ANSA-SAR has established connection with World Bank Country Team in Bangladesh and PRAN (in Nepal) for expertise support on Social Accountability tools and Third-Party. ANSA is also associating with World Bank Institute in the delivery of on-line Social Accountability course, targeted to South Asian audience.

1. Plans have been finalized and approved for ANSA-SAR to execute an interesting program on “Transparency and Participation in Budget Process for Accountable Governance”. This will be a 9 months program starting from January – September 2012 and WBI is allocating an additional $130,000 to ANSA-SAR to implementing this program.

Mr. Naimur Rahman, Chief Operating Officer of ANSA-SAR and GPF participated in a workshop on “Engaging Citizens against Corruption in Asia: Approaches, Results and Lessons” from November 29 to December 2, 2011 at Jaipur, India. The event was sponsored by Partnership for Transparency fund (PTF) in collaboration with its partners in India – the Public Affairs Center, CUTS and Transparency International India. The three-day workshop bought together Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from 8 countries in Asia and anti-corruption experts from all over the world.

The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability- South Asia Region organized a Round-table on “Social Accountability Stock-Taking in Bangladesh” on November 15, 2011 at BRAC Centre Inn, Dhaka. The aim of the workshop was to build an information or evidence base for the present and emerging accountability practice – especially in the context of Bangladesh, and subsequently rest of South Asia. It was attended by representatives from a number of civil society organizations, viz.

The COO of ANSA-SAR & Global attended the first Horizontal Learning Program (HLP): Appreciative Inquiry Network Workshop from November 21 to November 22, 2011 at Elenga, Tangail. The objectives of the workshop was to share the existing good practices, plan exposure visits for learning from peers, identify opportunities for collective engagement at the Bangladesh Urban Forum and identify next steps for scaling-up, deepening and sustaining this initiative. Representatives from pourashavas, Local Government Division (LGD) and partner agencies were present in the workshop.

It gives us great pleasure to release the third issue of Connecting the Dots -the newsletter from the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability-South Asia Region.

Mr. Naimur Rahman has joined as the Chief Operating Officer of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability- South Asia Region (ANSA SAR) and the Global Partnership fund (GPF) on October, 2011. His areas of expertise are knowledge management and strategic leadership in development programs. Prior joining to IGS, Naimur was the Director of One World South Asia and Managing Director of One World Foundation, India. An engineer by training, Naimur brings with him over twenty years of professional experience in the development sector.

Mr. Naimur Rahman, Chief Operating Officer, ANSA-SAR gave a speech at the National Credibility Alliance in Delhi on "CSOs in the Changing Socio-economic Political scenario" - especially in the context of Governance Accountability in October 2011.

Mr. Naimur Rahman, Chief Operating Officer, Affiliated Network for Social Accountability- South Asia Region & Global Partnership Fund gave a speech at Bangalore launch event of Water Hackathon on the mobile based third party or citizen’s monitoring for deepening accountability of social sector programs on October 21, 2011.

ANSA-EAP, in collaboration with the Global Partnership Fund (GPF), housed at the Institute of Governance Studies hosted a training workshop on Social Accountability Tools for its partner organizations from 3-7 August 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand to promote social accountability approaches and tools among citizen groups in the region. The activity was aimed at facilitating a regional learning and capacity building event to strengthen ANSA-EAP’s network partners’ capacity to monitor government performance through the use of citizen report cards (CRC) and community scorecards (CSC).Dr.

The Asia Foundation Sri Lanka’s (TAF-SL) Local Economic Growth-II Project aims to improve inclusive economic growth through strengthened local and economic governance. The LEG-II project emerges from two loci: (a) The Sri Lankan government’s emphasis on correcting regional anomalies through a targeted focus on pulling up lagging regions through strengthening decentralized economic development; (b) TAF’s historical involvement in strengthening local governments in Sri Lanka, from three different vantage points: political, social and economic.

The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability- South Asia Region, based at the Institute of Governance Studies (IGS) of BRAC University conducted field visits to two of its grantees in September 2011. The field visits are as much for monitoring as it is for informing the work of ANSA SAR.

Today, September 28th is observed as the International Right
to Know Day. ANSA SAR joins all partners in recognizing the importance of this
critical right as a necessary pre-condition for good governance and also, acknowledges
the struggles happening on the ground to make the Right to Know a reality. In
this context, we are happy to share two important and recent initiatives that
have a major bearing on the discourses on Right to Information in South Asia.
The first is a mini documentary produced by the World Bank Institute showcasing

The India NGO Award by the Resource Alliance and the Rockefeller Foundation acknowledges and rewards the organisation which are setting and promoting best practices in resource mobilisation, good governance, transparency and accountability and impact of the work in bringing about tangible benefits to its targeted communities. For more details please visit www.resource-alliance.org

The Anti-Corruption Research Network (ACRN) would like to invite submissions from young researchers for its annual anti-corruption research paper competition.The anti-corruption research paper competition gives young scholars an opportunity to take up the challenge of filling important knowledge gaps in the field, present innovative approaches for measuring and understanding corruption and showcase new findings on what works and what does not in tackling corruption and ensuring sound governance.

