Public Affairs Foundation

Context

The Public Affairs Foundation has been working for 8 years. It has worked extensively in India where they are located, but also in twelve foreign countries in partnership with local organisations.
Website
www.pafglobal.org
Area of Work
Bangalore (Karnataka)
Contact Person
Mr. Ravishankar Rao

Approaches to implementing Community monitoring/ accountability

  • The main approach is Citizen Report Card (CRC).  This approach involves obtaining feedback from users of public services through, surveys, and focus group discussion to gather information and motivate people.
  • Community score cards are also used to resolve local level issues by collaboration among service providers and the community.
  • The approach also involves training workshops for community-based organisations in implementing Citizen Report Cards and in advocating for improvement in service delivery using CRCs.
  • Collected data is processed and analysed by consultancy firm or technical personnel from the organisation.
  • The organisation leads the survey, prepares the report and makes a presentation to the authorities. It also makes findings public.
  • The organisation also motivates service providers to improve service delivery and motivates citizens to demand better services by giving them information they can use to their advantage.
  • In addition, personnel from the organisation meet with service providers and help them brainstorm to come up with a reform agenda.

Results and Lessons

  • Citizens used CRCs to demand improved services and to demand accountability. There have been several instances where governments have initiated reforms that led to improvement in service delivery.
  • Community monitoring certainly results in better responsiveness from Government authorities, which leads to improvements in service delivery.
  • In some cases, service providers used the results to publicise their achievements, used ranking to compete against other agencies and also used the results to gather more funding for their projects.
  • A positive effect is the empowerment of the community, bridge building that happens between providers and citizens, and citizens being informed of what they are entitled to as services.
  • An unwanted effect is that  sometimes, political leaders can mislead communities or vested interests can hijack local issues.