PRACTICE OF DEMOCRACY : PRE-REQUISITE OF GOOD GOVERNANCE

Strengthening Public-Private Partnership for Policy Reforms, PROGATI (Promoting Governance, Accountability, Transparency & Integrity)

Khan Foundation expended its responsibilities in ensuring good governance by reducing corruption. KF Believe that without promoting transparency, accountability and integrity in public and private sector, we cannot ensure governance in Bangladesh. Bangladesh needs to demonstrate further improvement in controlling corruption to achieve its broader development goals. In this regard Khan Foundation is working to ensure good governance & corruption free country by "Promoting Governance, Accountability, Transparency and Integrity”. Under this program KF arranged trainings on Community Scorecard Use and Applications where the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) were received this training arranged campaign on anti-corruption awareness campaign and citizen monitoring dialogue & budget oversight awareness campaign at grass root level to promote transparency, accountability and integrity in public and private sector.

PROGATI

During the last two decades, Khan Foundation has played an important role in ensuring good governance and under the PROGATI Project; it aims to promote sustainable civil society organizations, coalitions and networks to support and Promote anti-corruption reforms. The main activities include anti-corruption awareness campaigns, citizen-led exercises to monitor public services. In its 5th year, Khan Foundation through the PROGATI project aims for policy reforms through public private partnership and will involve working with district-level citizen participation entry points, citizen charters and community scorecards.

More About PROGATI

CONTEXT AND RATIONAL

Bangladesh faces a severe problem with regard to promoting Governance, Accountability, Transparency and Integrity. An important component of efforts by Governments to achieve MDG goals is the participation of and partnership with the private sector and civil society organizations. It is observed that some structural inadequacies exist which creates a space that allows corruption to be committed in the public sector and weakens our social accountability to promote democracy. Some of the lacking include ineffective and unsustainable public expenditures; lack of ownership, poor maintenance of facilities and no cost recovery, lack of capacity in local governments and communities to efficiently plan, implement and operate new investments; absence of effective monitoring and evaluation capacity, limited access to information.

As a corollary to KF's holistic ideas of an accountable and democratic society, KF is consistently working to ensure good governance & a consequent corruption free society.Promoting principles of integrity, accountability, transparency and responsiveness to decrease the level of corruption is one of the key objectives. KF has been working to expand the civic engagement in ensuring good governance by reducing corruption. KF argues that for such a 'hybrid' form of citizen led accountability to be effective, it is important that citizens be given legal standing within institutions of public sector oversight, a continuous presence within the oversight agency's work, structured access to official documentary information, including spending records, and the right to issue dissenting perspectives directly to legislative bodies.

GOAL: To combat corruption, strengthen democracy and promote decentralization by ensuring the proper functioning of public service sectors

ACTIVITIES:

Capacity building of CSOs/Citizen Forums: Training on Community Scorecard: Use and Applications The objectives are

To educate about the Community Scorecard and its implementation
To improve the skills of the CSO representatives and Citizen Forum Members
To improved their strength in planning and managing citizen-led monitoring of government services at the grassroots level

Anti-Corruption Awareness Campaigns

The objectives of these campaigns were:

To build social awareness through anti-corruption campaign.
To build an anti-corruption sentiment amongst rural people and various professions
To reduce corruption from grassroots level.

Citizen-led Exercises to Monitor Public Service

The objectives of the campaign are:

To facilitate dialogue between citizens & government officials to promote accountable, transparent & responsive services provisions at the local level
To raise awareness of the importance of transparent & accountable government action & highlight the impact of corruption on local economic, social & environmental systems.

Budget Dialogues

The objectives of the campaign are:

To ensure effective participation of the people in national budget making process.
To strengthen skills and ability to manage similar activities in the future.
To raise awareness among people of the budget, its role & implications.
To generate an expectation among the public for a higher level of consultation in the public budgeting process and create an alliance of civil society members

District Level Entry-Point Mapping and Advocacy Task

At the district level, citizen participation in the oversight of policy making and implementation is minimal. Through the organizing of district level meetings, the CSOs aim to strengthen the district-level decision-making structures for the sectors of health, education and VGD to bring about an improvement in the quality of the public services.

Citizen Charter's Adaptation for Local Use Task

Citizens are unaware of the various public services that the government is obliged to provide. By organizing meetings and formulating Citizen Charters at the Upazila and Union Parishad level, the aim is to inform citizens of the services and to improve government performance.

Meetings with Government Officials and Local Administration (Under District Level Entry-Point Mapping and Advocacy Task and Citizen Charter's Adaptation for Local use Task) The objectives of the meeting are:

To ensure CSOs, Citizen Forum members, government officials as well as representatives from government oversight bodies come together and discuss ways to strengthen the decision-making structures and promote citizen involvement for improvement in services.

Meetings with Citizen Forums(Under District Level Entry-Point Mapping and Advocacy Task and Citizen Charter's Adaptation for Local use Task) The objectives of the meeting are:

To ensure that the concerns of the community and its citizens are raised and given attention
To build the capacities of the Citizen Forum members to act as a pressure group and important agents of change in their communities

BENEFICIARIES

The public in general and especially at the grassroots level has benefited because they have receive improved public services, they have become more aware about corruption issues and national and local budgets. They have increased their participation in the various committees and are able to more effectively communicate about the concerns they face in their communities to the public administration and government officials.

This project has targeted the CSOs and the Citizen Forums since they are the most important element of project implementation. CSO representatives and Citizen Forum members have received training on the use and applications of the community scorecard. The CSO representatives were also responsible for organizing the anti awareness campaigns, the budget dialogues and the meetings between government officials and citizens to discuss the findings of the citizen monitoring of public services. They have also set up meetings with the government officials and the Citizen Forums to strengthen the district level committees and to formulate citizen charters for the different public services.