Appendix A 447
Focus on issues that connect directly with livelihoods (G-Watch and PETS); demonstrate clear incentives; not clear from the presentation (explicitly) but recognized as critical; from the perspective of civil society organizations, the importance of getting research and evidence absolutely right, watertight, and rigorous before presenting it to government officials. Systems perspective—ecological perspective; using indigenous resources—social, cultural, discursive; finding incentives for governments to cooperate in SA. Except in the context of dictatorships, dialogue coupled with a collaborative attitude has a better chance of success compared to confrontation. It is useful to understand also that the state is not monolithic, and that there are multiple potential partners within government. Creating a baseline to compare with results generated by the SA—in order to explicitly show the benefit of engagement; a collaborative approach, so that public officials don’t feel threatened by SA mechanisms; institutionalize mechanisms so that they are less vulnerable to changes in leadership. In order to avoid the mechanism from being appropriated by a single faction of the government or by a political party, the mechanism should be institutionalized. The institutionalization of the mechanism requires building acceptance by all in government/political society (particularly the opposition). Involving appropriate department/part of government in mainstreaming social accountability into the development process (e.g., M&E [Monitoring and Evaluation] Department in Economic Planning Ministry). All those in which civil society engages public official beforehand, dialogue being a crucial one. For a non-practitioner, this strikes me as a “trick” question. Public officials in what type of regime? If the regime is democratic, I would guess that number of votes to be gained would be a key incentive. If non-democratic, perhaps outside donors rather than voters become the key drivers.
Session III: Building Citizen Competence (Informed Citizenry) The third session focused on building an informed citizenry, and how communication and SA mechanisms can cultivate, enhance, and sustain citizen competence in less-than-ideal real-world political contexts. Building citizen