//MOBILIZING piece

ACCOUNTABILITY: CITIZENS, MOVEMENTS

think AND THE STATE Brendan Halloran and Walter Flores* * Respectively, Program Officer, and Accountability Initiative (brendan.halloran @transparency-initiative.org) and Director, CEGSS and COPASAH member ([email protected])

• Citizen engagement is ubiquitous in externally supported efforts to improve government accountability, however lessons about the need to encourage and strengthen existing forms of citizen collective action are not being fully put into practice

• Citizens can successfully pressure and support government accountability through collective mobilization strategies that require capable, autonomous and representative grassroots organizations and movements • External funders and professional NGOs can play a role in engaging with and supporting popular organizations and movements to strengthen the ‘accountability ecosystem’, but care must be taken in building and maintaining such relationships

External actors, including funders and international NGOs, have been working What we still don’t know – to support efforts to make governments Unpacking the state more responsive and accountable to their citizens for many years, with important In a recent workshop on social lessons learned along the way (see also accountability research hosted by T/AI, here, here and here). External support for GPSA and MAVC, one of the key lessons more accountable has taken is that we still need to know more about many forms. Technical assistance to improve what drives state responsiveness and laws, institutions and mechanisms for accountability. accountability have been a strong element of such initiatives, as well as support for pro-reform actors (or ‘champions’) in may look like laws and government. But do these approaches reflect mechanisms that function the realities of many challenging national elsewhere, but don’t Lant Pritchett and local contexts? In diverse countries, function properly due to and others from Mexico to Tanzania to Indonesia, state political, resource and have called this ‘isomorphic accountability is fundamentally a question other constraints. mimicry’ of power. Individuals and groups use the state apparatus to control wealth and other To complement capacity privileges that would be eroded with more building, technical assistance and other transparent and accountable systems. Thus, efforts, external actors have also renewed 1 what are their incentives for reforms? Even their focus on the role of citizens. However, where progressive decision makers seek to many early ‘social accountability’ (i.e. citizen make positive changes, they will likely face and civil driven) approaches were obstacles from those whose interests are narrow and isolated, and too frequently being challenged, and thus need support focused on specific tools like citizen from other pro-reform actors. Even where scorecards to get citizen feedback to institutional reforms are put in place, these authorities (‘feedback loops’). Jonathan Fox has demonstrated the failure of such ‘tactical approaches’ to social accountability that response of the state is one of violence. pursue change through short-term, isolated In other cases, political parties seek to ‘projects’, advocating instead for longer term, manipulate these mobilizations, often vertically integrated campaigns based on leading to rifts and deeper distrust. multiple tactics and entry points. Innovative social accountability efforts have sought to Promising examples emerge when take on board some of these lessons, and national movements or civil society some have even turned conventional thinking coalitions are able to link to local on its head by embracing complexity and grassroots mobilizations. Such pursuing more politically-informed and relationships amplify the voice of relational approaches. local actors while connecting national organizations directly to citizen actions Yet many lessons about the role of citizens and needs. The T/A community needs acting collectively for state accountability to consider how to support these cases don’t seem to be making their way into of citizen organization and mobilization, practice. For example, the evidence that which are leading the struggle for state individual and group participation tends to accountability around concrete issues replicate local power inequalities and need affecting their . to be connected to broader movements for democratic change. Or that citizen participation through organizations HOW CAN CITIZENS HOLD THE STATE and associations leads to greater gains ACCOUNTABLE? in government responsiveness and accountability than individual or community It is clear that citizens expressing their voice participation – especially for the most and taking action is fundamental to ensuring marginalized citizens and in the most government accountability. Citizens attempt challenging contexts. In other words, "it is to – with varying degrees of success – hold when participatory mechanisms in formal authorities to account through many means governance coincide with citizen mobilization and mechanisms, such as:* - whether in the form of associations or social NOTE movements - that the effectiveness of these • Political organizing and elections pathways is ensured" (Coelho and von Lieres). *Get more in depth on these • Formal institutional legal mechanisms of mechanisms of citizen voice The question is where are the associations redress with ODI’s excellent report and blog series on this topic. and movements? • Media or other advocacy campaigns to ‘name and shame’ or otherwise influence the behavior of power holders Perspectives from Pakistan – • Individual or community-based Gulbaz Khan participatory mechanisms, from citizen scorecards to participatory budgeting Transparency and accountability goals are • Nonviolent social movements, deeply enmeshed in issues of state power. campaigns and other forms of collective Too many initiatives seek to leverage what citizen organizing and action outside are perhaps well-meaning ‘champions’ formal political processes, including among elected officials or bureaucrats confrontational tactics to advance these aims. In these cases, citizens may be involved through Thus, citizens can and must be involved participatory mechanisms. Yet even when in expecting, demanding and pressuring these exercises begin promisingly, too government decision makers to be many fall victim to capture, manipulation or more responsive to public corruption. needs and more accountable for their Citizen relationships with In Pakistan, there is a need to more actions. Yet for state actors cannot be defined seriously consider the role of membership- citizens to engage by a simple collaborative or based citizen organizations and antagonistic dichotomy. Citizens the state on these would generally prefer to movements. There are numerous issues is to enter collaborate with authorities so examples of where citizen organization into political terrain collectively solve problems. But and has built up over time under real world conditions of of extreme power increasing inequality and closing 2 to challenge abuses of power by state imbalance. How do civic space, popular organizations authorities. Yet often these movements citizens build and and movements must be more are small and local, and frequently the savvy and flexible, to engage with wield the kind of the state where possible and to contest unaccountable actions where necessary! ‘countervailing power’ (or ‘people power’) Technology, digital activism and that will bridge this gap? Individual (or even movements ‘community’) engagement through formal participation or ICT-enabled complaints or Technology and digital activism is demands is unlikely to be sufficient in most becoming more visibly associated with contexts. Even more ambitious efforts, popular collective action, as Facebook, such as building formal mechanisms for Twitter, YouTube, and many other tools citizen participation in government decision and spaces are increasingly common making, can exclude marginalized groups, in the repertoire of grassroots activists be captured by local elites, or limited to (see here and here). Yet technology is addressing specific issues (budgeting, service no panacea for social change, and to the quality, etc.) while ignoring deeper and more extent that the T/A community should systemic power inequalities. Yet advocacy by be supporting the tools for citizens to professional NGOs, with little accountability organize and act collectively to demand to citizens and their priorities – and thus real state accountability, we also need to be legitimacy deficits –has its own limits.* realistic about the limits of social media A healthy civil society ecosystem, and and other technologies for movement NOTE more effective social accountability building. Communications technologies approaches, depends on the efforts of can reduce the time and costs of *Three common limitations people’s organizations and movements collective action, sometimes facilitating

