Social Accountability for Public Services and Village Governance (ID0143)

Brief Description of the Commitment

This commitment will encourage the strengthening of social accountability in village development programs in improving public services at the village level and village governance in the context of village deliberations.

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address? Social accountability is a form of community involvement in pursuing an accountable government in the provision of public services and the fulfillment of community rights. In the context of development programs at the village level that target improving the provision of public services, thus the community as beneficiaries should be directly involved in assessing the usefulness of the program. However, the evaluation of government programs, both in a way of physical development and community empowerment, is still rarely held comprehensively with meaningful involvement from the community. The government at various levels is still focused on working on evaluations that are administrative and technocratic in nature and rarely place the public as decision makers but only as a source of data. The success of the social accountability process in public services is not only measured by the level of community involvement or participation, but also measured through the commitment of the government and service providers in implementing policies and services, including through participatory channels that should be provided. One of the participatory mechanisms is village deliberation as the highest forum in the village, however the village deliberation process is allegedly still dominated by elites so that community involvement is still minimal and its tone is only a form of formality. Therefore, the participatory and democratic forums in villages such as village deliberations and hamlet deliberations can be strengthened by the principles of social accountability.

2. What are the causes of the problem? The bureaucratic process is still stuck on procedural and technocratic aspects and the community is still considered unable to make decisions so that sometimes third parties such as consultants are considered more competent to determine the direction of a program or development. Meanwhile, in the village deliberation process, the dominance of elites and certain groups are still occurs and there is no mechanism or approach that meets the principles of social accountability specifically used in the village deliberation process. In addition, there are still limited capacity of the community and stakeholders in integrating and implementing the principles of social accountability.

Commitment Description

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem? The PDTT Village Ministry has issued social accountability guidelines in villages with various social accountability models or approaches could be applied in villages. Wahana Visi Indonesia has developed a social accountability approach and implemented it in assisted areas, but this process is still running separately from the existing village mechanism. In 2020 – 2022, the Tifa Foundation has also conducted socialization and trials of the Program Review as a form of community-based development evaluation method at the village level. From the trial of the Program Review, several findings were obtained that can be used as notes in an effort to increase transparency and accountability of village governments.

2. What solution are you proposing? Integrating the social accountability principle or approach in the democratic and participatory forum in village, mainly for the planning, budgeting, implementing, until supervising and evalution of the development program in village. These things will be done by implementing social accountability in the several pilot projects area.

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment? The implementation of this commitment is expected to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of village government program management and improve the quality of public services at the village level. Community participation is expected to occur meaningfully in the development process at the village level, where in the end this commitment also seeks to increase the contribution of village deliberations to be more significant in improving public services including basic services and development governance in the village.

Commitment Analysis

1. How will the commitment promote transparency? The implementation of social accountability in public services and governance village could strengthen the relation and collaboration between the village resident and village apparateus. Good relations between the community and stakeholders increase the space for openness between the two.

2. How will the commitment help foster accountability? This commitment promotes meaningful involvement in the village deliberation process and evaluation of development programs at the village level through a social accountability approach. Improving better governance, especially in the village deliberation process, will result in better public services including basic services. The program evaluation carried out through the Program Review prioritizes transparency from the government side and participation from the community side so that the accountability of development program in the village will also be visible and the sustainability could be considered in the future.

3. How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing, and monitoring solutions? This commitment will develop a method for the community to supervise the government's follow-up on the results of the implementation of the Review Program. Furthermore, the integration of social accountability models or approaches in village deliberations will provide space for community involvement, especially vulnerable communities so that input will be collected in the planning and budget process and even involvement in its implementation and monitoring.

Commitment Planning (Milestones | Expected Outputs | Expected Completion Date)

Implementation of social accountability in the village deliberation process | The implementation of social accountability for village deliberations through pilot projects | December 2024

Implementation of the Review Program method to create social accountablity in the government development process at the village level | The implementation of the Program Review method in government development at the village level through pilot projects | December 2024

Action Plan Review

Commitment 9. Social accountability on public services and village governance

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest