Awareness Raising and Citizen Participation
AASL specializes in accountability systems for Civil Society Organizations. Its particular focus is on NGOs downward accountability. Community participation in service delivery is of critical importance for successful service delivery. It also empowers citizens to play an active role in their life improvement, giving them confidence and skills to shape the quality of community life. Citizen engagement is one of the four key elements of accountability without which service providers cannot call themselves accountable. It is part of good governance underpinning the country’s democratic development.
Key Elements of Program Development
AASL develops program by:
• Doing research studying experience of other organizations and learning from its own work;
• Mobilizing communities and building relationships;
• Developing partnerships;
• Organizing and co-coordinating action;
• Developing solutions;
• Follow-up and
Approach to Community Participation
AASL’s approach is incisive and comprehensive.
• We assess levels of participation and identify barriers;
• We analyze relationships between service providers and community groups;
• We design stakeholder discussions and skills development for communities;
Our program is based on the accountability triangle model for service delivery which focuses on how citizens can influence policy and service delivery. The model aims to:
a) identify stakeholders;
b) establish systems that allow for engagement;
c) develop a range of participatory mechanisms.
Our method is interactive allowing NGO service providers and community groups to debate issues, identify common ground and agree a joint solution and action plan. AA SL follows up coordinating with service providers and community groups to ensure they fulfill their commitments.
The learning Points for Participants
Participants attending this program will:
• Gain an understanding of their rights and confidence and skills to challenge the status quo;
• Gain understanding of how service providers operate;
• Identify objectives and priorities of participation
• Learn how to develop workable solutions;
• Identify sustainable participatory mechanisms.
AA-SL’s regional sensitization workshops held across the country in the chiefdoms of Koribondo, Jaiama Bongo on July 16, 2010; Makeni, Bombali Shebora, August 5, 2010; Kenema, Nongowa, August 26, 2010, and Waterloo, Koya Rural District, September 15, 2010, have given us experience and ideas. We listened to the citizens, and collected their complaints. We have established that there are set of problems, and identified some good practice and some less professional behavior. Someone at the November workshop asked how we were going to address the problems identified in the 4 chiefdoms: “If accountability is about transparency, participation, monitoring and evaluation and complaints and response, then how are you going to address the problem of accountability?”
We envisage replicating the sensitization workshops to other chiefdoms so that several more beneficiaries are made aware and involved in the debate. The case for replication is supported by citizens like councilor Fatmata Dassama of ward 56 in Nongowa Chiedom, who said: “We are now ready to take our own developments into our own hands and would be grateful if you can extend this opportunity to the rest of our colleagues in our chiefdoms and beyond.”
AA-SL intends to use people from chiefdoms that have worked on solutions and have positive experience to go help other chiefdoms which face the same problem.
CSO Accoutability Workshop
A partnership was developed between CIVICUS and Accountability Alert Sierra Leone (AA- SL) in 2010 with the shared vision of strengthening civil society in order to build a community of informed, inspired, committed citizens engaged in confronting the challenges facing humanity. We believe civil society must achieve the highest possible levels of honesty and openness in order to work effectively for the communities we serve.
This joint workshop with the theme: “Working together in building an effective and efficient NGO sector in Sierra Leone through accountability,” was a project to strength the legitimacy, transparency and accountability of civil society in Sierra Leone. 80 participants attended the 2 day multi-stakeholder workshop in Freetown on 10-11 November, 2010 to launch a new national programme which seeks to raise the standard of governance within the NGO sector. See Annex 1 for a list of participants.
The workshop was organized against the backdrop of concerns about accountability and transparency as a serious problem in the development sector. The aim of the programme is to improve public trust and the credibility of civil society organizations and their activities through the enhancement of their accountability systems and structures.
The objectives of the workshop were:
1) To generate commitment among NGOs to the values and principles of accountable behavior
2) To assess and share experience in practicing accountability
3) To identify critical needs in knowledge and skills development
4) To identify potential members of a core group of NGOs who will spearhead future initiatives
5) To map out the way forward towards a healthy and responsible third sector.
The full report titled: ‘Working together to build an effective and efficient NGO System in Sierra Leone through accountability’ can be read at – See Report
Chiefdom Sensitization Workshops
AA-SL have organized successful chiefdom sensitization workshops on Accountability and Transparency in all four region of Sierra Leone:
- July 16, 2010 in Koribondo (Southern Province)
- August 5, 2010 in Makeni (Northern Province)
- August 26, 2010 in Kenema (Eastern Province)
- September 15, 2010 in Waterloo (Koya Rural District)
Full Report: Chiefdom Sensitization Workshop (in Jaiama Bongor, Bombali Shebora, Nongowa & Koya Rural District)