Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Keep Your Promises Campaign to hold Government Accountable A Story from India



Electioneering campaigns are fascinating combative theatres at which national and local political party players go over the top to lay out hydra-headed superlative promises to schmooze the electorate. But political promises are seduction with minimal cerebral character. So therefore governments tend to win elections on extraordinary back-stories of super-size promises. After elections, the electorate is left with the task of demanding for a payment of awesome promissory notes – accountability to deliver on promises.

As we deepen our democracy, we could learn lessons from others so we don’t waste precious time reinventing the wheel of ideas. So this week, this column publishes edited excerpts of a case study from India, touted to be the largest democracy in the world. An Oxford publication, it was written by Avinash Kumar and published at http://www.comminit.com/en/node/286214/348.

This case study explores Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA, also known as the Keep Your Promises Campaign), an ongoing effort to mobilise people in India to pressure the government to deliver on key promises, and to demonstrate the demand of people across India for social justice and a better future for all the nation's children.

By late 2008, WNTA had a federal structure reaching 23 states, with 3,000 networks and a core membership of 105 organisations. From the beginning, it was envisaged that in addition to creating a national advocacy agenda, emphasis would also be placed on decentralised state-level campaigns to ensure that local priorities were included.

Amongst its many programmes is the Nine Is Mine campaign for the allocation of 9% of gross domestic product (GDP) to health and education as promised in the United Progressive Alliance's election manifesto when it came into power in 2004. WNTA's core strategies include:

1). Mass Mobilisation: Repeatedly, WNTA organises events with a large and active public presence and extensive media coverage. For instance, the September 2005 People's Summit Against Poverty involved more than 12,000 people and resulted in a People's Charter calling for immediate action to meet the Millennium Development Goals’ commitments and end poverty.

On global Stand Up Against Poverty Day WNTA partners across 15 states organised a diverse set of actions involving 1,236,979 people from communities and local decision-making bodies, including students and government representatives.

WNTA's children's alliance mixes children from slums and wealthy cities, creating a cross-class alliance for social justice. These children play active roles in campaigning for health and education spending. After the campaign got schools across the country involved through grassroots mobilisation, a concert and a children's rally were organized.

When thousands of children – from the poorest slums and the most elite Delhi schools –attended the concert and rally, dancing together and marching side-by-side, the media rushed to cover this unusual social phenomenon. The day after the TV coverage, the Prime Minister's office invited the children to come and meet him.

When they met him, he accepted the 100,001st postcard petition and assured the children, on the record, that he would boost funding for schools and health centres. In the following year’s budget, he did just that, raising health spending by a quarter and education spending by a third in a budget in which defence spending went up by just nine percent.

2). Policy Audits and Citizens Reports: In order to press for the full implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), WNTA organised a March for the Right to Employment in 6 states. These marches were accompanied by People's Tribunals, where local officials were told about the inefficiencies and gaps in the implementation of the scheme.

Following this, a National Tribunal was held at the India Social Forum where over 50 representatives from 14 states spoke. The outcomes and verdicts of these processes were taken to different parliamentarians. The government showed its acknowledgment of the importance of the campaign by integrating the audits in its monitoring mechanisms and increasing the reach of the NREGS to 595 districts from the initial 200.

WNTA used the idea of Citizens' Report Cards to put constant pressure on the government and to hold them to account. In its first year, WNTA released a report focusing on the MDGs, particularly in relation to education, health and employment. A survey involving the local community was conducted in 1,514 villages. It was followed by a mid-term MDGs checklist and a status Report Card which was presented to the Prime Minister. Extensive media coverage ensued.

WNTA's annual review of the CMP checks on the major promises made by the government through a rigorous process wherein a Report Card is developed and the resulting report presented and passed through various state networks to get their feedback and assent before it is finally released. An elephant bearing a sign reading "CMP Promised" standing next to a goat with sign "CMP Delivered" (illustrating the difference in scale) became a popular image widely used by the media.

