World Bank Final Report
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The Common Social Accountability Platform Deploying the Common Social Accountability Platform to inform the 2020 World Bank Performance and Learning Review January 2020 Africa’s Voices Project Team: Africa’s Voices Project Team: Anna Tomson (Governance & Accountability Senior Programme Manager), Khadija Mohamed (Programme Officer), Nasri Ali (Programme Officer), Zakaria Sheikh (Research Assistant), Alexander Simpson (Software Engineer), Lucas Malla (Senior Quantitative Researcher), and Samuel Kimeu (Executive Director). © 2019 Africa’s Voices Foundation Ltd Africa’s Voices Foundation Africa’s Voices Foundation Kenya Riverside Suites, Riverside Lane, Nairobi UK Centre for Global Equality, 8C King’s Parade CB2 1SP Cambridge africasvoices.org @africas_voices This report was written by Anna Tomson, Senior Programme Manager, Governance & Accountability and Khadija Hussein at Africa’s Voices Foundation 2 Africa’s Voices Foundation List of acronyms 4 1. INTRODUCTION 5 1.1 Context 5 1.2 Project Objectives 5 1.3 The Common Social Accountability Platform 6 1.4 AVF’s Interactive Radio Method 6 2. Methodology 8 2.1 Building inclusive community engagement at scale 8 2.2 Gathering insight on public opinion 10 2.3 Limitations of the methodology 10 3. Engagement 11 3.1 Content of the radio dialogue 11 3.2 Who participated in the dialogue 11 4. Insights into citizen perspectives 14 4.1 Citizen priorities for development 14 4.2 Citizen access to decision making and grievance mechanisms 21 ANNEX 1: List of radio stations 26 ANNEX 2: Thick description 27 ANNEX 3: Radio transcript 28 3 Africa’s Voices Foundation List of acronyms AAP - Accountability to Affected Populations AVF - Africa’s Voices Foundation CPF - Country Partnership Framework CSAP - Common Social Accountability Platform FGDs - Focus Group Discussions FGS - Federal Government of Somalia FMS - Federal Member States HNO - Humanitarian Needs Overview IASC - Inter-Agency Standing Committee IDPs - Internally Displaced People PLR - Performance and Learning Review PSA - Public Service Announcement SMS - Short Message Service WBG - World Bank Group 4 Africa’s Voices Foundation 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Context In September 2018, the World Bank Group’s (WBG) Board of Directors endorsed the first four-year Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Somalia, the country’s first development strategy since the early 1990s. The CPF 2019-22 focuses on the Federal Government of Somalia’s (FGS) goal to expand service delivery, build resilience to climatic shocks, and boost economic opportunities. This development veers away from a Multi-Donor Partner Fund model and represents a major change in the financial relationship between WBG and the Federal Government of Somalia. Accordingly, the Bank has been conducting a Performance and Learning Review (PLR) to update its 2018 country strategy. As required by the PLR framework, the Bank has been holding consultations with various stakeholder groups, including the citizens of Somalia, to ensure their voices are heard and taken into consideration in any adjustments. The importance of citizen consultation at this crucial juncture cannot be overstated. If Somalia is to develop the kind of citizen-authority relations that can underpin a strong, stable and productive social contract, then engagement with and accountability to citizens in the formulation of development priorities is an essential building block. Equally, opacity in how domestic political elites together with foreign and international powers channel, access, organise and distribute resources can readily fuel distrust and feed into the counter-narratives of political entities seeking to destabilise progress in the country. To this end, the WBG commissioned Africa’s Voices Foundation (AVF) to host a series of interactive radio consultations aimed at ensuring that citizen voice is embedded in the PLR process. 1.2 Project Objectives A recognition that Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) must be mainstreamed in aid processes is gaining momentum both globally and in Somalia. The 2019 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) outlines the need to expand and deepen AAP initiatives and specifically commends Africa’s Voices’ interactive radio method as an effective way to practice AAP1. This parallels the global momentum exemplified by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Task force on AAP/Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse2 and the Grand Bargain promise of a “participation revolution”3. This project capitalises on this momentum to support AAP efforts in the Somali aid landscape, and will be a resource to inform WBG planning for investment priorities in Somalia in the coming year. 1 OCHA Somalia (2018), Humanitarian Needs Overview 2019 2 IASC