On Participation As Control Over Resources, And Downward Accountability

On Participation As Control Over Resources, And Downward Accountability

Rick Davies, 10^th August 2000

In 1991 IIED sent a questionnaire out to more than 1,000 rural development organisations in 50 countries. The main conclusion of their research was that "local community participation in problems assessment and analysis is fairly common...[but] substantially less so for the monitoring and evaluation phases" and more notably, "there is very limited complete financial control given to the local community in all four phases of the work" (Guijt, 1991).

In many projects with social development objectives the costs of field staff can be a significant proportion of the total cost of all inputs into local communities. In Cameroon and Somaliland, where I have been working this year, field staff costs were around 60% of the total value of all aid resources that made it to the village level.

In these circumstances there is more than one way in which the control over development resources can be devolved to the "village" level. One is through grants and loans to locally representative bodies. This is not so unusual. The other is to devolve control over the use of the field workers time. As far as I know, this is not so common. This is surprising in that it may be less problematic than devolving control over money. The amount of field worker's time is finite, and relatively easy to identify (x working days per month and year). Unlike cash, it most less fungible, it is more difficult to mis-use it on non-project related concerns. Mis-use requires the field worker's consent and co-operation. Also, the use of a field worker's time may be more publicly visible than the expenditure of money.

In Cameroon and Somaliland it has been proposed that devolving control over field workers time could take place in two stages:

1.First stage: Macro-planning. The field worker makes a strategic decision about how their time should be allocated per client group over the next six or 12 months. This can be done by firstly working out the total number of working days available, then subtracting days that will be needed for what can be called "administrative overheads". This being defined as time spent on activities that cannot be clearly seen as benefiting specific client groups (e.g. most staff meetings). The remaining time is then allocFirst stage: Macro-planning. The field worker makes a strategic decision about how their time should be allocated per client group over the next six or 12 months. This can be done by firstly working out the total number of working days available, then subtracting days that will be needed for what can be called "administrative overheads". This being defined as time spent on activities that cannot be clearly seen as benefiting specific client groups (e.g. most staff meetings). The remaining time is then allocFirst stage: Macro-planning. The field worker makes a strategic decision about how their time should be allocated per client group over the next six or 12 months. This can be done by firstly working out the total number of working days available, then subtracting da

2.Second step: Micro-planning. When the broad allocation of resources (field workers time) has been agreed upon, then negotiations can start with between the field worker and individual client groups. Agreements can be developed about how his/her time will be used in detail, starting with broad categories of need then working down into finer detail. Such a plan should not make use of all the available time since there would need to be some slack for unpredictable delays and unforeseen needs. Needs would be meSecond step: Micro-planning. When the broad allocation of resources (field workers time) has been agreed upon, then negotiations can start with between the field worker and individual client groups. Agreements can

There are a number of potential advantages to this approach.

The jointly agreed work plans would help make the field worker more accountable to the local communities s/he is working with
Requirements of accountability to the employing agency could be met by monitoring the fate of these agreements. At the very least they would provide a record of the nature of the "technical assistance" inputs into the communities concerned. These are often more difficult to identify than material and financial inputs.
Positive experiences of such agreements may help set up more demanding expectations of what communities can expect of other service providing agencies, especially government bodies.
Accounting for staff time through the macro and micro planning of its use could help make the overhead costs of management processes much more visible, and possibly increase pressure for controlling these costs.

References

Guijt, I. (1991) Perspectives on Participation: Views From Africa, An Inventory of Rural Development Institutions and Their Uses of Participatory Methods. London. IIED.

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