on NGO action to address seeking more accountable governance. mass collective action under challenging accountability: We argue that external funders and NGOs conditions, as we have seen in the news 1. Weak roots in society can and should support and complement headlines in recent years, from Cairo to 2. Priorities and modalities these existing efforts, as well as promoting shaped by external funding Hong Kong. Yet mobilization is not the an enabling environment for grassroots support same as organization. Strong citizen 3. Increasing constraints organizations and movements to emerge. organizations and movements are based placed on NGOs by governments on shared identity, collective experiences, Visible examples of collective citizen action and a strong organizing framework. According to a recent paper can be seen splashed across news headlines on governance reform by Diane de Gramont: on an increasingly regular basis. According "Transformative social to a recent ODI report on ‘political voice’, 37 change tends to come protests between 2006 and 2013 involved not from apolitical and vehicles for gaining development and over 1 million people. Protest or other ‘unruly than perhaps has technocratic NGOs but from democratic outcomes politically influential actors, politics’ is often a way for marginalized been previously understood.” Numerous such as social movements citizens to challenge state power on their studies point to the need to look at how or religious groups that external donors are usually own terms, rather than through formal citizens are organizing themselves and uncomfortable supporting." institutional channels (elections, legal mobilizing to create forms of engagement . processes, formal participation) that too often with the state, rather than for external actors maintain the status quo. Indeed, massive to be creating new spaces and mechanisms street protests have brought down corrupt that ignore these existing efforts. Examples and unaccountable leaders in countries as of popular organizations and movements and diverse as Egypt, Ukraine and Burkina Faso in their efforts to promote state accountability recent years. Removing these autocrats from are numerous. MKSS, a grassroots movement power has been a strong act of accountability. in India, campaigned for right to information But we shouldn’t think that protest is legislation in order to use this as a tool to , the only form of collective action demand minimum wages for participants as people’s organizations and movements in public works projects and to public deploy many diverse tactics depending on projects in local communities. In Cape the context and their aims. We need to look Town, the Social Justice Coalition, a social beyond specificcollective action tactics organization mixes community organizing, to the kinds of organizations** and leadership development and citizen protests coalitions that can sustain and deploy with research, advocacy and collaborative The UK’s DFID is diverse approaches over the long policy design with local authorities to sponsoring new term. address public services in marginalized urban research to understand how collective citizen communities. Women’s savings cooperative action can contribute According to a comprehensive associations in places as diverse as urban to more inclusive and study of over 100 cases of citizen Mumbai and rural Uganda, have strengthened responsive institutions, engagement by John Gaventa and members’ economic and political agency, and 3 and how external actors can support such Gregory Barrett, “while people may allowed new forms of engagement with state processes. engage with the state in a variety actors. of ways, associations and social movements are far more important Peoples’ organizations and SUPPORTING PEOPLE-CENTERED movements for accountability APPROACHES TO ACCOUNTABILITY: MOVEMENTS AND ECOSYSTEMS Engaging citizens has become ubiquitous across the transparency and External supporters of social accountability accountability sector. But in this note, are paying increasing attention to the political we are seeking to move towards thinking dimensions of state responsiveness and about how citizens act collectively accountability (for example, see here and through movements and organizations here). This requires a broader understanding they have built themselves with the goal of the range of actors seeking to hold of achieving a more accountable state. decision-makers to account, and the spaces In her recent book Curtailing Corruption: and processes (formal or informal) in which People Power for Accountability, Shaazka they seek to engage. This means going Beyerle, outlines several pathways by beyond tool-based approaches to citizen which popular organizing and collective demands (e.g. citizen score cards or SMS- action strengthens accountability: complaint mechanisms for service delivery). • Disrupting systems of graft and abuse But we already knew that. by interfering with their smooth functioning Where we need more thinking, and some • Applying nonviolent pressure through more innovative doing, is in going beyond the power of numbers: people raising the current focus of external support on their collective voice over shared either individuals/communities or specialized demands and bringing pressure on professional NGOs. In many situations corruptors who have been unwilling, where state accountability is weak, the up to that point, to change the status context is more challenging