Untitled Document

Governance Where People Matter
A Review of PRIA's programme 2003 - 2008
By
Dr. John Gaventa and Dr. Neera Burra

In 2003, the Society of Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) launched with its partners an ambitious programme known as Governance Where People Matter (GWPM). The five year programme set out to ‘empower marginalised families for their active participation in the effective utilisation of development resources’ through ‘making self-governing institutions transparent and accountable’ and enabling ‘citizen leaders to have effective voice in governance’. With a focus on strengthening local self- governance, PRIA worked directly or through partners in 12 Indian states, bringing together an array of approaches such as capacity building, research, advocacy, convening and building linkages from the micro (district level), to the meso (state level), to the macro (national, and international levels). Carrying out activities on a large scale, involving thousands of participants from hundreds of localities around India, the programme, which ends in 2008, may well have been one of the most extensive civil society interventions for strengthening local participatory governance in India, and perhaps internationally

This document offers a review of the results and impacts of this programme, as well a discussion of the strategy, which PRIA has used. It also provides a brief assessment of the changing context regarding democratic governance in India, and recommendations and implications that PRIA and its partners might consider for their future work.

Carried out over a 15 day period in February – March 2008, the review drew upon extensive internal documentation of PRIA’s work, a reflection workshop with key staff and partners and focus group interviews and one-on-one interviews in Delhi and in four of the twelve states where PRIA and its partners work (Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat). Over 190 people were consulted, including citizen leaders, elected representatives, partners, donors, government officials at state and national level, donors, media representatives and PRIA staff. Initial findings were shared back to PRIA staff and Board on March 6, 2008

Overall, our assessment is that the PRIA programme has made a major contribution to the purpose of strengthening local self-governance institutions in the states where it has worked. In turn its contributions to transparency and accountability of government institutions, as well as to stronger individual and collective voices of local citizens, are having positive impact on the capabilities of marginalised families to gain access to development resources which affect their lives. More generally, PRIAs work - along with that of its partners - has contributed important knowledge, examples and platforms for larger national and international debates on how democratic participation and democratic governance can contribute to pressing local development needs and issues.

Since PRIA began its programme, significant new policy opportunities have also emerged for strengthening local self governance in India. These include

•The Right to Information Act (2005) which gives significant rights for citizens to demand transparency from government officials;

•the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (2005), which not only provides much needed employment but also strengthens the powers of the Gram Sabhas (village councils) to monitor government performance;

•programmes such as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) which are offering new opportunities for citizen participation in urban governance as well

PRIA and its partners have responded well to these new opportunities, over time carrying out a number of innovative and large scale programmes related to civil society building, strengthening the Panchayati Raj institutions and elected leaders within them, voter awareness, promoting devolution of powers to the states and localities, strengthening urban governance, promoting participatory planning and other forms of citizen participation in municipalities, promoting engagement on the Right to Information Act, helping to implement the NREGA and the citizen awareness of their rights within it, strengthening the capacity of local Panchayats to facilitate girls’ education, and carrying out other programmes on gender and gender awareness. In addition, PRIA has carried out programmes to build linkages with a broad spectrum of other actors – the media, academic institutions, other civil society organisations – to strengthen their role in promoting local democratic governance

Through such work, PRIA’s plan was that it would contribute to ten key result areas, including strengthening local government capacities, building networks of elected representatives and citizens, strengthening citizen leaders and village development organisations, and enabling district planning committees to function more effectively. Moreover, it hoped to leverage the impact of this work at the local level through developing platforms for public debate at the district, state and national level, building partnerships with policy institutions, linking with media and academic institutions, and developing and disseminating popular educational materials for awareness building on rights and responsibilities related to local self- governance.

Our assessment - drawn from field visits, interviews, and extensive and high quality internal documentation - is that the programme on the whole has been successful in delivering on these result areas. To some degree, for reasons out of its control, the work on district planning commissions has only recently begun to take root, and while PRIA has helped extensively to monitor and contribute to the implementation of national policies such as RTI and NREGA, there are mixed views as to its policy impact at the highest levels.

After reviewing the result areas further, this study explores whether and how they contributed to the broader purposes of a) strengthening self-governance institutions which are transparent and accountable and b) enabling citizen leaders to have an effective voice. While tracing such outcomes is always difficult, using a most significant change methodology the study identifies numerous areas and ways through which people at the local level have gained greater awareness of their rights and a growing sense of confidence and leadership. While in the past this has been seen at the individual level, the study points to the important ways in which such awareness is now also contributing to strong local collective action through citizen collectives, networks of local elected representatives, and new associations and organisations of women, dalits and other previously excluded groups.

This growth of citizen voices and action from below – which is happening now in the parts of India we visited in an unprecedented way - has been fuelled in part by the new policies and rights given from above, such as the Right to Information and National Rural Employment Guarantee Acts. Helped through the work of PRIA and its partners, as well as many others, citizens are now increasingly demanding their rights under these acts, which in turn are contributing in numerous ways to local examples of greater transparency and accountability. These range from new mechanisms – such as public boards recording the movements and activities of public officials – to numerous challenges on issues of corruption and delivery of services, to a growing sense and culture of accountability on the part of many public officials and elected representatives.