Dr. Gopakumar Thampi gave a presentation for the members of the Sri Lankan Evaluation Association (SLEvA) on August 20 at the Sri Lankan Institute of Development Administration on the theme: “Interrogating Evaluation: Moving beyond the ‘technique’ to ‘politics’. SLEvA was established in, 1999, to address a long felt need for establishing an evaluation culture in the Sri Lankan society and the membership includes a wide cross-section of professionals from academia, international agencies, public, NGO and private sectors.

Gopakumar Thampi gave a presentation to the staff of the World Bank Office in Colombo on the ANSA work. The presentation also focused on ANSA SAR’s current work in Sri Lanka and explored ways of integrating some of the tools and approaches into the Bank’s operations in Sri Lanka.

The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability- South Asian Region (ANSA-SAR) based at IGS provided strategic support to one of its grantees – PRIP Trust, Dhaka, Bangladesh in the area of designing and implementing Community Score Cards (CSC). The training workshop was held from July 9 to 13, 2011 at PRIP Trust’s project site in Jamalpur. The three day-long workshop on Community Score Card was conducted for the staff at PRIP Trust and also members of the facilitator groups of the CSC exercise followed by a limited on-site mentoring of the CSC implementation team from PRIP Trust.

In continuation with the ongoing support provided by ANSA SAR Secretariat to The Asia Foundation Sri Lanka, Gopakumar Thampi visited Colombo during July 26-August 1st to design the implementation of a Citizen Report Card in selected Local Authorities in Sri Lanka. The visited culminated in identifying a lead implementation agency – the University of Colombo and also, securing a buy-in from the Ministry of Local Government to pilot the CRC.

It gives us great pleasure to release the second issue of Connecting the Dots -the newsletter from the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability-South Asia Region.

The Global Partnership Fund secretariat based at the Institute of Governance Studies, BRAC University, is going to produce three novel knowledge products in collaboration with Association for Stimulating Know-how to generate knowledge, add to the existing discourse on social accountability and inform the work of the practitioners. For the purpose of developing the knowledge materials the GPF has organised a Brainstorming workshop from June 20- June22, 2011 at the Civic Inn, Dhaka.

ANSA Global was officially launched in Manila during June 27- June 28, 2011. The launch was followed by the first Global Partnership Panel meeting. ANSA Global has been functioning from the Institute of Governance Studies since 2009and under that three grants have been provided, which has resulted in the incubation of two regional ANSAs in the Middle East and North Africa Region and the Latin America and Caribbean Region.

The Chief Operating Officer of ANSA-SAR delivered a lecture on Social Accountability: Concept, Practices & Challenges on May 18, 2011 at the Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre. The lecture was part of the Foundation Course of the Centre, attended by 300 civil servants.

ANSA organised a workshop on “Building Negotiation and Advocacy Skills” from May 23- May 25, 2011 at the BRAC Centre Inn, Dhaka. Representatives from selected organisations from the South Asia Region and all the 22 partner organisations of ANSA- SAR participated in the workshop.

The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability- South Asia Region (ANSA-SAR) conducted a day-long consultation on ANSA SAR’s future activities and network building on May 22, 2011 at the BRAC Centre Inn, Dhaka. The key objectives of this consultation were to share emerging experiences from different context that may inform and influence future work on social accountability, and identify approaches/ strategies to sustain, widen and deepen the network.

The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability- South Asia Region, based at the Institute conducted field visits to two of its grantees in April 2011. The field visits are as much for monitoring as it is for informing the work of ANSA SAR. With the ANSA SAR funds, CREDA, based in Mirzapur, India is implementing a project on raising awareness on the entitlements of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, a safety-net scheme in India.

The fourth Public-Private Stakeholders Committee (PPSC) was held on 17 April 2010 at the NEC Conference Room II of the Planning Commission Campus in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka. The Honourable Minister for Planning and the Chairperson of the Committee, Air Vice Marshall (Retd.) A K Khandker presided over the meeting. Dr. GopaKumar K.

