By Bongani Qwabe

With the recent wave of demo¬cratisation in southern Africa the emphasis is now on how to improve the system of local government. Democratisation in the region marked the development of municipal legislation which requires not only that policies, structures and processes change, but that the very culture of local government becomes more responsive and democratic in pursuit of the developmental challenges envisaged in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) declaration.

The MDGs are emphatic that local governments should work towards realisation of the basic socio-economic rights that contribute to human development. In a major shift in developmental thinking, improving the human condition and placing it at the centre of progress, is now the focus of achieving the MDGs.

Consequently, local governments have explicit objectives, such as fighting extreme poverty and addressing unemployment and HIV/AIDS. Therefore, local governments have to make considerable efforts to integrate MDGs into their local development plans, including adopting local policies and programmess to facilitate the achievement of MDGs.

Furthermore, it is mandatory that local governments promote participatory governance as this will improve the effectiveness of people in various functions and roles. Local governments should continue to strive toward quality in governance and development at local level by encouraging citizen engagement and participation in decision-making processes. Good governance must actively be promoted.

The advancement of good governance should be based on the following key pillars:
• citizen awareness and capacity building for government officials and civil society to address governance issues;
• participation from the bottom up in the deliberation of policy decisions;
•  sound policy framework for im¬prov¬ing governance at local level and quality of life for dis-advantaged communities.

It is important to note that good governance is not just about providing a range of local services, it is also about creating space for democratic participation and civil dialogue; about environmentally sustainable local development, and facilitating outcomes that enrich the quality of life of citizens.
 
Unqualified and total good governance is an ideal which few countries and societies have come even close to achieving. But, if we want to ensure sustainable human development, action must be taken to work towards this ideal.

In this first edition of Local Governance Barometer, you can read about the exciting work of the Local Governance Unit (LGU) of the African Democracy Institute (Idasa) in its attempts to strengthen democracy and good governance through its local government capacity development projects in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Malawi.

Since its inception in 1995 the LGU has been engaged and instrumental in helping local governments in Africa build and shape democratic institutions for effective local governance systems.

 Bongani Qwabe is the Manager of the Local Governance Unit at Idasa

Every four or five years we have the opportunity to express our satisfaction or dissatisfaction at our municipal governments by participating in local government elections. If we are lucky, in between these elections, we may have once or twice been involved in “consultation” processes regarding the plans of our municipal governments. Apart from these rare occurrences of citizen involvement in local politics, there are very few other ways in which municipal governments interact directly with their citizens – except when things go terribly wrong and people resort to protest action.

What happened to developmen¬tal local government that tries to  involve and empower citizens in the development process?

One of the critical factors identified in recent assessments of local government, is the fact that most municipal governments operate in isolation from citizens, which may explain the generally perceived crisis in local governance. The question is, can this be turned around? Can we restore a healthy and open dialogue process?

Yes, we can – where there is a will, there is a way –  and it is surprisingly less difficult than we may expect. 
In coming newsletters, I will reflect on ways in which vibrant interaction between local government and citizens can be restored; looking how both sides can become active partners in a constructive process.  
 
Every big company or service provider like Telkom, Volkswagen, City Lodge, and so on, conducts a client satisfaction survey once in a while to actively try and improve services by soliciting feedback from customers. If municipal councils as service providers did this on a regular basis, they could avoid nasty surprises, such as citizens taking to the streets in protest action to demand clean water, or a functioning rubbish collection system.  

The Citizen Report Card is a simple tool designed to measure the level of satisfaction of citizens regarding the performance of municipalities and the quality of the services they provide. If it is conducted on a regular basis, for instance every three to four years, and implemented by a neutral organisation, it will provide the municipality with important information about its performance. This can be a bit scary, of course, since municipal managers or Mayors may be exposed when shortfalls come to light, but it is the most important way to identify which services need improvement.

The tool consists of a questionnaire that is adapted to local circumstances and asks people to express their satisfaction with services. These are measured against commonly defined standards (e.g. everyone should live within 200 metres from a functioning water point).

The survey  can be general  (like the one Idasa is busy implementing in 50 municipalities all over South Africa), or it can target one or two services only by asking more in-depth questions.

