Argentina

Fundación Directorio Legislativo (Legislative Directory Foundation)

Legislative Directory Foundation is an independent non-profit organisation, based in Argentina, devoted to producing, analyzing and disseminating legislative information, with the ultimate goal of promoting transparency and accountability. It initially began as an independent project, in 1999 aimed at collecting and publishing relevant information (personal, legislative, patrimonial and contact information) about the members of the country's national Congress. In 2001, after its incorporation into a local civil society organization (CSO), Centro de Implementación de Política sPúblicaspara la Equidad y el Crecimiento (CIPPEC), the project grew through the implementation of several related initiatives aimed at shedding light on Argentine's Congress. The programme was ultimately set up as an independent CSO, Legislative Directory Foundation, in 2005

It received the ANSA grant for its project, entitled, Building a Regional Network for Legislative Transparency in Latin America. The project will strive to build a regional network of CSOs with the capacity for conducting and engaging in legislative monitoring to ensure that legislative processes are transparent, accountable and respond to the interests and demands of society. That is, by increasing transparency and access to public information, the project underpins effective social accountability practices, and promotes opportunities for accountable, responsive and effective legislatures. This project will be implemented in close collaboration with Mexico's FUNDAR as main strategic counterpart, as well as with several other partner organizations in the Latin American region.

Key Contact for the project: Noel Alonso Murray, General Coordination and Administration

Email address: nalonsomurray@directoriolegislativo.org

Website: www.directoriolegislativo.org

Indonesia

Paramadina Public Policy Institute, Universitas Paramadina

Universitas Paramadina (UPM) was established on 10 January 1998 by Prof. Dr. Nurcholish Madjid, a moderate Islamic intellectual. The university
has positioned itself as a vehicle for nurturing future Indonesian generations that are intellectually dependable, possess the capacity for leadership and entrepreneurship and hold ethics in the highest possible regard by providing alternative concept in higher education. UPM recently established Paramadina Public Policy Institute to strengthen the university's efforts to actively enhance social accountability. In 2010, Paramadina Public Policy Institute successfully launched a comprehensive book about the complexity and the challenges involved in fighting against corruption in Indonesia: Korupsi Mengorupsi di Indonesia: Sebab, Akibat and Prospek Pemberantasan
or Corruption in Indonesia: Causes, Impacts and the Prospect for Eradication.

The Paramdina Public Policy Institute won the ANSA grant for the project, Assessing
the Implementation of the Free School Policy for Nine Year Basic Education in DKI Jakarta. This is a pilot project aiming to provide reliable indicators about the improvement in quality of basic education and will be run over a duration of 15 months. The Project objectives are:

• Identifying and diagnosing the main complains of users (parents/households) about the quality of basic education in Jakarta.
• Providing reliable indicators of problems in service delivery of basic education in Jakarta
• Providing provincial government a reliable and comprehensive users' feedback on the quality of basic education in Jakarta. Disseminating recommendations on priorities for areas in nine years Basic schools to be improved for the providers and related stakeholders.
• Disseminating information on the quality of basic education in Jakarta to general public.

Key Contact Person: Shiskha Prabawaningtyas, Lecturer

Website: www.paramadina.ac.id

Kyrgyz Republic

The Alliance for Budget Transparency

The Alliance for Budget Transparency and Partners, founded in mid 2007, is a coalition of sixteen different NGOs based in the Kyrgyz Republic. These NGOs have joined hands and come under one banner to further their common goal, which is to improve the transparency and effectiveness of state and local budgets in Kyrgyzstan by involving citizens in the budget process. They have worked on different aspects of budget transparency and social accountability under small projects funded by DFID, Soros Foundation, UNDP and USAID.

A prime example of Alliance's involvement in promoting social accountability is its work in partnership with one of its leading members - Diabetic Association of Kyrgyzstan - to expose non-standard procurement of hypodermic syringes for diabetics. This had led to purchase of incorrect syringes, with life threatening consequences. Despite numerous threats and legal proceedings initiated by the Deputy Minister of Health to cover up the situation, the investigation eventually led to a new procurement process and purchase of appropriate syringes.

The Alliance has received a grant from ANSA to execute the one-year program, Paying for Better Education: Parental Engagement with School Budgets and Accountable Aid for Education. It will be working in partnership with Fund for Support of Educational Initiatives, the Development Policy Institute, and Connectpro Ltd. The overarching goal of this project is to improve school education standards by more effective utilisation of education finance, which will be achieved through parental engagement in school budgets and public accountability of donor funding for the education sector.

Key Contact Person: Roza Gaibulina, Executive Director

Email address: budget.kg@gmail.com

Egypt

CARE

CARE has operated in Egypt since 1954 and, in general, it aims to help communities living in poverty meet basic needs, improve their social positions and cope with their challenging environments in ways that are sustainable and empowering. Underpinning all of CARE's work is a commitment to strengthening local civil society, promoting human rights and addressing the underlying causes of poverty and injustice, such as poor governance, gender inequity, economic and social exclusion and conflict. CARE Egypt is affiliated with CARE International, which is a leading not-for-profit organisation dedicated to fighting poverty and social injustice in 69 countries around the world.  

It will be using the ANSA grant to fund the year long project, Strengthening Capacities for CSOs to Mainstream Social Accountability in the Middle East and North Africa. This project aims to (a) build CSO capacities to use country-appropriate mechanisms and channels that enable civil society engagement with government departments and officials on emerging legislative and social issues; (b) initiate a process for MNA network of CSOs to share experiences with other participating CSOs.

Key Contact Person: Mohamed Nada, Program Manager

Email address: MNada@egypt.care.org

Website: www.care.org.eg