Sabine Beddies, Mariana Felicio, Gabriel Dedu, Fatou Social Accountability, a key component of the Fall, Caroline Vagneron1 demand side of good governance, encompasses initiatives that focus on citizens as the ultimate Introduction: Good governance is an underlying stakeholders and strengthens the Bank’s condition for the formulation of effective and traditional work on the supply-side of efficient public policies, programs, and services. governance. The latter mainly focuses on public It implies a social contract and adherence to rules sector issues. and laws that enable improved interaction between government and constituents on Social accountability approaches aim to improve transparency, accountability, and participation. the performance of public services, user Good governance is equitable and inclusive, satisfaction, and value for money. This can be responsive and consensus-oriented. done through analytical work, interventions, sensitization efforts, increased citizen Governance reforms rank high on the consultations, and participation by and capacity development agenda of many MNA countries, building for NGOs, the media, local particularly in regard to public service delivery. communities, and the private sector. This has supply-side implications for service providers, and demand-side implications for The LSDI Pilot Program in MNA: The MNA service users. However, experience to-date Local Service Delivery Initiative (LSDI) looks at suggests that citizen participation in public specific aspects of the demand-side of programs or services is underdeveloped in many governance: enhancing the performance of public countries of the region due to: (a) limited services in the education sector in Morocco and knowledge about the benefits and mechanisms of Egypt, and the water sector in Yemen. This Fast citizen participation; and, (b) over-centralized Brief highlights lessons learned thus far from the political and economic systems that hamper four LDSI pilot programs outlined below: citizens and other non-state actors in holding governments accountable. A. Morocco: Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation for Education Service Improvement: The Morocco Social Accountability: As part of the Bank’s pilot was initiated in early 2010 to improve the Governance and Anti-Corruption (GAC) work, performance of rural primary schools within the framework of the National Initiative for Human 1T The LSDI team involved Sabine Beddies, Mariana Felicio, Development (INDH)2. The pilot introduced a Gabriel Dedu, and Fatou Fall (MNSSO), who collaborated community scorecard methodology in six with: Mourad Ezzine, Ernesto Cuadra, Mahmoud Gamal el primary schools to promote partnership between Din, Eman Wahby (Egypt Education); Akiko Maeda and Sami state agencies, school staff and communities in Ali (Egypt Health) in MNHSD; and Richard Pollard and Bekele Debele Negewo (Yemen Water - WSSP), and monitoring school performance. Mohamed Medouar (Morocco INDH) in MNSSD. Comments were received by Theodore Dredger (PRMPS). Cleared by Frank Bousquet, Sector Manager MNA Urban-Social 2 (MNSSD). The INDH is the largest CDD operation in the region. For more see: www.indh.gov.ma  Improved prospects for student reading and  Communication and outreach gaps of the comprehension skills; utility have been assessed and a  Increased enrollment and retention rates; Communication Strategy has been developed  Identification and resource mobilization for for utility staff and for customers, which is pre-school education in three new schools; currently being rolled-out. As a result, water  Improved community ownership, social distribution schedules are now aired daily on solidarity and collective action in all target Sana'a Radio, new water tariffs are printed on areas through regular community groups’ utility bills, utility information leaflets are meetings and maintenance of the schools distributed to the 86,000 utility customers, (e.g., improved physical appearance of four and the increase in utility responsiveness to of six target schools, refurbished school customer complaints has resulted in a 50% libraries). reduction in complaints.  Physical investments include the installation Success of the Morocco pilot can be explained by of water filters in schools to raise awareness four interrelated factors: of water saving and safety; and air-release valves and pressurized water-meters to enhance network efficiency and allow for consumption-based billing.  A customer satisfaction survey will be conducted to solicit feedback and suggestions regarding utility performance, communication and outreach. It will use the 2009 PSIA as baseline.  Scale-up options are currently under considerations by WSSP for other cities. Expected Outcomes:  Improved utility performance and revenues  Improved customer satisfaction and bill B. Yemen: Social Accountability for Service payment. Improvement in the Water Sector: The pilot aims to enhance the performance of the Sana’a Local Corporation (water utility) and increase the satisfaction of its customers. While the pilot cannot address Yemen’s structural water crisis, it aims to develop coping mechanisms for dealing with:  Unpredictable water availability;  Weak accountability relationship between utilities and customers (e.g. customers don’t pay for low quality services; no customer service; illegal connections). The initiative is jointly implemented by the Government of Yemen, GTZ, the Bank, and the Water Sector Support project (WSSP). Key Activities and Achievements: Egypt: Community Scorecard to Improve Quality  The pilot’s launch phase is completed, and Performance of Schools: Widening inequalities included one orientation workshop, several between rich and poor in access to quality