For this tool to work properly in improving the dialogue process between citizens and local government, it needs to meet a few basic requirements:
• Reliability
 Although the exercise doesn’t need to meet scientific standards, the results must be representative and reliable. This means that if you do the same exercise involving different people, the results should be more or less the same. It means that the sampling must be done properly to ensure that different groups in the municipality (poor people, entrepreneurs, women, etc.) are represented according to ratio. It must involve a sufficient number of people to minimise individual  perspectives and it must be done by professional and neutral enu¬-me¬rators to ensure that all interviews are conducted in the same way.
• Openness
 Even though the results may be disappointing for the municipality involved, it is very important that they are published widely and discussed in the council. Ideally, the municipality should also provide a management response to the results, telling its citizens that it appreciates their feedback and how it will address the issues raised.
• Recurrence
 If conducted on a regular basis (e.g. every three to four years), the Citizen Report Card will help to identify trends in performance; which services have improved and which have deteriorated, and what type of additional measures are required to improve services.
• Defining service standards
 Ideally, in order to ensure that everyone has the same quality in mind when talking about good primary education, for example, each municipality should define its quality standards for each of the services it provides. These standards must be made known to the public so that people know what they can expect.  
If implemented according to these criteria, the Citizen Report Card can be a basic but important tool to improve the capacity of the municipality to listen to its citizens.

– Paul van Hoof

• If you want to know more about the Citizen Report Card (or Citizen Score Card as it is sometimes called), go to:  http://www.undp.org/oslocentre/flagship/democratic_governance_assessments.html and download the “Users’ Guide to Measuring Local Governance”.

The National Steering Committee (NSC) consists of five national stakeholders, Idasa and four representatives from each of the four provinces in which the Development for Local Governance project (CDLG) is being implemented in the first round. The NSC meets twice a year and is chaired by the National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA). Idasa has signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding with COGTA in light of the fact that this is a five-year project. The NSC has terms of reference in place which stipulates the roles and the responsibilities of the committee. At provincial level, there are provincial steering committees in place. The structure of the provincial committees is a replica of the NSC.

The members of the NSC include:

Idasa: Mr Siyabonga Memela,  Mr Bongani Qwabe, Ms Selinah Morley, Ms Mirriam Nkosi, Mr Brian Molewa, Mr Benjy Mautjane, Mr Sebastian Totwe, Ms Josephine Dambudzo, Ms Purity Mdaka, Ms Thina Nzo and Ms Marece Wenhold.

National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs: Mr Reckson Luvhengo

The Technical Assistance Unit, National Treasury: Mr Jeremy Timm, Ms Heather Stephens and Ms Eileen Meyer.

South African Local Government Association: Ms Antonette Richardson.

Auditor-General: Mr Jan van Schalkwyk.

Canadian International Development Agency: Ms Leslie Campbell and Ms Karen Mollica

North West Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs: Ms Bothlale Mofokeng

Mpumalanga Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs: Ms Fikile Ngomane

Limpopo Department of Local Government and Housing: Ms Seriana Kgoahla

KwaZulu-Natal Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs: Mr Burrie van Niekerk

There is a Chinese proverb that says, “When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, train and educate people.” This quotation encapsulates the essence of the five-year Capacity Development for Local Governance project (CDLG) which will strengthen capacity in 50 South African municipalities.

There are 284 municipalities divided into three categories across South Africa’s nine provinces. The categories include metropolitan municipalities and district and local councils. The website of the South African Government states that these municipalities “…are focused on growing local economies and providing infrastructure and services”.
If the Capacity Development for Local Governance (CDLG) project goes according to plan, the capacity of 50 municipalities in South Africa would have been built by 2014.

The CDLG project project kicked off in May 2010 with a full team and will be implemented in two phases. Each phase consists of 11 steps. The two main research tools are the Citizen Report Card (CRC) and the Local Governance Barometer (LGB). The CRC is a quantitative tool and is explained on page 3. In the second edition of the Local Governance Barometer, the LGB, which is a qualitative tool, will be explained. 

The main activity of the CDLG project (which consists of many smaller components) is the implementation of the two research tools. After this research has been completed, each municipality will receive a state of governance report. This report will be a collective governance improvement statement which will reflect the views of government staff, councillors, civil society organisations (CSOs), and local media and business, and will have their support. This report will lead to a capacity development plan which will involve councillors and staff, as well as CSOs and the media.

The CDLG project will be implemented in two phases:  24 municipalities in the first round and 26 in the second. It is currently being implemented in four provinces: Mpumalanga, North West, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo.

Participating municipalities in each of the four provinces have been jointly selected by the National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and the Provincial Departments of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

The names of the participating municipalities can be found within the newsletter.