Dr. Gopakumar K Thampi, Chief Operating Officer, ANSA-SAR conducted a half day training session for the staff of the Applied Research Unit of the United nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Colombo, Sri Lanka on The use of qualitative and quantitative techniques for M&E focusing on service delivery projects. The presentation was followed by a discussion session. In addition to the staff present the entire session was also webcast to other UN offices globally.

ANSA SAR conducted a training on social accountability with a focus on Citizen Report Card for 28 Assistant Commissioners of Customs and VAT. The training was held in Chittagong on February 13, 2011 at the Customs and VAT training academy.

The Chief Operating Officer of ANSA-SAR, Dr. Gopa Kumar K Thampi designed and moderated a session on Social Accountability and Political Economic Review – The Local Governance Project- The Asia Foundation- Sri Lanka from 23-30 January, 2011 to assess the nature of challenges and key issues to achieve the social accountability strategic objectives in the context of an overall political and economic analysis.

By Zahid Abdullah

 

Pakistani civil society organisation and ASNA SAR partner, the Center for Peace and Development Initiatives, organised a protest rally demanding legislation of the Punjab Right to Information Act, in Rawalpindi on 22 February 2011.

Around 60 people converged in front of the Rawalpindi Press Club to highlight the yawning gap between professed claims of the provincial government about transparent and good governance, and the situation on the ground which denies Right to Information to 100 million residents of the Punjab province.

ANSA-SAR in partnership with the Bangladesh Civil Services (Tax) Training Academy, held a one-day workshop on January 18, 2011 in Dhaka for 40 Assistant Income Tax Commissioners on 'Engaging with Citizens for Improving Service Delivery.' The workshop was structured around a learning and sharing theme and explored cutting edge insights on strategies, approaches and methodologies that inform and influence social accountability discourses and practices.

In February 2010, ANSA SAR grantee and Bangalore-based civil society organisation Public Affairs Centre (PAC) embarked on a unique study on climate change, linking livelihoods and Environmental Governance. The 2-year project is entitled “Enhancing Community Centred Governance in Climate Change Affected Coastal Areas”. It focuses on developing a tool called Climate Change Score Card (CCSC) which will facilitate citizens' monitoring of the impact of climate change in their locality.

The second cycle of ANSA SAR’s Grant Program is aimed at promoting social accountability initiatives in South Asia. In addition to Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, grants of up to $45,000 were open for projects also in Nepal and Pakistan to be completed over a maximum period of fifteen months.

ANSA-SAR & GPF, in partnership with the World Bank Institute and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), hosted a workshop with Bangladeshi parliamentarians on ‘Strengthening Parliamentary Oversight: Stronger Linkages between Citizens and MPs’ on 13 December, 2010 at the Westin Hotel. The workshop was attended by 20 participants, including nine MPs representing both benches in the National Parliament (Jatiya Sangsad).

 

ANSA Global partner Legislative Directory Foundation (Fundación Directorio Legislativo, FDL), together with Mexico’s CSO Fundar, were joined by other organizations working on legislative issues to create The Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency. The network was officially launched in 2010 with 15 founding members from 5 countries (Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and Peru).

ANSA SAR in partnership with the International Budget Partnership and the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Sri Lanka hosted a two day event at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo on 24-25 November 2010, to launch the South Asia findings from the 2010 Open Budget Survey. The Open Budget Survey is the only independent, comparative, and regular measure of budget transparency and accountability around the world.

ANSA SAR collaborated with GTZ and InWent in a Regional Conference on Delivering Social Protection to Unorganized Workers, held in Bangalore, India, from 18 to 20 November 2010. This conference was jointly supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, InWEnt – Weiterbildung und Entwicklung GmbH, Capacity Building International, Germany.

Promoting Tales of Social Accountability At Work

A man is killed trying to protect a public park from land-sharks. Another is killed while trying to promote others' right to information. Fishing communities organise themselves against the onslaught of climate change. Generations of women who have begged for a living negotiate their rights to open bank accounts.

Dr. Gopakumar Thampi, COO of ANSA SAR & Global was invited by the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) to participate in the Council's 2010 meeting during 21 - 22 October, 2010, as a Keynote Speaker for the Opening Plenary on the theme: "The Bottom Billion: Are Governments, Business & NGOs Accountable?".

ACFID represents Australia's non profit aid and development sector, with member organizations in more than 100 countries.

ANSA SAR facilitated a discussion on ‘Citizen Monitoring in Public Procurement’ for the second meeting of the Public-Private Stakeholders Committee (PPSC), within the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) under the Planning Ministry of Bangladesh. The Honourable Minister for Planning, Air Vice Marshal (Ret.) AK Khandker chaired the programme, held on 19th August 2010 at the Planning Commission Campus, in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka.