Accountability Alert – A New NGO in Pursuit of
Greater Accountability in Sierra Leone
Edie Vandy
Accountability
Alert (AA-SL) - Freetown
May 23, 2010
Some six months have
passed since Accountability Alert –Sierra Leone
(AA-SL), a new initiative conceptualized to
promote NGO Accountability and Transparency was
established. In those time points, we have had
several challenges and some good news as well.
But overall, we feel hopeful the initiative is
on track.
As an emerging NGO,
we are learning with each passing day,
fine-tuning our processes that bear down on
credibility and effectiveness, for after all we
are an NGO determined to stay and promote
Accountability in the third sector on behalf of
our people.
This initiative has
been blessed to have Jadranka Foster, a
very credible International Consultant. Jadranka
is an experienced practitioner, who has
continued to provide institutional support and
capacity building for a range of NGOs and civic
groups working in the Balkans, Asia and Africa.
She lives in the UK but has visited Sierra Leone
on two separate occasions.
The
Accountability Debate
There is a level of
engagement by the country’s Civil Society
Organizations (CSOs) with the donor community
and the government in the critical area of Aid
Accountability.
The most visible of CSO’s pushing for government
accountability includes the Campaign for Good
Governance (CCG), the National Accountability
Group (NAG), Network Movement for Justice and
Development (NMJD), Campaign for Just Mining (CJM),
and several more. These CSOs and others
(supported in part by Christian Aid) have
networked around the country’s budget process to
cater for the poor through advocacy, monitoring
and implementation.
NMJD is leading the effort in asking the tough
questions at the direction of the country’s law
makers and executive branch in their
ratification of a mining lease agreement with
London Mining Company, which they purport as
simply bad ‘business’ for the country. The NMJD
Boss, Abu Brima cannot be clearer in his
opposition to the bill: “the civil society will
also not allow a small group of short-sighted
politicians to mortgage the little that is left
of our precious mineral wealth for their own
selfish gain. This is so because much of it (our
mineral wealth) has been depleted without any
benefit to the nation.
We deserve a
full loaf.”
Criticism has been
heaved on the donor community in the way and
manner local partners get selected. Charles
Mambu, the West Africa Civil Society Forum
representative had this to say: “Unless
you know someone who selects partner
organizations, you will not be chosen.” Not
true, says the donors through UNDP Peter Ngu
Tayong, “All NGOs must first register with the
government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry
of Finance and Development. Secondly, after a
competitive process the best is considered for
any collaboration.”
The
criticism is even sharper coming from
Christian Lawrence,
Campaign for Good Governance: “One point I feel
particularly displeased about is that donors do
not account to citizens. They do not even think
that it is a responsibility in their view to
account to citizens.” But could that be said of
the
Tony Blair’s Africa Governance Initiative
currently operational in Sierra Leone, that
currently stands accused by
some sections of the
media for the organizations’ apparent
lack of accountability and transparency in the
use of Bill Gates USD$ 2 million Foundation
funds to help tackle poverty in Sierra Leone?
When the alleged
corruption news story broke out on the use of UK
Aid in Sierra Leone, the British High Commission
came out immediately with a press release,
refuting allegations and making assurances about
their organization's (DFID’s) efficient
processes in place that ensures UK Aid gets to
needy and intended beneficiaries. The then
International Development Minister - Gareth
Thomas, emphasized how
UK’s Aid in
his words, “is making a real
difference to the people of Sierra Leone and
this year will provide healthcare for 230,000
women and one million children.”
In the wake of a new
found politics between the Conservative party
and the Liberal Democrats, the question being
touted is; how will the British Aid policy shape
out to be in Sierra Leone? According to the
Sierra Leone Telegraph, a senior Liberal
Democrat politician had hinted of the new
Government's posture to prioritize major
improvement in accountability and transparency
as recommended by the National Audit Office
(NAO) into the management of British Aid in
Sierra Leone.
And there is ENCISS,
the new power broker between the state and CSOs,
receiving nearly all of DFID’s funding for its
in-country civil society related programs. And
with the EU also pouring most of its funding for
support of civil society into ENCISS, this
organization is surely on its way to being the
conduit for small grants delivery to local
organizations.
Sierra Leone’s former
Anti-corruption Czar, Abdul Tejan-Cole prior to
his resignation, in an Op-Ed: 'ACC and the
Donors: the Way Forward'; challenged the
country’s Aid providers to do more in promoting
accountability - “Donor support is not
just about providing money. It is about leading
by example and ensuring that they comply with
the same standards they impose on national
institutions.”
