Our project and development partners

Green Africa Foundation is implementing a social accountability project aimed towards "Strengthening partnerships between Non state actors (NSAs), county governments and citizens to enhance county governance processes and service delivery" in the Environment and natural resources and livestock sectors in Marsabit County. The project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through the Agile and Harmonized Assistance for Devolved Institutions (AHADI) program in governance. The project is supporting the implementation of devolution through enhance citizen and Non State Actors Participation in the Government Processes.

The formation of thematic working groups

During the first meeting of Green Africa Foundation, citizens and Non State Actors in Marsabit county that was held on 18th July 2018, thematic working groups were formed on the two sectors; environment and natural resources and livestock. The working group members were introduced to various concepts of public participation, Public Expenditure Management Process and Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) tools. The working group members will act as Trainers of Trainees (TOT) to the community members during Ward level pilot exercises of the PETS tool and community sensitization on PEM.

Activity for capacity building of thematic working groups

On 14th and 15th of August 2018, Green Africa Foundation undertook a two days training workshop for the thematic working group members/TOTs to further build their capacity on Public Expenditure Management. The workshop was held at Silvia Inn Hotel, Marsabit County. The training was facilitated by Mr. Ogada and Mrs. Gatiba, Project officer and Advocacy & MERL officer respectively at Green Africa Foundation and Mr. Abuya who is a consultant working on the PET survey tools for the Foundation. The latter presented an assessment report he conducted in July 2018 on the Status of Public Awareness on Public Expenditure Management Cycle & availability of PET Tools in Marsabit County.

His report revealed lack of public expenditure tracking tools and processes. However, there exist another form of social accountability Programme called the "Wajibikaji Pamoja" (Accountability together) which is an automated web based Integrated Complaint Referral Mechanism. 'Uwajibikaji Pamoja' platform aims to improve service delivery for the local residents by facilitating coordination of service providers, enhancing their capacity on accountability and sensitizing community members on their right to receive quality interventions. The integrated complaints mechanism enables and empowers citizens to monitor aid and basic service delivery and to engage with service providers at County level. In Marsabit, "Wajibikaji Pamoja" focuses on social audits of NGOs aided programmes/projects and service delivery as opposed to public expenditure tracking.

The following challenges were consistently mentioned to affect citizen involvement in Public Expenditure Tracking.

• Lack of systematic framework or tool for public expenditure tracking except public consultations during county planning and budgeting processes.Low levels of public participation in Marsabit county.
• Political interference with effective citizen participation in their endeavors to hold the government accountable.
• Lack of information on budgetary allocation for the sectors/departments to meaningfully engage in public expenditure tracking.

A participant shares their experience during a session

The report outlined the following observations and recommendations:

• Wajibikaji Pamoja offers a great opportunity for coordination where public expenditure tracking can be integrated consolidating the gains for sustainability.
• Sensitization of the public on public participation as a constitutional right.
• Development of a framework of embedding public expenditure tracking into the county planning and budgeting process as an integral part of public participation
• Generate PETS tools which serves project objectives but can also be integrated into the Uwajibikaji Pamoja initiative.

In order to build capacity and create awareness to the thematic working group members/TOTs the following topics were addressed during presentations, question & answer and group work sessions:-

• County Budgeting and Financing.
• Public expenditure Management.
• Understanding Public Expenditure Tracking Survey tool (PETS).
• Personal experiences on public expenditure management- Group work and case studies.
• Green Africa Foundations' Trainers of Trainees (TOTs) Role in piloting the Public Expenditure Tracking survey tool.

Testing of the draft Public Expenditure Tracking survey tool

The TOTs had a chance to test the draft Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) tool during the group discussions. The captivating exercise enabled TOTs to recognize how little they know about the county government development work taking place in their Wards. They have limited knowledge of the budgets and monetary allocations for the ongoing projects they identified.

Ongoing group discussion to test the PET survey tool.

One participant narrated her experience of the morning of the training. She was involved in following up on plastic water tanks that had been stored at a specified personal residence in Marsabit town. According to the information gathered at the county offices, the initial plan was to distribute the tanks to needy families for rain water harvesting. Contrary to this, they had been lying at this personal residence for months. The rainy season had passed hence the objectives of that initiative would not be met. She also acknowledged not knowing the amount of money that had been disbursed for purchase and distribution of the said plastic water tanks. This was common trend in all the projects discussed in the group work sessions, where members were not aware of the planning, implementation and budgetary processes for the identified projects.

Way forward

Public participation is enshrined in Article 10 of the Kenyan Constitution, therefore it is both a right and a responsibility of every Kenyan to hold their County and National government accountable on their planning, implementation and monitoring of public expenditure. Engaging in in Public Expenditure management is one of the avenues that one can exercise this right. Therefore, the thematic working group members/TOTs need to take lead in guiding the public in the budgeting process. To effectively do this, they will need to stay informed about the budgeting and planning process so as to help the public understand and analyze the numbers. They should avoid being loud bystanders but be fully involved. On an individual level, they should always pass the information through one on one meetings or during public meetings where they can engage with the citizens.

Debriefing session with participants of the training workshop

Have you participated in any Public Expenditure Tracking exercise, either at the National or County level? Tells us your experience in the comments section...

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