for individual quo citizens or communities to play a strong role • Engaging with power holders and the in addressing this. Political patronage can public and “pulling” them towards the coopt citizens and communities, community civic initiative and anti-corruption/ participation can often be dominated by local accountability struggle, thereby elites, state and non-state violence creates shifting positions, loyalties to the fear and limits collective direct action, and corrupt status quo, and “defections” vote buying or electoral manipulation limit from it citizens’ ability to assert control via the ballot box. Individual citizens and communities are often unwilling and unable to challenge Despite clear evidence for the efficacy of unaccountable state power, and with good people’s organizations and movements, we reason. shouldn’t totally romanticize them. Such organizations and movements are very Professional NGOs, on the other hand, are difficult to grow and sustain, and are not the often based in capital cities, and are generally ‘magic bullet’ for accountable governance. far removed from the daily lives of the most Citizens, particularly from marginalized marginalized citizens. Their external financing groups, face significant barriers to collective means that they are ultimately accountable action. They often avoid conflict and upwards, towards funders, rather than to the sometimes participation entirely, often citizens whom they often claim to represent. preferring to delegate to intermediaries – These challenges often lead to questioning including the patrons and brokers responsible of NGO credibility and legitimacy, often by for maintaining unequal structures and cynical governments looking for excuses to relationships. Once built, organizations and shut down channels of dissent. movements may lack internal mechanisms for democratic decision-making, and can Now obviously citizens, communities be dominated by a few leaders, capturing and NGOs can and should be part of benefits and creating new inequalities. a holistic approach to strengthening Finally, and to state the obvious, collective accountability. mobilization and activism does not always But if we acknowledge lead to more state accountability, in many that accountability is fundamentally cases state repression undermines collective about power relationships, then support action or short term victories lead to for social accountability needs to be focused on strengthening the power of demobilization before real changes can be 4 citizens to hold authorities to account. institutionalized. This means that we need to get serious about supporting people’s organizations and movements. Social Movements and to make government more responsive and Accountability: A view from the accountable, across the spaces, processes Slums of Durban and mechanisms – formal and informal – that exist for this purpose, or can be created or In his 2008 article, “A Politics of the strengthened by collective citizen action. Poor”, Richard Pithouse reports on Just to repeat, we don’t want to suggest the contradiction of post-Apartheid that people’s organizations and movements Durban, where despite legal measures are a ‘silver bullet’ for accountability, but we preventing evictions and protecting slum think they are a very important – and under- dwellers, the municipal authorities have emphasized – element of an ‘ecosystem’ of been engaged in forced relocations and complementary pro-accountability actors and prevention of new slum settlements. efforts. This has provoked a surge of protests. Unfortunately, The state’s response to these protests despite repeated calls has been one of attempted cooptation to go ‘beyond the usual suspects’, and, more frequently, violent repression. disproportionate support has gone According to Pithouse, social movements to professional NGOs that often amongst the slum dwellers of Durban exist solely due to external funding, have: and not enough to the kinds of organizations, associations and "democratized the governance of movements that citizens themselves settlements, stopped evictions, won autonomously create and sustain. some concessions around services, This situation can lead to an unbalanced and illegally connected electricity, built unrepresentative civil society ‘monoculture’. homemade toilets, set up crèches, Now this is not to say that external supporters vegetable gardens, and various should abandon funding NGOs. But it does cultural, sporting and popular suggest thinking about the role of NGOs vis- projects, started a à-vis citizens’ organizations and movements. newspaper, developed a capacity to First, professional NGO’s can play a key respond to shack fires with far more role in supporting membership-based speed and efficacy than the State, organizations and movements. An example won sustained media access, become of this is an alliance in Mumbai between a prophetic voice within the churches SPARC, a professional NGO, and a women’s and enabled collective bargaining with savings cooperative and the federation of the state..." p. 85 slum dwellers. SPARC supports the more representative groups to pursue their aims Yet, the divide between state and social and effectively engage the government (see forces is as wide as under Apartheid here and here). rule, and the likelihood of collaboration as bleak. The slum dweller movement in Secondly, NGOs should consider how their Durban has had a complete break with strategies can better