“If there is anything we should learn from this report, it is to use good analytics to target public policy and programs”

Hon. Kandeh Yumkella, Leader of National Grand Coalition 

Collaboration that capitalizes on the unique capabilities of CSOs 

The GPSA advocates a way of doing social accountability that is ‘collaborative,’ meaning that civil society actors adopt non-confrontational strategies aimed at collectively solving problems and delivering results. Collaborative social accountability consists of processes that invest purposively in creating new or strengthening existing cooperation “spaces” whereby CSOs and public sector institutions with decision-making power and public management authority convene to analyze a problem, identify citizen participation mechanisms to help solve it, and agree on joint actions to “co-produce” solutions and appropriate responses. 

The GPSA’s vision of collaborative social accountability is underpinned by each party that joins forces bringing their unique capabilities to solve the identified problems. There are myriad ways in which CSOs can add value to the pursuit of good governance and effective service delivery. One important way is by feeding back information from users of public services to the service providers and/or the public body responsible for service delivery, including user satisfaction or problems related to service delivery. This enables decision-makers at different levels to operate based on evidence, which many government institutions struggle to collect themselves.  

This is the path Oxfam Sierra Leone, and the Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) chose to take to improve service delivery in health and education in the GPSA-funded project, ‘Monitoring Post Ebola Recovery Funds: A Focus on Service Delivery,’ which spanned the period 2019 to 2022. They did so by developing the Service Delivery Index (SDI), which captures the state of education and health service delivery, sector responses in the wake of COVID-19, and current geographical disparities in quality and quantity of access.   

Evidence from service users makes it to Parliament 

The partners conducted interviews with service staff across the country and 3,960 households, field visits to 490 peripheral health and 660 schools to generate systematic data on the state of sectorial service delivery, identify budget and service delivery gaps as well as bottlenecks, in order to inform more effective policy programs. The SDI was presented and discussed in Sierra Leone’s National Parliament on 24th March 2021, after which parliamentarians recommended how these disparities could be overcome based on the report’s novel findings. Having the SDI debated in Parliament presents an immense success and a unique opportunity to build trust and cooperation between government and CSOs on ensuring more equitable resource allocation and continued emphasis on addressing service delivery in health and education. 

Oxfam and the Institute for Governance Reform, additionally, drew on the data to strengthen service delivery at the district level by, for instance, providing targeted capacity building in schools and health facilities improved for financial management and procurement. They also strengthened collaborative social accountability by creating local grievance redress mechanisms (GRM) – platforms for citizens to constructively engage public service providers and contribute feedback on public schools and hospitals. This enabled project partners to build partnerships and raise awareness on service delivery gaps with government officials, particularly in the ministries of health and education, parliament, civil society organizations, and community-based organizations. These exchanges, together with the generated data, helped district governments and service providers address shortcomings based on specific and actionable evidence. Some of the topics discussed include increased training of teachers to improve learning outcomes, equipping government-assisted schools to feed children and reduce overcrowding in affected schools, and increasing numbers of hospitals and health care facilities with the capacity to provide essential health care services.   

Lasting collaboration is good news for the future of health and education in Sierra Leone 

The continued parliamentary interest in future iterations of the SDI demonstrates how partnerships between civil society and government can be beneficial to both parties. The project led to increased trust between state institutions and civil society. Additionally, the focus on evidence-based policymaking will help improve outcomes for citizens in health and education services.