Commitments on accountability to affected people and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, 2017, (online at: https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/system/files/iasc_caap_endorsed_nov_2017.pdf , last accessed: 11 February 2019) 3 The Grand Bargain - A shared commitment to better serve people in need, 2016 (online at: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Grand_Bargain_final_22_May_FINAL-2.pdf, last accessed 20 September 2018) 5 Africa’s Voices Foundation OVERALL OBJECTIVE: To improve the legitimacy and effectiveness of development finance in Somalia by ensuring that citizens are meaningfully consulted and their voice, agency and influence duly incorporated in Somalia’s development and governance strategy and planning processes. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: 1. Build large, inclusive and valued spaces for consulting citizens on the country’s development priorities for the coming years and that allow citizens to feel influential in decision-making; 2. Ensure that WBG decision-making on revisions to its country’s strategy is shaped by a timely and robust evidence base on citizen perspectives; 3. Strengthen citizen-authority relations in development planning, by supporting the government to engage citizens in dialogue on key decisions. 1.3 The Common Social Accountability Platform “Social accountability” refers to a form of civic engagement that builds accountability through the collective efforts of citizens and civil society organizations to hold public officials, service providers and governments to account for their obligations with responsive efforts.4 Alongside strengthening civic engagement and amplifying ‘citizen voice’, social accountability initiatives aim to increase the transparency of governance in many arenas, ranging from local service delivery to national processes of development policy formulation.5 In response to the clear need for spaces in which citizen voices can be listened and responded to by both government and aid decision makers, Africa’s Voices launched the Common Social Accountability Platform (CSAP) in Somalia in 2018. CSAP’s objective is to enhance the inclusion of citizens in decision-making across peace-building, humanitarian interventions and development programmes. By leveraging Africa’s Voices’ interactive radio method for nurturing dialogue and gathering public opinion, the platform aims to build a sustained channel for open conversation between citizens and decision-makers, across sectors and mandates. CSAP uses a combination of radio programming and SMS messaging to create a platform that Somali citizens actively engage in, whilst simultaneously allowing for feedback received from citizen SMS messages to be robustly analysed, understood and ideally, acted upon. AVF’s approach allows for two types of critical insight: 1. Rich qualitative understanding of citizen perspectives; 2. Quantitative understanding of the prevalence of perspectives and how these vary by demographic group. This can fill evidence gaps on citizen perspectives so as to make governments’ decision-making more accountable, responsive and grounded in the voices of citizens. Insights delivered from AVF’s analysis of citizen perspectives will be specifically targeted to inform the WBG’ PLR, with the specific aim of informing priority areas for development programmes in Somalia. 1.4 AVF’s Interactive Radio Method CSAP is built on AVF’s interactive radio method. This method provides a new layer of community engagement and social accountability programming in Somalia and works in complementarity with other approaches to build dialogue and ensure citizens are able to inform decision-making. The 4 Houtzager, P. and A. Joshi (2008). Introduction: Contours of a research project and early findings. IDS Bulletin 38 (6), p. 1-9. 5 Gaventa, J. and G. Barrett (2010). So What Difference Does it Make? Mapping the Outcomes of Citizen Engagement. IDS Working Paper No. 347. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies. 6 Africa’s Voices Foundation interactive radio approach is designed to leverage the vibrant media and telecommunications landscape that has emerged in sub-Saharan Africa to build large-scale, cost-effective and inclusive conversations6. Somalia presents an opportunity for innovative media engagement as 89% of people own a SIM card7 and 70% of people listen to FM radio on a weekly basis in the city. Interactive radio projects can build on this landscape to effectively implement radio show debates with key decision-makers. Audiences drive the discussion by inputting their perspectives through SMS to a toll-free shortcode. By connecting citizens with each other and with decision-makers in this way, AVF’s interactive radio method can overcome some of the barriers of cost, infrastructure, and security that traditional survey methodologies often face, without losing the scope