3). Budget Tracking and Advocacy: The Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, a member of the WNTA alliance, organises a national consultation each November (when the government's budget-making process for the following year begins). What results is a People's Charter of Demands, which looks at various aspects of the social sector like agriculture, education and health from the perspective of marginalised groups. This is forwarded to various ministries of the government.

Experts weigh in, followed by a public discussion where government, policymakers, civil society groups and media representatives come together to evaluate the implications of the Charter for economically poor people. Results? The campaign is promoting the right to be heard in an innovative way, where policy analysis from the top has led to grassroots mobilisation from the ground.

A key theme running throughout WNTA's work is direct engagement with marginalised groups such as women, indigenous peoples, children and people with disabilities. WNTA's approach involves harnessing the work these groups were already doing, thereby adding to their strength and capacity by including them in its quest to secure their economic rights.

WNTA also addresses gender in its own structures. In 2006, the WNTA steering group was expanded to ensure women made up 50% of members.

Following are key lessons learned:
1). Build alliances and overcome isolation without giving up one's identity, perspective and sensibility.

2). For any large network to be successful in ensuring poor people's right to be heard, the priorities have first to be drawn from local, regional and national contexts and then draw on international frameworks.

3). The national framework has to take into account the perspectives and voices of groups that are marginalised in social and economic terms, as well as groups of differing gender and age in order to seek their support and build their capacity. The lobbying strength of the middle class should also be sought.

4). It is important not to organise separate or new fronts but to explore opportunities to bring isolated or disparate movements together on common ground, making them a unified and much stronger voice that cannot be ignored by the government.

5). The strong points of all constituents must be harnessed for the interest of the whole. Such strengths include grassroots groups providing input from the ground; policy groups providing macro analysis in a language that is informed by grassroots realities; media-based groups providing support for media advocacy.

6). It is possible to create excitement and enthusiasm for issues such as health and education. The key is to articulate these vital issues in a language people understand and want to respond to.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

The Mathematics of Public Holidays

Ghana’s total GDP is 17 billion Ghana cedis. Excluding weekends and the 12 statutory public holidays out of the 365 days, we are left with 252 working days in a year. This gives an approximate figure of 68 million Ghana cedis per working day.

In other words, Ghana loses GH¢68 million each official working day we gleefully, for one reason or the other, decide not to work. When you don’t work, you don’t earn money so in effect, you lose money. Each of our estimated 23 million citizens loses GH¢3 each non-working day, good enough money for a meal, considering the fact that there are some of our citizens who live on less than one cedi a day!

Ghana takes 12 pauses every year in public holidays. We simply stop – and rest, and stare. And these holidays are supported by law – Act 601, the Public Holidays Act of 2001. There are offences and penalties for contravening this law. One becomes “liable on the summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred penalty units or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three months or to both.” Public-holiday observance is therefore a serious matter – it has a ‘compulsory-by-force’ clause.

What do people do on public holidays? Idle about, mostly. Overindulge in activities including alcoholism, over-eating, belching, over-sleeping and resting. Incrementally, indulgence in over-holidaying impacts on our attitudes, behaviours and national psyche, possibly resulting in the adoption of a culture of resting and laziness.

The rationale behind public holidays is to mark and remember something. An entire country does not need to take a pause just so that people would remember the significance of the day. For some of our public holidays, a commemoration should be adequate to memorialize the day while the country works.

Commemoration is a symbolism. It could include flag-raising ceremonies, media discourse and events. We can celebrate days which have true significance without piling up days just for people to hang around to perpetuate a culture of loafing about and of non-working. The national culture of public holidays is akin to the frighteningly growing dysfunctional culture of funerals. One death, and people stop and freeze – in grief, for as long as they can carry on.

Some reduction is called for in the vast public holiday landscape. Four public holidays which are so superfluous and are crying to be cut out to make room for national development are: Easter Monday, Boxing, Republic and Africa Day. Ghana loses GH¢272 million (68 million multiplied by 4 days) for those unnecessary holidays. This amounts to approximately GH¢12 per person.

Let’s touch on each of our public holidays.

