governance.careinternationalwikis.org

CARE believes in public authorities and service providers who are responsive to the needs and rights of all. This means working with service providers to support them to become more transparent and responsive to poor and marginalised people.

HOW WE WORK

• Citizens’ Charters

•Local Governance Performance Assessments

WHO WE WORK WITH

We working with a range of power-holders, including the state, private sector and traditional leaders, to improve their ability to fulfil their obligations and be more responsive, transparent, and accountable to marginalised groups, particularly women.

CARE's Institutional Responsiveness work follows the UK Department for International Development/IDSCAR model (Capabilities, Accountabilities and Responsiveness). What we mean by state capability and responsiveness is defined here.

WHAT WE DO

In Egypt, citizen charters have been used to improve communication with service providers and increase measures taken to address issues

raised by service users in the education and infrastructure sector. See here.

In Nepal through the USAID-funded Hariyo Ban program, CARE focused on strengthening local governance of natural resource management groups, including building the capacity of Natural Resource Management (NRM) groups, community organizations, and increasing levels of meaningful participation by women and other marginalized groups. CARE employed approaches that support the Community Forestry Development Guidelines of 2009, including the Participatory Governance Assessment (PGA) tool, used to assess good governance practices in community groups. The PGA facilitates a group of selected participants to evaluate the extent to which the decision-making and management practices in a community leadership group comply with the four ‘pillars’ of good governance: transparency, participation, accountability and predictability. The assessment is guided by a set of sixteen governance indicators which participants rate as very good, good, moderate or poor. Responses are recorded on a matrix and later presented visually as a spider-web diagram. Based on this, a Governance Improvement Plan is formulated. The PGA tool helps to improve the overall functioning of a community group and its ability to manage natural resources in an equitable and sustainable manner.

Accountability and responsiveness in the Women’s Economic Empowerment outcome area

Given that in some contexts the private sector is equally or even more powerful than the state itself, there is particular attention to promoting greater responsiveness and accountability of companies, at all levels in value chains. Mondelez included the requirement for Community Action Plans, based on the Community Development Committee model developed by CARE and partners in Cote D’Ivoire. In Sri Lanka, tea plantation workers, trade unions and tea estate managers established Community Development Forums, a space that proved effective in promoting dialogue and greater responsiveness of private sector actors working in marginalised communities, as well as a positive social and economic return on investment.

Other examples

Examples include much of CARE and partners’ work to strengthen technical capacities and/or accountability systems within service providers. For example, in **Bangladesh**CARE has been training district-level officials on good governance, including on participatory planning and inclusive budgeting; in Zambia CARE is building capacities of providers to support survivors of gender-based violence.

Capability, accountability and responsiveness in Africa

Capability accountability and responsiveness in Latin America