The CSA, in partnership with the International Budget Project, as of 2008 will provide mentoring on the implementation of its rights-based approach and/or monitoring tools to civic interest groups from Southern African countries, with a maximum of two organisations mentored per project year.
Mentoring includes providing assistance on how to use monitoring tools to: evaluate resource allocations to service providers; evaluate the responsiveness of strategic plans; track expenditure; monitor performance; evaluate public integrity mechanisms; and evaluate accountability to oversight bodies. Such mentoring will form part of a structured partnership between the CSA and the International Budget Project (IBP).
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 are required to:
- attend and successfully complete the Fundamentals of Social Accountability Monitoring certificate course;
- prepare 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.
In turn, the CSA will provide the necessary support to ensure organisations are able to implement their social accountability monitoring project. This support will take the form of two site visits (one week in duration), as well as on-going support via telephone and email, during the project period.
The aim of the mentoring programme is to increase the application of social accountability monitoring tools in order to strengthen the capacity of civic interest groups to engage in public resource management monitoring and/or advocacy in the Southern Africa region.