 – Marece Wenhold

• The CDLG project is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Despite a relatively slow beginning in the startup phase of the Capacity Development for Local Government (CDLG) project, work is now taking place in full force in all 24 municipalities.

During the third quarter of the 2009/10 financial year, the four zonal project coordinators have made great strides in introducing the project to the six municipalities which each of them are responsible for. The three-month period from October to December 2009 was mainly a preparatory phase to get things in place for the implementation of the Local Governance Barometer (LGB). Local resource people, which included civil society organisations and local media, were interviewed to map some of the issues at stake. An important part of the preparatory phase was also the collection of key documents of each municipality including their Integrated Development Plans (IDPs).

The last element of the preparatory phase was the execution of the Citizen Report Card (CRC) in January this year. The implementation of the CRC was indeed a huge and intense process with many risks and challenges. Idasa underwent a rigorous process of selecting a service provider to conduct the fieldwork of the CRC and the panel collectively decided that Reform Development Consulting (RDC) was the best organisation for the job. RDC’s head office is in Durban, but they have offices in Johannesburg as well. The CRC included interviewing 2400 randomly selected households.The sampling of the households was conducted in collaboration with Francis Kibirige from the Afrobarometer in Idasa.

One of the key outcomes of the preparatory phase is the establishment of a provincial/district steering committee in each province. The committees will be a replica of the national steering committee of the project and are responsible for a number of things, including the refinement of the LGB model, the dissemination of findings, involvement in capacity development and lobbying for additional funding. In terms of project management, the third NSC-meeting takes place on 5 May. This committee (like the provincial committees) meets twice a year.

With all the information now available, the zonal coordinators are in a position to draft a municipal profile for each municipality which will be a key document for the implementation of the LGB. The implementation of the LGB starts in May and should be completed by September 2010.

– Marece Wenhold

• The Capacity Development for Local Government (CDLG) project in South Africa is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

The third phase of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation’s (SDC) support project in the Southern Africa Governance Programme is on track. Idasa reached an agreement with the agency to facilitate the implementation of the Building Capacities for Local Governance in Southern Africa project through the Local Governance Capacity Development Support Project (LGCDSP) from July 2009 to the end of June 2012. 

The LGCDSP is the third phase of SDC’s support project in the Southern Africa Governance Programme. The first phase was launched in 2002–2005 as a research project on the state of decentralisation in southern Africa from a civil society perspective and was implemented in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

The second phase over two years ( 2006 – 2008) was a capacity assessment of local governance. The state of local governance was measured through the application of the Local Governance Barometer (LGB) from the perspective of elected representatives, administrative officials and civil society in selected project sites regarding performance of their local government institutions. The sites were: Botswana (Central District); Malawi (Mangochi and Zomba); Lesotho (Manonyane and Qiloane Community Councils); South Africa (Mopani and Ugu Districts), and Tanzania (Iringa District).
After a project evaluation in 2008, recommendations were made to facilitate the third phase in Botswana, Malawi and Zambia with leading partners from civil society organisations as well as local government ministries and the associations of local authorities as strategic partners. This phase was designed with the intention of up-scaling the project outcomes with long-term sustainability in mind. The state of local governance would be determined, resulting in capacity development and implementation strategies for participating local authorities in each country.

The main objective of the project is to improve the quality of local governance in the three southern African countries; deepening democratic processes at local level, and improving service delivery.

Outcomes
The following five major outcomes were derived:
• Improving national government’s aware¬ness, appreciation and implementation of good gover¬nance at local level;
• Improving capacity of participating local governments to successfully address issues of good governance;
• Improving capacity of local NGOs and civic organisations to address good governance at local level in the participating districts;
• Enhancing capacity of national NGOs to monitor and address issues of good governance and  developing a capacity building support programme for local NGOs and civic organisations to address governance issues;
• Improving the understanding and appreciation of good governance at local level within the southern Africa region.

Strategic activities
To achieve the main project objective and outcomes, the partners also endorsed the following strategic activities that will be further contexualised during the Country Specific Strategy Formulation Missions:
• Creating a conducive project environment by establishing relationships and partnerships with the Ministry of Local Government, office of the President and Cabinet, associations of local authorities and the selected participating local authorities with the purpose of strengthening local governance by engaging state and non-governmental actors at all levels;
• Conducting governance assessment to measure citizen perceptions of the quality of service delivery; assess the state of local governance and carry out the Citizens Report/Score Card governance capacity assessment and Local Governance Barometer and other tools to identify successes and challenges;
• Draft a synthesis report for each project site to be presented to the National Project Steering Committees and the national forum of NGOs. The report and feedback from the national stakeholders will comprise the foundation for a draft capacity building strategy for national and local stakeholders;
• Supporting integration with other initiatives which are aimed at  strengthening local governance delivery to enhance decentralised governance;
• Documentation of project processes, lessons learnt, evaluation of impact, and refine methodologies and exit strategies.

