Introduction
The CSA is committed to strengthening the capacity of civil society in
The CSA’s training programme seeks to engage regional civil society in an ongoing debate on the right to social accountability and the tools necessary to give effect to this right. It also aims to expose civic actors and interest groups to the concept of the social accountability system and to the three mutually reinforcing rights-based monitoring and advocacy approaches designed to strengthen this system.
Left: Course participants on August 2007 pilot of Fundamentals course
The training programme is responsible for:
-
Training and Mentoring
Regional Country Consultations
The CSA plans to hold consultation workshops with civic actors in ten Southern African countries, including Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe in order to share approaches to social accountability monitoring and to exchange budget and social accountability monitoring experiences and tools. A report is
produced on each of these consultation visits which together make up the series Accountability and Service Delivery in Southern Africa: the Case for a Rights-Based Approach to Social Accountability Monitoring. These reports, which are co-authored with local partner CSOs, provide a brief overview of current monitoring and advocacy work in the relevant country. Reports also provides an analysis of the public resource management frameowrk of each country using the CSA's accountability system approach and a set of recommendations for potential new entry points for monitoring the implementation of accountability systems.
Above: Country Consultation in Lilongwe, Malawi Sep. 2007
To learn more about regional country consultation workshops and reports, click here.
Training and Mentoring
The CSA provides two forms of training, as well as mentoring, to interested actors in the Southern Africa region:
-
The Fundamentals of Social Accountability Monitoring certificate course
This 11-day Rhodes University accredited certificate course provides an introduction to the CSA's rights-based approach to social accountability monitoring. It covers a range of available monitoring approaches and applied monitoring and advocacy tools from the PSAM as well as other CSOs in Southern Africa. The course is held in Grahamstown, South Africa.
To learn more about the course, click here. -
Exposure workshops
These range from three hours to three days in duration and provide exposure to the right to social accountability and/or the concept of systematic social accountability monitoring (which covers the entire public resource management cycle from strategic planning, to resource allocation, implementation, integrity management, and finally oversight). These workshops are held throughout the Southern Africa region in response to requests from partner/interested organisations. To learn more about these workshops, click here. -
Mentoring
The CSA, in partnership with the International Budget Project (IBP), provides mentoring on the implementation of the rights-based approach and/or monitoring tools to civic interest groups.In order to qualify for the CSA mentoring programme, civic interest groups from those Southern African states which form part of the CSA’s focus area will be required to:- attend and successfully complete The Fundamentals of Social Accountability Monitoring certificate course;
- present a one-year project proposal setting out the rights-based approach and relevant social accountability monitoring tools they intend to implement;
- successfully apply to the IBP to obtain financial support, which will solicit funding proposals from Southern African groups engaged in, or seeking to become engaged in, public resource management and social accountability work, and
- draw up, in conjunction with the CSA, terms of reference for the mentoring over the project period.
To learn more about mentoring, click here.