Information sharing and social accountability Information sharing framework

Matrix organization- a smaller organizational framework made on top of an existing organization.

Promoting ethical governance

Promoting an ethical quality of governance depends upon a strong alignment between mechanisms that are external as well as internal to administration. The internal mechanisms seek to strengthen accountability and inculcate an element of responsibility within the administration. The external mechanism promote citizen participation and develop a participatory culture within administration. The common factor in both these mechanisms is increased transparency and better information sharing.

Transparency and information sharing

Transparency refers to the availability of information not only to the citizens but also to the agencies involved in service delivery. For the public, this enables easy access to information which is presented in a simplified form. For the agencies it establishes clarity and consensus regarding the intended outcomes, the scope of the service and the responsibilities involved.

In a traditional sense, information sharing by the government was restricted to a unidirectional flow from the government towards the citizens with no provision for a feedback mechanism. This was justified on the basis of the expertise of the government as compared to the relative ignorance and prejudices in the society. How every the inability to adequately understand the citizen expectations and concerns resulted in poor service delivery, often because of resistance from the citizens themselves.

Therefore, the next paradigm that emerged included provisions for seeking citizen feedback. However, the quality of services did not improve as expected. The reason was a lack of coordination among the various agencies involved in service delivery.

Therefore, the contemporary paradigm of information sharing includes an

emphasis on better information sharing within the government itself. This creates an information sharing framework across three dimensions and three maturity stages.

Social accountability Social accountability tools

1. Design of service delivery- participatory planning, participatory budgeting, citizens charter

2. Implementation and monitoring- citizen monitoring, public expenditure tracking, social audit, grievance redressal system

3. Impact assessment- citizens report card, community score card, public hearings

External mechanisms for better governance

Citizen engagement is now considered not only as a legitimate demand of the people but also as an essential prerequisite for eective service

delivery. Therefore such mechanisms focus upon enhancing social accountability. Social accountability refers to the ways through which societal actors (citizens, media, civil society etc) can engage with the state to improve accountability in governance and service delivery. The most prominent characteristic of social accountability is its emphasis on a shift from vote to voice by integrating citizen concerns and suggestions into the working and decision making processes of administration.

Social accountability is enforced through a two step process

1. Enabling voicemail which refers to the ability of the citizens to articulate their needs to those who hold power.

2. Establishing compact which refers to the relationship through which those who hold power act as representatives of the citizens and exert influence upon the service provider.

Social accountability becomes weak if either of these two aspects fails. This means that either citizen voice is weak or the compact is compromised due to collusion. Therefore promoting eective citizen engagement and inculcating an ethical cadre of administrators is vital for meaningful social accountability.

Promoting citizen engagement It involves four broad factors 1. Information dissemination

Access to information not only enables citizens to participate with a better understanding of their entitlements, it also enables them to better judge the quality of the services and know how to seek redressal. Eg citizen's charters provide a formal framework to establish service commitments and standards

2. Capacity building and community mobilization

Citizen participation depends upon the ecacy with which disguised and clubbed citizen needs can be clearly identified, appropriately prioritized and persuasively presented. This is achieved by

- capacity building, by investing in a high quality of human capital. Such human capital is essential for better governance since it broadens accountability, facilitates social cohesion and enables the delivery of at least some services at the local level itself. It can be achieved through a focus upon education, formal and informal training, capacity building exercises etc.

- community mobilization, to establish convergence among dierent stake holders on important issues. Collective participation is important since it prioritizes common values, reduces the possibility of conflict, increases mutual understanding and enables communities to cooperate towards self governance.

3. Grievance redressal mechanism

To sustain citizen engagement, it is important for the citizens to believe that their participation is leading to the desired changes, without creating any undue problems for them. Therefore their must be provisions that

- make it possible to conveniently report any deviations or violations that may have been observed.

- provide penalties for the concerned oenders.

- protect the welfare of any individual making such reports.

4. Institutionalization

This refers to the formal provisions that facilitate citizen engagement and satisfaction. Such institutional support provides incentives and encouragement to increase citizen participation beyond the voluntary actions of only a few concerned individuals.

Right to services bill 2011

Sevottam Three broad parameters

1. Citizen's charter

2. Grievance redressal

3. Service delivery capabilities

Challenges of corruption Defining by Transparency International

"Corruption can be defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain."

Influences on corruption

1. Individual

2. Family

3. Society

4. Work environment

Forms of corruption

1. Monetary vs non monetary

2. According to the rules (incomplete)

Practice questions 1. Transparency is a necessary but not a sucient condition for administrative performance.

2. While governance is an inherently political paradigm, it does not imply politicization of administration. 3. For administration to be citizen centric, there is a need for it to also be process centric.