In 2009 Idasa entered into understanding memorandums with the Botswana Council for NGOs (BOCONGO), Malawi National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) and Zambia Council for Social Development (ZCSD) as lead country partner organisations.  Three country project coordinators were employed to execute project activities with technical support from Idasa project staff based at the organisation’s head office in Pretoria.
 
Idasa and the lead country partner organisations engaged the ministries of local government, local government associations, international development agencies and national civil society organisations working in the field of local governance. The project is at different stages of development in each of the participating countries. 

Malawi

Idasa and NICE in partnership with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) and Malawi Local Government Association hosted the National Stakeholders Workshop in Lilongwe to launch the project in August 2009.  The workshop was attended by various NGOs, international development agencies, some line ministries and the Office of the President and Cabinet.  The Strategy Formulation Mission was conducted in October 2010 which culminated into Country Specific Project Strategy as informed by other initiatives which are facilitated by various international development agencies to support the decentralisation processes and strengthening of local governance both at national and district level.

The Strategy Formulation Mission recommended Dowa, Mangochi, Neno, Ntchisi and Zomba as project sites. These were endorsed by the Permanent Secretary in the MLGRD. Project introduction in each of the selected districts were conducted from February to March 2010 and were attended by district commissioners, district officials, MPs and selected NGOs. The first project steering committee meeting was held in March.

Zambia

Idasa and ZCSD in partnership with the Decentralisation Secretariat in the Ministry of Local Government and Housing recommended Mongu, Kabwe, and Monze Municipal Councils as well as Gwembe and Mufumbwe District Councils as project sites which were endorsed by the Permanent Secretary.

The National Stakeholders Workshop was held in Lusaka to launch the project in November 2009 and was attended by various NGOs, international development agencies, some line ministries and the Office of the President and Cabinet.  The Country Strategy Formulation Mission was conducted February – March 2010 and the final Country Project Strategy also took into account the Decentralisation Implementation Plan (DIP) which was adopted in December 2009. Project introduction to the selected district was conducted from February to April 2010. This will be followed by civic society organisation and media capacity assessments, and Citizen Report Cards. The Project Steering Committee meeting was held in April 2010.

Botswana

Idasa and BOCONGO engaged the Ministry of Local Government and the Association of Local Authorities (BALA) from July to August 2009 to discuss recommendations from the Project Evaluation Report and the content of phase three. The Ministry delayed the endorsement of the proposed districts of Central, Ghanzi, Kgalagadi, North East and North West to make sure that the project was not duplicating BLA initiatives in both Ghanzi North West.

It has been suggested that the project sites should be Kgalagadi, North East, Francistown and two sub-districts in Central. Key project activities have been put on hold because of the delays in endorsing the project sites.

•  The next step in the process is to contexualise and conduct the Citizen Report Card and Governance Capacity Assessment in each district. The results will be published in the next edition of the Local Governance Barometer.

Siyabonga Memela (Manager, Political Governance Programme)

Bongani Qwabe (Manager, Local Governance Unit)

Paul van Hoof (Senior Adviser Local Governance)

Francis Kibirige (Afrobarometer)

Selinah Morley (Administrator: Political Governance Programme)

Mirriam Nkosi (Administrator: Local Governance Unit)

Thina Nzo (Zonal Coordinator)

Purity Mdaka (Zonal Coordinator)

Josephine Dambudzo (Zonal Coordinator)

Joe Mavuso (Facilitator: Local Governance Barometer)

Douglas Racionzer (Facilitator: Local Governance Barometer)

Benjy Mautjane (Technical Coordinator: Botswana, Zambia and Malawi)

Marece Wenhold (Technical Coordinator: South Africa)

Brian Molewa (Capacity Development Facilitator: Botswana, Zambia and Malawi)

Sebastian Totwe (Capacity Development Facilitator: South Africa)

Onneetse Makhumalo (Country Project Coordinator: Botswana)

Humphrey Sikapizye (Country Project Coordinator: Zambia)

Edwin Msewa (Country Project Coordinator: Malawi)