Essay on Case study –“Strengthening Citizen’s monitoring
I. Introduction
In this document I’d like to give my comments on a case study strengthening citizens monitoring: experiences in streamlining the functioning of Bal Shramik Vidyalayas in Jam Tara, India. As there is a wide distance between the people and the state in India, the project enhanced the participation of citizens as primary stakeholders in matters of governance.The project in this case study started in a pilot phase with the mapping of service delivery projects on drinking water, sanitation, health, formal and non formal education or government projects targeting special needs groups in some select districts of Santal Pargana. The project was selected because of the low literacy level, increased child labour and the poor situation of the socially disadvantaged. Following this an exploratory study of the project in two blocks was undertaken. Different committees were put in place to make more responsible the community. Thanks to the active participation the capacity building component of the project improved. Development indicators for the project were developed after long discussions between all the stakeholders .Building trust between the project authorities, teachers and parents was an essential, part of the entire project.On the next pages I will explain more on the Social Development Monitoring methods (SDM) used in this project. The four key words that are important to involve citizens in a
project are:
- Participation
- Inclusiveness
- Responsiveness
- Transparency
When those four key-words are part of your methods to communicate with the Stakeholders, be sure that you will build a trusty relation ship.
II. The pilot phase
As I told in the introduction trust is the key to development you have to make believe people that they are the key persons in the project. The needs assessment in the pilot phase of the project is an important component because it gives one in a short time a good view on the situation of the level of literacy, schooling etc…The exploratory study gives us an overall picture of the problems the different schools encounter in their daily activities. A school in many communities is the centre of the society, if the school has problems to function then something is wrong with the management of it. The head teacher is maybe not well trained, the communication between teacher and HT is bad .The most influencing factor is the relation ship between the school and the parents. In the group of parents are always people that are very involved in the civil society and they are aware of the child labour situation in their communities. A good relation ship between the school and the parents will improve the citizen interaction, reflection and action. It is part of the capacity building component of SDM. To reflect regularly on the different problems that exist and on the discussions in the different committees the project is building awareness. Community members will create better perspectives, and they will be able to gradually develop indicators of the project.When people understand better the current situation they are living in, they will communicate more within that community. All these internal discussions will strengthen the local capacity of the local people to discuss with the local government.
Several methods were used to strengthening the citizen’s monitoring in Jharkland. I have put the different methods in a frame, tried to describe them, explains there strengths andweaknesses and expressed some recommendations.I have used these different methods in different projects and assignments I worked in. I really love the database worksheets where the stakeholders and monitors have to draw the different outcomes. I did the same exercise in a refugee camp in Ethiopia on the border with Sudan. In a Focus Group Discussion, I was asking the mothers how they feel about this war and I told them to draw it on a sheet of paper. Many people have difficult to talk about the war but when they can draw it expression is easier.
|
Method |
Description of method |
Strengths |
Weaknesses |
Recommendations |
|
1. SDM |
Social Development Monitoring. Periodic observations and actions by socially disadvantaged groups. |
A powerful tool in the hands of citizens and a means for promoting meaningful citizen in action. |
The refusal of the government to negotiate with disadvantaged communities. |
Train local governments in SDM. |
|
2. Mapping |
The exercise is intended to map activities of groups in the project. |
Gives a good idea of the basic provisions of a project. |
Time consuming. |
Should be done several times during the project. Participants should be well trained in mapping techniques. |
|
3. Exploratory Study |
Aims to understand the nature, objectives, provisions and functional aspects of groups, schools, institutes… |
Through discussion in group or individual to better understand the concerns of the different stakeholders |
Time consuming |
Team must be well organized in quality and in time. |
|
4. Collective reflection, information analysis, structured training and exposure visits. |
Combination of methods to improve the capacity building efforts of the project |
These methods are improving the citizens’ perspectives on the subject, assists them in developing project indicators. |
It is not always easy for disadvantaged people to understand the context. |
A lot of workshops are necessary to train the people in the different methods to understand the context. |
|
5. Workshop
Discussions, Debate |
Is a good way of sharing emergency findings of the study with the different stakeholders! |
Provides a platform where all the participants can share their views, opinions, perspectives and experiences. |
It is sometimes difficult to find the time to gather all the stakeholders because of their different daily activities. |
Should be participant centered.
Responsibilities must be well defined. |
|
6. Use of local facilitators
Dialogue
Village level meetings |
A local facilitator can be the link between the poor communities and the other project stakeholders. |
Ensures continuous handholding and dialogue with the local community. Is an important part of SDM. |
Find the right facilitator on the right place. |
Those LF must be carefully selected and well trained. |
|
7.Data recording on simple worksheets (pictures and drawings) Collective exercise |
Recording by drawing and pictures to develop a database on the project. |
Pictures and drawings help the parents in overcoming their initial hesitation; confidence and self worth are growing. |
Government officials like more written reports. |
Develop a reliable system of data collection.
