How Sivio Institute’s Local Governance Tracker is helping citizens keep local authorities accountable
Management guru Peter Drucker famously said, “If you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” There is no doubt that local authority service delivery levels in Zimbabwe need improvement. The inordinate amount of time spent by citizens, residents’ associations and CSOs tackling service delivery related issues bears testimony to this. That said, while this is a generally accepted fact, actual measurement of service delivery levels, to enable citizens, and local authorities to get a clear picture of performance, has never been done in a digital format that enables wide access to the data. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen these poor service delivery levels drop further, with many duty bearers blaming the pandemic for their continued failure to meet the most basic needs of citizens.
Since measurement is a key factor in the improvement process, Sivio Institute developed a local governance tracker, dubbed the Local Government in Action Tracker, to monitor the performance of local authorities in Bulawayo, Harare, Gweru and Mutare respectively. Sivio began by focusing on Residents’ Association (RAs), providing technical support to enhance their advocacy capacities through a 12-week online training course covering a wide range of topics including Frameworks of Governance, Devolution, the Constitution, Financing and Planning Within Local Structures, to name a few. Participating RAs also toured their cities together with local authorities and documented what they considered to be major service delivery challenges. The tours afforded opportunities for previously rare interaction between local authority officials and RAs. Click this link to watch the virtual tours.
Sivio concurrently developed the digital tracker, which was launched in Bulawayo in October 2020, and collects local service delivery data online from over 900 households within medium and high-density suburbs in the four cities. Service delivery status is tracked across three themes: water delivery, refuse collection and primary healthcare. The digital tool promotes a culture of transparency and social accountability on the part of local authorities and responsible citizenship on the part of communities. The tool was a product of a co-creative and consultative process between Sivio, local government representatives and residents’ associations from the four geographic areas. What the tool has achieved is to provide a platform for both supply and demand actors to convene to thrash out service delivery and public resource management issues in a collective and conciliatory manner, marking a shift in relations between local authorities and civic actors. Click this link to visit the site.