Engage for Change

Year 1

Introduction:

Stepping Stones International (SSI) which is the lead partner in the programme and the Southern African Parliamentary Support Trust (SAPST) are collaborating in an activity that seeks to promote good governance in Botswana through strengthening CSOs’ capacity to engage duty bearers and promoting openness in public institutions. SAPST’s role is to provide capacity building to   civil society organisations (CSOs) to enhance their capacity to  engage Parliament and policy makers.

The main objective of this component is to enhance of the capacity of CSOs to actively participate in parliamentary and other processes as well as to upscale the understanding of decision makers to create a conducive environment to work with CSOs.

In this regard, CSOs will participate more in interventions on the law and policy making process; the representational role and the oversight roles of Parliament. The programme ultimately seeks to enhance the functions of Members of Parliament (MPs) and other stakeholders that include CSOs and the public in parliamentary processes to promote good governance in Botswana.

Proposed Activities:

1.    Baselining

To gauge CSOs’ level of appreciation of advocacy concepts, SAPST will conduct a baseline survey of the CSOs that will benefit from the project. The baselining process will entail the following:

·     Crafting of baselining tools – February 2024

·     Intake meetings with CSOs

·     Administering of tools via online platforms – February, March 2024

·     Analysing responses – March 2024.

·     Political Economy Analysis (PEA) of public institutions

In addition to identifying capacity gaps and establishing the appropriate advocacy initiatives to be employed, the baselining exercise will be useful in informing content and pitch of trainings. The exercise will also assist in measuring the effectiveness of the capacity building workshops on conclusion of the workshops and the project.

The project will also commission a Political Economy Analysis  (PEA) of public institutions. The PEA will establish institutions’ levels of openness and any challenges that may hinder CSOs’ engagement of the institutions, as well as strategies to overcome the challenges. Results of the PEA will also be used by CSOs to strategise for effective engagement of public institutions.

2.    Capacity Building Workshops for CSOs

The project seeks to enhance a common appreciation and understanding of the roles and responsibilities of parliamentary and Executive institutions in the governance process. This way CSOs’ capacity to engage at the appropriate phases of parliamentary processes, and to do so effectively will be enhanced. The project will make use of the Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM) approach to train CSOs to demand accountability from duty bearers. The social accountability system is an emerging approach that advances the rights of citizens’ vis-à-vis the obligations of the State regarding the management of public resources. It is based on the principles of a social contract between the state and citizens. Hence, the approach em- phasizes direct engagement between the state and citizens in policy decision-making through a broad range of actions and mechanisms that promote dialogue on how public resources are collected and utilized by the state. In Southern Africa, the concept has been adapted and promoted by the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM), a research-based organization affiliated to the Rhodes University in South Africa. SAPST enjoys a memorandun of understanding with PSAM. Full adoption of the approach will greatly strengthen parliamentary oversight of public financial management.

Themes to be covered will include the following:

1)   Parliament and public institutions

·     Parliament and the Constitution, selected relevant statutes and standing orders

·     Role of Parliament and public institutions

·     Opportunies for engagement

·     Parliamentary motions and questions

·     The committee system

2)   Engagement of public institutions

·     Petition process / engagement of public institutions supporting democracy

·     Public input to the legislative process, policymaking and evaluation/accountability

·     Holding Parliament and public institutions to account

3)   Social Accountability System

·     Strategic Planning and Resource Allocation

·     Expenditure Management

·     Performance Management

·     Public Integrity Management

·     Oversight

4)   CSOs advocacy approaches.

·     Training on forms of advocacy

·     Stakeholder mapping on both national and district level

·     The role of media in advocacy initiatives

·     Addressing resistance.

The project will make use of a hybrid approach (physical and online) to deliver training to CSOs. Capacity building will commence in May 2024. This will be conducted through a 5 day physical training, which will be followed by online trainings as and when necessary.

Post workshop, the project will continue to mentor CSOs and provide guidance as they implement their various sectoral based advocacy initiatives. Continuous mentorship will be conducted virtually in both years 1 and 2.

1.    Capacity Building for Public Institutions / duty bearers

The project will also conduct a training workshop for representatives of public institutions on the importance of openness and how best they can engage citizens to ensure that they (public institutions) effectively address the needs of the citizens. This training is key as it will open up public institutions for public engagement, which will allow the CSOs trained under the project to effectively engage public institutions. The workshop will also focus on the five processes of social accountability - strategic planning and resource allocation, expenditure management, performance management , public integrity management and oversight.

The capacity building workshop will be conducted in-country but continuous support will be rendered to the institutions online where it is required. Capacity building workshop will be conducted in June/July and will cater for approximately 75 people from various government institutions, in 3 * 1 day sessions, each catering for 30 to 35 people.  A workshop will also be conducted specifically for public institutions in the Ghanzi area. The following are some of the topics that will be covered during the training:

·     The importance of citizen engagement in the work of public institutions

·     Strategies to promote citizen engagement

·     Case studies on citizen engagement

·     Social Accountability

Year 2:

The key objective of Year 2 initiatives is to support CSOs in Ghanzi with the design of various advocacy campaigns for indigenous CSOs/communities. The project will conduct a physical workshop where the CSOs will present drafts of their advocacy campaigns to trainers for perfection. The trainers will highlight areas that the CSOs will need to perfect to ensure that the advocacy campaigns are successful. The intended output is that 4 CSOs are capacitated on the development of advocacy and visibility campaigns and the intended outcome is that CSOs conduct successful advocacy initiatives on the various issues they work on.

In total, the project will take 78days – 40 in year 1 and 38 in year 2. 2 SAPST staff will travel to Botswana for 10 days in year 1 and 10 days in year 2.

The project will target public institutions in the Ghanzi district to ensure that they are receptive of the CSOs’ initiatives. To assess the capacity needs of the public institutions, the project will conduct interviews with 10 representatives of public institutions - parliamentarians, district leaders and political parties.