CSA - Country Consultations

The CSA training programme is currently embarking on a series of consultation visits to meet with civic groups and actors engaged (or interested in engaging) in public resource management monitoring and/or advocacy in Southern Africa. The purpose of these visits is to hold a workshop on current monitoring and advocacy approaches in each country with civic actors engaged in, or who have an interest in, budget or accountability monitoring. The workshop provides an opportunity for the CSA to exchange experiences in respect of public expenditure monitoring and to consider networking opportunities for the exchange of monitoring tools. The CSA uses this opportunity to expose participants to its rights-based approach to social accountability and to the CSA’s accountability systems monitoring approach.

Prior to the workshop, efforts are made (in conjunction with funders and local partners) to arrange a series of visits with key stakeholders in the public expenditure manageemnt and oversight process (including central government finance, planning and budgeting officials; members of the parliamentary oversight committee for public finances; and, members of the supreme audit institution).

Left: National Audit Office, Lilongwe, Malawi

A report produced after each country visit provides an account of the CSA’s consultations with local CSOs, the tools they currently use, and the challenges they face. A second part of this report, written in conjunction with a local partner organisation where possible, provides an overview and analysis of the country’s public resource management and accountability framework – conducted using the five processes making up the social accountability system - and a set of CSA recommendations for potential additional monitoring entry points.

By circulating this report back to participants for their comments, the CSA seeks to sustain the dialogue begun in the consultation workshop and to begin an organic process of information-sharing and networking among civic actors committed to a rights-based approach to social accountability in the Southern Africa region.

Above: (left) consultation workshop with civic actors and (right) meeting with education practitioners
Malawi, September 2007

Feedback from previous country consultations

“[I] appreciate the work that all have done in pulling together the sections on the theory and practice of the Tanzanian public resource and accountability framework. I know that you have had to do huge amounts of extra reading and talking, beyond our interviews in-country, to get to this level of detail. I think these sections of the report are strong and add to the various reports I have read on Tanzania from Tanzanian CSOs and from OPM and the Bank. You clearly establish your authority and value-added in these sections. You come at this from a different angle than much of the other work in the field and I think you show the value of your approach. I just really hope that Tanzanian groups will read this.” Warren Krafchick, Director, IBP

“I found the report to be extremely informative. Comprehensive, big-picture reports on these issues are really few and far between, at least in terms of what I have come across. The report also provides some good food for thought for us, in terms of a better understanding of what the challenges are, and ideas on how we can engage more strategically.” Ruth Carlitz, Senior Researcher, HakiElimu

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