integrate with those the ANC, but has no other viable electoral of citizen organizations and movements. option and have thus chosen to boycott Professional advocacy and grassroots elections. Yet even party patronage has mobilization and pressure has been shown been trumped by the policies of removal, to be complementary in strengthening state as seen by continued evictions in slum accountability in challenging contexts communities that have remained loyal such as Mexico and Colombia, to the ANC. The slum dweller movement leading to real reductions has carved out a space for organizational in impunity. There are autonomy and worked to increase many other examples – This case is part of like the Treatment Action a dialogue about community democracy and capacity, mass-mobilization but, as highlighted by Pithouse, the Campaign in South Africa versus elite-based commitment to autonomy and “people’s – where professional NGO strategies for strategies reflect and seek achieving rights politics” has further isolated them from and justice on political, state, and NGO actors with synergies with popular the website Open whom they might hope to build bridges movements, often due to Democracy. or coalitions. good political analysis and flexible, adaptive approaches. 5 Real citizen ‘countervailing power’ means Finally, we should be explicit: supporting a vibrant and diverse set of peoples’ popular organizations and movements organizations working at multiple scales does not necessarily mean funding . This could lead to the ‘NGO-ization’ LEARNING FROM MOVEMENTS, AND them of such groups and the ‘project-ization’ of MOVING FORWARD ON WHAT WE’VE their activities, and there are plenty of NGOs LEARNED implementing projects out there already! We need to think about other kinds of support In our last global workshop for the TALEARN and collaboration, including support for community of practice – bringing together networking, learning, capacity development, funders, researchers and practitioners – legal assistance, etc. some participants asked: where are the movements? This led to a plan to bring grassroots organizations and movements into CIVIL SOCIETY, SOCIAL the TALEARN conversation, with this piece as MOVEMENTS AND THE STATE IN a modest starting point. THE PHILIPPINES – JOY ACERON To move this agenda forward, we are The Philippines has gone through many collaborating with the Engine Room to stages of state-society relationships, where explore the perspectives of activists social movements and other coalitions associated with grassroots organizations engaged policy makers from the bottom and movements, as well as funders and up to the top, through either informal/ practitioners who seek to promote and society-led or formal and institutionalized strengthen the work of such groups. These mechanisms. Today the major challenges initial conversations, as well as a look at the are around governance and institutional literature, will inform further Think Pieces strengthening, which are not necessarily on this theme, unpacking the opportunities, traditional areas of challenges and knowledge gaps related to involvement. citizen organizations and social movements addressing government accountability – Social movement actors still engage and efforts to support these. There is a around critical policy junctures, such as lot of knowledge about the role of popular putting pressure to pass certain legislation. organizations and movements, but less about But after legislation is approved, the how funders and NGOs can best support and movement or coalition dissolves, in the enable these efforts, and complement them sense that the constituent organizations with other pro-accountability programs. go back to addressing their local or specialized concerns, which often can Finally, T/AI will bring this work on social include supporting and monitoring movements together with other themes we implementation. Some movement leaders are exploring, such as thinking and working call this ‘post-modern social movements’. politically and ecosystems approaches to strengthening accountability. We also expect Sustaining longer-term and broad to bring insights from engagement with mobilization is costly, and few examples citizens’ movements to our broader learning of this exist. Likewise, institutionalizing efforts. We look forward to sharing emerging nationwide formal civil society insights more broadly and also thinking engagement, also has its limits, such through implications and strategies for as a more constrained space for social specific organizations. engagement. Thus, I think the fruitful area for exploration is how scatters social actors in civil society, government, or elsewhere, *THANKS TO: who share similar aims and ideals, but may not self-identify as a ‘social movement’, are Shaazka Beyerle, Gulbaz Khan, Vanessa Herringshaw, Joy Aceron, Edward able to link up and pursue their goals. So Premdas Pinto, Geoffrey Opio Atim, rather than talking about narrow labels, Jonathan Fox, and Francesca Terzi. we should be looking for frameworks that broaden the inclusion of pro-reform and *The views expressed are those of the pro-accountability forces, and only define authors and do not necessarily reflect those of T/AI's members. a specific identity if it helps advance that April 2015 aims of such a coalition. This could be a new model for supporting change through a more systemic, holistic ecosystems model.

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