New Year’s Day: The first day of the year should be a good day for reflections and planning – for a long look backwards and a bold look forward. It is worth GH¢68 million.

Independence Day: Pushing the colonialist away deserves a national and individual celebration and a resolve: “Never again!” Freedom! But the freedom must be applied appropriately or else the GH¢68 million cannot be justified.

Good Friday: Jesus died. On the cross. Nailed. In a brutal manner. If he should return now, people like you and I will crucify him – again. He might bring the cane into the public sphere of Government offices of the Castle, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and especially all churches – and whip lots of people for various offences. With that, we would be so upset that at the least opportunity, we would crucify him – again!

But this is a predominantly Christian country so we should celebrate Good Friday even at the cost of GH¢68 million.

Easter Monday: That is the day after the Sunday when Jesus the Christ pulled a fast one on the women (led by Mary), by resurrecting and leaving the tomb empty – the quintessential “well-dodge event!”

So why is the Monday after Easter observed as a public holiday? Just so Ghanaians who can afford it would attend picnics. The celebration of Easter Monday results in two shortened weeks, back-to-back – four days for the previous week and four days for the following. And the cost to Ghana is GH¢68 million, a whopping total of GH¢136 million in two weeks.

Eid-al Adha Festival (Hajj) and Eid-al Fitr (Ramadan): For national cohesion, fairness and the tolerance of religious and cultural diversity, the two Muslim public holidays must be maintained at a total cost of GH¢136 million. But, won’t one Muslim holiday be adequate? Must it be two? OK, drop the Hajj holiday and save Ghana GH¢68 million!

Workers Day (1st May): Everyone works so a day of pausing to review the sinking stinky realities of workers is welcome and is worth GH¢68 million (sort of).

Africa Day (25th May): This holiday always catches me unawares because it has refused to register on my consciousness. This past one, I accidentally found out on the prior Thursday that Monday was a public holiday. So I asked two well-educated friends what the holiday was for. To my surprise, they didn’t know it was Africa Day. Africa is distant in the consciousness of many of us. ECOWAS is closer to us and touches our lives. Africa has little credibility, making the OAU and now the AU a gathering of leaders, some of whom are nothing but crack tyrants and glorified thieves.

Republic Day (1st July): I’ve asked a number of ‘all-knowing’ people this simple question: “What is a Republic? It’s not well known that it disconnected us from the mighty apron strings of the Queen of England’s monarchy. It sealed the kiss for Independence. So after 52 years, why do we continue to place the country on a GH¢68 million pause in memory of a kiss and the ugly gold-laced apron strings?

If we celebrate Independence Day, why must we take another day off to celebrate the Republic? Doesn’t Independence Day adequately represent what we are as a nation without having the entire country take another day off for the Republic?

Farmers Day (1st Friday in December): Farmers are workers too so why not consolidate their day with Workers Day? We import lots of food. Global trends suggest that as countries develop, the percentage of individuals in farming drop correspondingly. US figures are as low as 5%. So in future, we might be celebrating a day for a few people.

Christmas Day (25th December): OK, Christ was born! Let’s celebrate. But there should be two Christmas holidays instead of the current four. Christmas and Good Friday are enough.

Boxing Day (26th December): What box? Are we supposed to distribute Christmas gifts on this day? This day must be cancelled as a public holiday. Superfluous!

But that’s not all. A thirteenth public holiday, Founder’s Day, might soon be added, to celebrate ex-President Kwame Nkrumah, now of blessed memory – the same man we vilified for days, weeks, months and years after his violent overthrow in 1966. Every visible memory of his was destroyed through vandalism and hateful vengeance. Now he has been ‘resurrected’ and we’re looking for his vandalised head and arm to attach to his ill-reputed statue that was left in sorrowful abandonment at the Museum in Accra.

What irony! Another GH¢68 million will be flushed down the drains in Nkrumah’s memory and to further slow us down on the rocky path of development and economic independence! This public holiday should replace the Republic Day or just forget it.

dorisdartey@yahoo.com; dorisdartey.blogspot.com