training of trainers in English, step-down education has prompted the Ministry of training of social workers and facilitators in Education to lead a broad-based decentralization Arabic. Focus group discussions at school effort in the country. The Community Scorecard level led to the development of action plans (CSC) to Improve Quality Performance of Basic 3 that are now under implementation. Schools is an experiment to test whether  So far, the pilot has shown that: (i) schools community-based monitoring can influence with participatory School Improvement Plans school management quality in primary school. (SIPs) are more likely to achieve their targets; The intervention is based on the hypothesis that (ii) students perform better at school if improving the accountability of teachers parents have information about their positively impacts student performance. Three children’s learning outcomes; (iii) schools key stakeholders contribute to the accountability with active participation of the Board of equation in the education sector: Trustees (BOTs) are better managed; (iv) addressing school management issues is  Effectively engage students in learning, paramount to improving students’ academic including class work, homework, class test etc. learning outcomes.  Know student weaknesses and strengths and Teachers employing measures to address weaknesses  Improve quality of teaching methods to meet Expected Outcomes: student needs  Improvement in academic performance of  Engage with teachers and ensure stronger 3,000 students through collective monitoring accountability relationships between School management and teachers of target students in the impact evaluation Management  Provide incentive to retain and improve test. performance of teachers  Promote a healthy school environment to  Improved responsibility, transparency and motivate effective learning accountability of school management (50 schools, 300 teachers).  Engage with teachers to ensure free flow of  Expanded capacity and knowledge of in- information between teachers and parents about student performance country stakeholders on Participatory Parents  Participate in school and class activities, as Monitoring and Evaluation tools for required, to contribute to school and student needs improved service performance.  Support Teachers efforts by helping students with homework C. Egypt: Community Monitoring Process for Improved Quality and Utilization of Primary  Community scorecards are being Health Care in Alexandria and Menoufia implemented in 100 primary schools (50 control, 50 treatment) in all districts (seven) This pilot builds on the findings of a study on the of the Ismailia Governorate to: (a) improve Egypt Health Sector Reform Project (1997-2008), effectiveness of students’ academic learning; which revealed that despite significant and, (b) promote greater accountability of investments in infrastructure and quality school management. An impact evaluation, assurance, health care services are affected by to be conducted over the coming months, low utilization levels, caused - among others -by will assess the degree to which community participation influences student academic poor accountability of providers to patients and learning and accountability of school limited knowledge of health care services management. benefits. The just initiated pilot aims at improving the 3 quality of service delivery and the level of user In Egypt, “basic� schools refer to primary schools. satisfaction through: (i) improved citizen and LSDI Challenges: community monitoring of health services; and, (ii) improved user-provider relations through a) Limited capacity and knowledge of social accountability approaches in the pilot countries systematic user feedback. contributed to high transaction costs for capacity building (methods and tools) for The main activities of the pilot include: implementing agencies government staff, CSOs and community members. b) Lack of local champions for social accountability approaches in the pilot countries required significant resources to sensitize and mobilize stakeholders and affected the timely implementation of the LSDI pilots. c) Government sensitivity to social accountability remains the most visible challenge to any demand-side of governance work in the region, but there is momentum for change. d) Mainstreaming social accountability approaches into operational work requires innovative approaches, flexible timelines, and concerted stakeholder efforts. LSDI Lessons Learned: The lessons learned from LSDI so far include: Contact Arab World Briefs:  Identifying correct entry points for good Director, Regional Strategy and Programs governance and accountability work, that Jonathan Walters strengthen the social contract between Arab World Briefs Team: Omer Karasapan, Roby Fields, citizens and government, is critical. and Hafed Al-Ghwell – Improved local service delivery has proven to be an effective one. Tel #: (202) 473 8177  Sound understanding of the socio-economic, institutional and political context is decisive. The Arab World Briefs are intended to summarize lessons  Promotion of social accountability must be learned from the Knowledge and Learning activities of the strategic, context-specific, flexible and World Bank Group and our partners. The Briefs do not involve strong stakeholder partnerships. necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, its board or its member countries.  Working in partnership with a range of government and non-state actors (e.g., central and sub-national government, civil society, donors) helps to leverage broad-based support for LSDI programs.  Effective capacity building and awareness raising programs represent a key driving force for an effective DFGG agenda in MNA.