In turn, the combination of greater voice and collective action from below and greater accountability and transparency of government institutions appear to be contributing to concrete and important changes to the improvement of everyday life at the local level, seen for instance in greater access to and improvements in schools, services, natural resources, employment, shelter, fuel, roads, personal benefits, health care, water and sewage. Such micro changes cannot be quantified, but are widely apparent and perceived by those most directly affected. In addition, these changes are seen as linked to their increased rights, awareness and action, on the one hand, and improved responsiveness of local officials, on the other.

The challenge now is how to continue to take these micro changes to larger scale, to ensure that the positive gains are spread and deepened and that the forces which are resisting the changes – and there are many – are not able to limit their potential. The challenge for PRIA is now how to build the local level work into a stronger force at the state and national level which can help to extend the democratic gains, and translate them into inclusive development, especially in such a time of strong market-led growth of the Indian economy.

In carrying out this programme so far, PRIA has used a number of important strategies and demonstrated important capacities relating to:

•working on ‘both sides of the equation’ – through which it works both with citizen and civil society organisations as well as with government agencies and policy institutions;

•building impressive vertical links from the local to the state to the national and international levels;

•using multiple approaches and entry points, ranging from capacity and awareness building, research and knowledge building, public advocacy, convening and networking;

•building and maintaining a network of core partners, which give PRIA a reach across at least 12 states, which allows it to work at a large scale

Through its work, PRIA has developed a strong reputation as perhaps the leading NGO working in the area of democratic decentralisation in India.

At the same time, the success has created organisational challenges and dilemmas, which are reviewed in the document. Overall, PRIA has played so many roles, across multiple levels and with so many different stakeholders, that it has created many diverse expectations which are together difficult to fulfil. On the whole, those stakeholders ‘closest to the ground’ value PRIA’s role as information provider, networker and capacity builder, while those higher up in policy circles would like to see it do more in terms of policy research, academic research and building a national climate for further reform. While local partners value PRIA’s traditional roles of accompaniment and capacity building, some of the donors and national partners see PRIA needing to move on to new issues, to be more of a consultancy–style organisation, and to focus more at the national level. Some stakeholders, especially at the macro level, would like to see PRIA produce higher quality outputs in the areas of policy analysis and research that can be used to engage in national debates on these issues more effectively.

To respond to these multiple expectations as it moves to its next phase of work, PRIA will have to make choices which perhaps clarify further its core mission and role. These will also need to be made in light of the changing context, including a rapidly changing funding environment in which it may be more difficult for NGOs such as PRIA to get external funding to work as extensively on these issues. In our view this trend risks the potential of consolidating and deepening the democratic gains that have been made to date, just at a time where they could play a critical role in helping to ensure that India’s rapid new growth reaches and benefits poorer communities.

In responding to such changes, the report makes a number of recommendations on what PRIA should work on, as well as how it might work. These include

•Slightly shifting its frame of reference from one of participatory local self-governance, to one of how to build more inclusive democracies. Such an approach also implies engaging with broader issues of power, political institutions and parties, human rights, and the role of the public in promoting social accountability, and building constituencies for local governance into a further national force for change.

• Linking the work on inclusive democracy to issues of inclusive growth. Building on its work with local democratic institutions, both governmental and civil, PRIA can work to strengthen the role and capability of these institutions to ensure that growth and increased government revenues actually translate to meeting the needs of poor communities, especially in the face of privatisation and powerful market actors;

•Strengthening the role of local democratic institutions to deal with new issues related to the growth agenda. These include in particular issues of rapid urbanisation, the delivery of public services to the urban poor, and issues of energy and climate change

•Protecting public rights in a context of liberalisation. In many parts of India, rapid market growth is bringing market interests and the needs and aspirations of poor communities in direct conflicts over issues like land and access to natural resources. Increased conflict is often accompanied by increased violence. PRIA can extend its role in local governance to help to ensure that the rights of poor people are protected when they do speak out more strongly.

In carrying out this work, the report also examines implications for how PRIA might work, including how it might

• re-examine its models and strategies of change in light of the current context;

• balance its roles of facilitating and building the knowledge of others on the one hand, and playing an increasing role as knowledge provider, policy think tank, and research institution on the other. ( However, the report cautions that it may be difficult to play both roles equally well with existing resources and capacities.)

• focus the work further, including considering working on fewer issues, in fewer places, and in some instances with greater internal synergies and external collaboration with other partners

PRIA has been able to have such an impact in part because of its partnerships with other civil society organisations across the 12 states where it works. Many of these partners have now also grown and PRIA may need to redefine its relationships with them, moving from one of a funding relationship to one based on building mutual learning and alliances for greater influence. At the same time, PRIA may need to continue working directly or with smaller civil society organisations in places where capacity is less strong.

Finally, the report briefly examines some possibilities for responding to the changing donor environment. The report argues that the PRIA programme should be seen as strongly complementary to current international donor priorities related to democracy and human rights, building inclusive growth, and building new forms of accountability and transparency for more effective governance.

Overall, while PRIAs contribution to date has been impressive, there is room for improvement and it must not risk complacency. If PRIA were to continue ‘business as usual’ in a rapidly changing context, it would lose out on opportunities to continue to make a difference to democracy and development issues. The report does not offer a blueprint for what the precise next steps might be but attempts to identify some of the key issues, dilemmas and choices which will need to be faced. The hope is that the review will be used to stimulate debate and reflection on PRIAs role and future as it continues its historical mission of serving as ‘an international centre for learning and promotion of participation and democratic governance.’

For detailed report contact pmu@pria.org