Develop clear criteria of data collection. |
|
8. Roster system |
All members act as monitors in rotation. |
Optimum involvement and active learning of all members. |
What when a member is ill or not contributing, which system will be put in place then? |
Develop clear criteria of data collection. |
The data collection exercise should be done systematically and the project should make use of locally relevant tools by using more visual methods. The different methods also include collective exercise but individual exercises are important too. That is why discussions should be hold in pairs, group or plenary. It will improve the relation ships and collaboration. Not everyone can talk in a group so the use of smaller groups can help them to overcome the problem.Participation is the key to social development monitoring. When there is participation, there is communication and when there is when there is communication monitoring will be effectively. In my last project communication between the different stakeholders was very bad. We felt from one surprise in the other, methods were not well explained so the monitoring of the schools was not well done. Monitoring tools have to been explained and a hand out should be prepared in a simple way, with a lot of pictures and drawings and less words.
In the following framework I tried to analyze the factors which facilitated the monitoring in the Jharkhand project and factors which hindered the monitoring.The collaboration with the local authorities is a factor that cannot be neglected and should be build on. Management at all levels should be improved to monitor the different departments and activities of the project. When the head teacher of the school is not frequently monitored many activities will slow down and the results will be poor. When the head teacher is not monitored s/he will not monitor the teachers.
|
Factors which facilitated the monitoring |
Factors which hindered the monitoring |
|
The participation of parents.
The different communicative methods used.
Understanding the concerns of the different stakeholders
The development of the different committees at different levels.
The different capacity building efforts.
The active participation of all stakeholders.
The workshop that provided a platform for further project development and communication.
Local facilitators.
Parent monitoring of the schools
Involvement of woman.
Participation of teachers in the parent meetings.
Indicators related to nutrition, health and education.
Data collection worksheets ( pictures and drawings)
Atmosphere of trust.
Regular communication between the different stakeholders |
The non-functionality of the village committees.
Illiterate and poor parents.
Access to government services.
Too many indicators.
The negotiations with government.
Written minutes wanted by government officials instead of pictures or drawings.
Reliable data
Protests and sit-ins
Slackness on part of the doctors.
Difficulties in the running of a center.
Physical school problems
Laxity among government authorities.
The poor conditions of the local community.
|
One of the key outcomes of this project is that the stakeholders, the community, the teachers and many other actors are developing communication and participation skills. Teachers are approaching parents and they are happy the parents are monitoring them. The parents have a better understanding of the limitations of the teachers. Due to the continuous monitoring of the school and the presence of the parent’s committee school health check ups are ensured.The community also has more confidence and improved the relationships with the district administration. The elimination of child labour can be discussed and demands can be done for drinking water facilities in all school centers. Thanks to the capacity building component of the project stakeholders are more experienced in identifying the problems and in collecting useful data, analyzing and reflecting on them. The key to result-oriented action in this project is the building of an atmosphere of trust between the stakeholders. The transparent monitoring process ensured that the idea was not to threat the government officials or the teachers.
III. Conclusion
The deliberate and careful integration into the project cycle of monitoring and evaluation activities can strengthen the learning, accountability, and effectiveness of research efforts. Using a participatory approach to do so facilitates the realization that what a matter is not only what is assessed, but who does the measuring and assessing. In addition, such an approach can contribute to a better understanding of how different concerns and interests are represented and negotiated in a research process. In other words, it helps to understand and assess how and why participation takes places or does not take place.From my personal experience creating unrealistic expectations for concrete development interventions at the community level is sometimes a problem for participatory research projects and causes disappointment and suspicion in the community. This can also have negative consequences for future work of local NGO’s by affecting their acceptance in communities. To avoid these problems the participatory project could be linked to a development initiative that has the mandate to provide concrete services to the community. Project stakeholders should be clear in the proposal about how they will be transparent to the community about the goals of the project, what the community can realistically expect to gain and how the community or the school will be involved in monitoring their own activities.The project could demonstrate a mechanism for generating some small concrete livelihood benefits to the community early on in the project process, such as making the mats or puffed rice, so that local people see benefits from the time they have given to participate in the monitoring.Confidentiality of information and security about how information gathered from community participation will be used is important Information concerning resource ownership could be used by the government, for example, to extract taxes. One way of doing so is by using numerical codes for interviewees, and keeping their identities separate from the research documents.In this Jharkhand experiment teachers and parents are involved in the participatory monitoring activities but what about the children (in school or in child labour)? Each education initiative should enable children to meaningfully share their views and to participate in decision-making. Child participation in education initiatives is important because it is a child’s right, because it enhances program quality and because it develops children’s capacity for more advanced participation. To determine the level of child participation in a project, it is important to consider the decisions that have been made, consciously or unconsciously, about how “freely” children can express their views and the extent of their “the opportunity to be heard”.To conclude this document I want to highlight the importance of the local facilitators as myself I make use of it in my multigrade project here kin Mali. Teachers in Mali are not used to work together and their contact with the head teacher and parents is not optimal.Therefore the project organized teacher meetings with a facilitator whom is monitoring The meetings and informing the head teacher and parents on the activities. The task and the work of the facilitator is facilitating the understanding of the concept multigrade teaching better for parents and teachers.Facilitating tasks is developing a good communication system that facilitates the monitoring of a project, a school or an activity. It is the key to participatory monitoring activities.
Peter Merckx
Director B&Weducconsult
Bamako, Mali
15th of December 2007
|