Our
position at Accountability Alert (AA-SL) is that
holding someone to account, means one must be
accountable as well, a view shared by
Burkhard Gnaerig,
former director of Save the Children
International: “Challenging business and
government to be more accountable is a crucial
part of our role. If we are to point the finger
at others we need to be completely clean in our
own back yard.”
These ongoing
constructive dialogues with the donor community
appears to be paying off with concrete action
plans of their own revealing greater
accountability and transparency in the way Aid
is handled.
The World Bank's (WB)
point man, Sidie Sheriff in charge of
programming has pointed to the Bank’s plan to
set-up a website for browsing all financial
transactions between the Group and the
government of Sierra Leone, for as he puts it
“…all geared towards greater transparency and
accountability, which are the hallmarks of the
Bank,” he said (Premiere News:
Reporters to Increase
Business Coverage).
From the point of accountability, we consider
the World Bank’s intent on the website as good
news, for a major stumbling block in promoting
accountability is lack of information access.
One only needs to take stock of the Development
Assistance Coordinating Office (DACO) and its
work to understand the importance of timely
information that drives the
publication of its annual Development Assistance
Report. DACO, the Aid co-coordinating body
set-up in 2002 has in place
a quarterly request for Aid information to the
donors.
Surprisingly, according to the report: “
Old habits die hard: Aid
and accountability in Sierra Leone”;
some donors like the ADB, World
Bank,
DFID,
Irish Aid, JICA and the EU, “tend to respond”,
and others like USAID “sometimes respond”. The
report named DFID and the Irish Aid, as the only
two bilateral donors for whom information was
available on their aid disbursements relative to
the amounts committed, with the ADB as sole
multilateral institution for which this same
information was available in the Development
Assistance Report.
When
information is scarce, or when development
actors themselves are in no hurry to discuss
aspects of their operations that borders on
program funds, received and for what purpose,
then it becomes difficult to hold someone to
account. This was how Kadi Jumu, the
Policy Advocacy & Civil
Society Coordinator, Christian Aid puts it:
“…… You have to know
someone, you have to beg someone; you have to
lobby to get information.”
Interestingly, whilst
there is some traction and debate to hold
government and donors to account, that cannot be
said of the NGOs themselves, for there is no
sustained level of conversation internally
within the NGO institution when it comes to
promoting accountability and holding themselves
to account?
The deputy Finance
Minister, Dr. Richard Conteh made the pitch in
2008, in his quest for a new NGO bill: “We
don’t
know how much is being spent and what the 300
and more NGOs are doing, for their activities
have made little difference at all.”
The new NGO bill
before its final passage into law was challenged
by cross section of CSOs led in-part by the
Society for Democratic Initiative (SDI), who saw
the bill as one carefully crafted “to control
virtually every aspect of the creation,
existence, operation, and activities of civil
society organizations included within its
purview.” That was then.
Now the SDI Director,
Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai has again (in
a press statement on 13th May 2010)
decried the government on its policies of
compulsory NGO registration with the Sierra
Leone Association of Non-Governmental
Organizations (SLANGO) and the Ministry of
Finance, Development and Economic Planning, as
inducement for status recognition and
privileges.
This round of
criticism is coming in at the height of growing
concerns “as a result of attempts by politicians
to intimidate and muzzle the National Electoral
Watch (NEW), a vibrant organization that has
been monitoring elections and their
ramifications in the country, in the ongoing
criminal defamation court action instituted
against the organization by Honourable Ibrahim
Bundu representing Constituency 52 in the Port
Loko District.”
The SDI Director
through the press release has urged “politicians
to hands-off the operations of Civil Society
Organizations as this occurrence stifles the
fundamental principles of democracy and good
governance.”
In
an unprecedented turn-around by the NGOs
themselves during a SLANGO
Annual General
Meeting in August 2008, participants were in
agreement that a good proportion of NGOs were
misappropriating donor funds meant for the
people, with staff of these institutions (local
as well as expatriates) allegedly spending 55%
of beneficiary’s
money on incentives.
A much earlier
Transparency International (TI) Humanitarian
Assistance report conducted 24th April 2006 by
their local partner National Accountability
Group (NAG) painted a damming picture of
corruption and the risks it presents for
humanitarian assistance and support to those in
need.
Sylvia
Kalley
a Sierra Leonean intern (from the US) with
SLANGO, following consultation with stakeholders
on aid effectiveness, came to the conclusion
that “donor aid to developing countries such as
Sierra Leone is not an effective way of
improving the living standards of people in poor
countries, and that donor aids coming into the
country are not properly managed.”
