| Grant Profile: |
| Project Title: |
Cambodia: Program to Enhance Capacity in Social Accountability (PECSA) |
| PCF/LICUS/SPF: |
LICUS |
Status: |
Open |
| File Number: |
57
| Region: |
EAP |
| Sector: |
Law and justice and public administration |
Country: |
Cambodia |
| FY approved: |
2007 |
Grant Theme : |
Public sector governance |
| Keyword(s): |
Administrative and civil service reform;Government and anti-corruption |
Approved Amount: |
$1,416,341.00 |
| Related Documents |
 Januarynewsletter08.pdf
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Grant Recipient:
Bank-executed |
Grant Purpose:
The main goal of the grant is to enable civil society practitioners to effectively promote and implement social accountability (SAc) approaches. In virtually all countries where governance deficiencies have been corrected, the impetus has come not just from reformers in government, but also from civil society organizations (CSOs), independent journalists, parliamentarians and citizens themselves. An array of tools and activities has evolved to maximize the effectiveness of these contributions - collectively called Social Accountability (SA) or the Demand-side of Good Governance. These tools have been well-honed in countries where they are widely practiced to become very powerful instruments. In Cambodia, however, there is extremely little experience with these tools or even awareness of them.
The proposed program is designed to redress this gap by providing a menu of capacity-building, to support initiatives to help non-state actors learn about and pilot what has worked well elsewhere, to adapt tools to the local context, and to build up a community of SA practitioners that share experience, provide mutual support, and learn by evaluating unfolding experience.
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Grant Activities:
Component 1: Training, mentoring and awareness-raising.
(1) Training in Social Accountability techniques
Centers of Social Accountability Excellence have been identified in countries where SA is widely practiced in India and the Philippines. These two partners will coordinate the provision by members of their networks of training modules tailored for Cambodian audiences (including NGOs, CSOs, media, academia, and government officials) and also training for Cambodian trainers.
(2) On-the-job mentoring and coaching
This sub-component is similar to the above but with more intensive, task-oriented and on-going programs delivered within NGOs that are planning to use SA tools.
(3) Exchange visits and scholarships
This sub-component will involve study tours with clearly defined outputs and follow-up plans to learn directly how specific SA tools are applied by leading practitioners, as well as scholarships enabling CSO leaders to gain a broader understanding of the discipline in countries where SA tools are extensively used.
(4) Special programs linked to DFGG focus areas.
Component 2: Tool Development and Action-Learning (Grant-making component)
An independent non-state actor is being selected to implement this component (as a consultant), and a Grant-Making Committee is being recruited to decide on the grants. There will be two categories of grants:
(1) Pilot Development Marketplace (DM)
As CSOs acquire awareness about SA, they will wish to apply their learning by tailoring and innovating tools suitable for the country context. PECSA will support this through a competitive grant-making scheme that is being developed in consultation with relevant stakeholders. CSOs will be invited to submit proposals to a pilot DM for governance innovation.
(2) Small Grants for tool-development and action research: There will also be opportunities for more modest grants to be approved by the GMC through the Small Grant mechanism, to provide support to civil society organizations to develop and test SA tools.
Component 3: PECSA Leadership, Resource Centre and Network.
(1) PECSA Leadership
A global leader in SA has been recruited to design, launch and execute the first phase of the program, ensuring that the best global experience and SA practitioners are drawn on.
(2) Knowledge-management services
A web-based and a physical resource base for SA practitioners are being established, including Khmer translations of the most influential SA literature.
(3) Mutual support forum
It is anticipated to build the above function into a forum for SA practitioners to share experiences, learn from each other and solicit advice on tackling challenges especially targeted at all PECSA-supported practitioners.
Component 4: Monitoring, Impact Evaluation and Learning.
(1) Monitoring, Impact Evaluation and Learning
Since Cambodia is low on the learning curve for SA, a key feature of PECSA is to ensure learning-by-doing.
(2) Other Special Studies
The PECSA Coordinator, in consultation with the emerging practitioners' network, would identify topics that warrant study in order to further SA practice in Cambodia.
Component 5: Project Administration.
The Component includes establishment of PECSA Coordination Unit and administration of the project. The program, being complex and with multiple components and sub-grants, needs careful administration and oversight by a specialized unit.
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News:
More than 950 government representatives, donors, NGOs, students, and monks, participated in the launch of the World Bank Program to Enhance Capacity on Social Accountability (PECSA) in Cambodia on December 3, 2007. The event focused on social accountability and actions by civil society to help citizens achieve greater voice and influence in promoting good governance.
PECSA is a World Bank-funded program in Cambodia, endorsed by the Ministry of Interior. It strives to enhance the capacity of civil society organizations to assist citizens of Cambodia in helping their government remain more effective and accountable. The program focuses on improving the effectiveness of public services, enhancing accountability for public spending through monitoring, strengthening the management of Cambodia’s national resources, improving private sector governance, and increasing the role of media as an instrument of good governance.
Fostering transparency and accountability, and overall anti-corruption efforts, have been central topics of government-donor dialogue in Cambodia in the recent years. The Royal Government of Cambodia has responded by declaring that fostering good governance is currently the top priority of its development agenda and that it is committed to trying new approaches towards governance reform. The Government’s “Rectangular Strategy” developed in 2004 places good governance at the core of the country’s development agenda, and recognizes the important contributions that civil society, the private sector and development partners can make in this regard. Donors and civil society in Cambodia have revealed their strong support for the initiative. Aid to Cambodia is expected to increase as a result of this commitment, as many donors, including the World Bank, are giving top priority to governance reform in their programs.
PECSA is designed to provide training and support for both specific tools that have been the mainstay of social accountability programs in other countries, as well as for development of broader skills that CSOs need in order to be effective in their governance support and advocacy roles. The program envisages the development of a Demand for Good Governance project, which will fund social accountability activities once PECSA activities are completed.
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