The
Good News
The good news coming
from all of these is that, a
good number of the country’s NGOs have best
practices and internal standards worthy of
emulation. Take the case of Action Aid for
example. This NGO has ventured in an area other
NGO’s are yet to go, through the use of “Transparency
Boards.”
The
program’s country Director, Tennyson Williams
was very much enthused on the launch of the
country’s first transparency board: “On the
board we will display our budget, how we get
funding and how we implement our projects. This
transparency board is going to bring enormous
challenge to other NGOs, he said. (Awoko:
Action Aid sets the
pace, first transparency board launch).
Additionally,
International Aid organizations like Oxfam,
Amnesty, Save the Children, Action Aid
International, YWCA, WVI, and Tear Fund etc.,
with presence in Sierra Leone are signatories to
the Global
Humanitarian and Accountability charter.
This charter sets out some basic core values and
operating principles for international NGOs.
Our expectation is
that the local chapters of these organizations
have their internal operations shaped around
these basic principles.
AA-SL is in to generate commitment amongst the
country’s NGOs to the values and principles of
accountability and ensure that acceptable
standards of accountability like those of Action
Aid get shared across the board and met by all
regardless of funding source.
Building Support
AA-SL recognizes the
issue of accountability as a ‘skeleton in the
cupboard’ most institutions shy away from
discussing. Recognizing the issue as bigger than
one institution or individual, the first thing
we did immediately following official
registration was outreach to 70 plus
stakeholders within the development community,
introducing our presence, and the need for
collaboration in the promotion of
accountability.
Over the course of
our presence, we have had opportunities to meet
one-on-one with Institutions like the World
Vision (WVI), Society for Democratic Initiatives
(SDI), the Campaign for Good Governance (CCG),
the Human Rights Commission, to name but a few.
Prominent Sierra Leoneans including the Hon.
Julius Cuffie, have been approached to throw
their support behind the initiative. The
feed-back received so far has been positive.
Externally, AA-SL
consultant Jadranka Foster is pushing hard for
partnership with credible Institutions from
around the world. One such organization she has
approached is ProConcept, from Serbia, an NGO
with real experience in post conflict
transitions to democracy.
If this partnership
were to hold, it will be a recipe for good
collaboration, as the successes of ProConcept
with NGO Accountability in other post conflict
nations, gets adapted to our own local
situation. Jadranka has extended invitation of
support from international organizations with
presence in Sierra Leone, including Tear Fund
and Christian Aid.
AA-SL will consult with other actors, speak on
the issues, and engage with the donor community.
We would continue to ask our donors be a part of
this initiative, for if the push to have greater
accountability is to be won, the donors
themselves must do much more to showcase their
own accountability, to the government and its
citizenry.
We would
continue to seek partnership with institutions
designed to champion governance, anti-corruption
and accountability in Sierra Leone. For in these
initiatives we
foresee greater space for collaboration, and
complementarity aimed at building a willing
coalition amongst the network of organizations
considered critical in raising the stakes on
accountability.
Accountability
Workshop
In
advancing the accountability debate, AA-SL is
planning to conduct a 2-days workshop in
Freetown to discuss ways of strengthening NGO
accountability. The workshop is being designed
to bring together all stakeholders in the same
room. Together stakeholders from NGOs operating
in Sierra Leone, the donor community, the Sierra
Leone government, and international experts on
NGO accountability; will examine practical
ways of improving professional standards in the
third sector.
The workshop is aimed at generating commitment
from the NGOs to the values and principles of
accountability. We would come out of the
workshop with solutions and way forward towards
a healthy and responsible third sector.
AA-SL is working to attract funding
possibilities to ensure the workshop comes out
successfully. We are
committed to making sure the workshop outcome
does not become another talking shop?
Conclusion
AA-SL continues to
derive its funding from a group of committed
Sierra Leoneans passionate about the issues of
Accountability, Transparency and Corruption
within the third sector.
As we develop
programs and achieve results, we shall explore
funding possibilities.
The work
we have embarked upon has just started. There
are challenges, but with determination, we can
overcome. Our
work with others will be constructive; one that
facilitates the adoption and practical
application of an NGO Code of Ethics for
all NGOs operational in Sierra Leone to sign up
on, and be seen to be held to account.
Right now,
we are
just thankful that AA-SL is part of the
development efforts in Sierra Leone.
Edie Vandy
Accountability Alert – Sierra Leone
Email:
ediepauljoseph@yahoo.com
Website:
www.aalert.org
Telephone: 919-923-4764
For additional
information, please contact our office at:
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