Description

Winam Integrated Programme Area (IPA) is located in Kisumu Town East Constituency, Kisumu County, Kenya. In 2008, the Citizen Voice and Action (CVA) methodology was one of the tools of development implemented in the area.

The CVA team in Winam initially referred to itself as Kisumu Citizen Voice and Action (KITOCIVA), but faced a lot of challenges with the government agencies on the ground while pursuing their registration. In order to meet registration requirements and become a legal entity, they had to adapt the name of the team to Jiamulie (a Kiswahili word that means ‘’the people making decisions for themselves by themselves”). This group is now a fully registered Community Based Organization (CBO) focusing on local level governance.

Jiamulie aims at reducing citizens’ apathy towards public officials as well as working to improve citizens’ trust in service providers. The process of creating transparency and accountability between local government and communities improve avenues through which the voice of the people can be heard on a continuous and sustained basis.

Jiamulie also pursues an appreciative inquiry approach in its work with communities and public agencies. Over the last two years, the organization has focused on community sensitization, decentralized funds, and social audit of projects in health and education that are supported by Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

In the initial stages of the CVA methodology conducted by Jiamulie in Winam IPA, it was evident that community members were aware of the existence of CDF, but they did not know about the legal framework under which it was administered – this framework included various guidelines to be followed at the constituency level. A large section of community members in Winam thought that the allocation of CDF to the constituents was at the discretion of members of Parliament. Furthermore, the community was aware of the existence of various projects in different parts of the constituency, but it was not very clear the amount of resources were allocated to such projects from the CDF kitty. In reality, compared to other decentralized funds, CDF was widely known and appreciated by the community.

The fact that the community was not aware of CDF guidelines contributed to their minimal participation in the management and monitoring of CDF supported projects. In their effort to ensure effective community participation in governance and monitor service delivery, Jiamulie carried out an intensive exercise of community sensitization in Winam IPA. Those exercises were focused on decentralized funds and the need for citizens to monitor service delivery. This was followed by interface meetings between the CVA teams and CDF committees, in which both partied agreed on action plans for a social audit exercise of CDF projects in Winam. The CDF office in Kisumu Town East Constituency was supportive to the team and provided adequate information regarding CDF allocation in the constituency and which projects had been supported.

Jiamulie’s task was therefore to visit the projects and hold interviews and focus group discussions with various project management committees and project beneficiaries.

The key findings of the social audit of various selected projects included the fact that, while the project management committees were aware of the need and importance of involving the project beneficiaries (community members) at appropriate stages of projects’ implementation, they hardly created avenues or opportunities for the same. Secondly, tendering for project items occurred to be a ‘closed process’ – not open to the public (the procurement process as per the Public Procurement and Disposal Act was never being adhered to). In addition, detailed project budget information was never being shared with the beneficiaries. This led to various cases of misappropriation of project funds. Another issue was that the composition of project committees was never gender balanced. In many projects, the management committee members were all men.

Another finding showed that even if education and health sectors received much of the funding from CDF, the Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) centres were ignored and many of the children below the age of six were learning in poor conditions. Worse still is that the voice of children were lacking in the cycle of managing CDF supported projects. By the second year of their engagement in monitoring service delivery, Jiamulie had put more focus on providing regular feedback to the communities and constituency leadership on the findings of their monitoring work. The goal with this practice is to stimulate dialogue and generate consensus on strategies for improving service delivery. This is done through community forums organized locally bringing together various PMCs, project beneficiaries and the local leadership.

The relationship between Jiamulie and local chiefs and assistant chiefs has been equally encouraging. Recently, the team has been instrumental in rallying their communities to support progressive development and accountability initiatives being led by local chiefs and councillors. Having positioned themselves strategically to monitor public service delivery within Winam IPA, Jiamulie is now reaching out to the wider community in Kisumu Town East Constituency and encouraging the residents to be a part of the governance process.

Additionally, in terms of monitoring, the CVA team has broadened their work to include monitoring of services provided by non-governmental organizations such as World Vision Kenya.

Jiamulie also has a focus on the national budget process. A case in point includes participation in the Municipal Council of Kisumu Town Annual Budget day. In 2010, for example, upon listening and analysing the Municipal Council of Kisumu Town’s budget, Jiamulie observed an improvement in the allocations of the Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF) to community projects but noticed an inadequate allocation to community health facilities. The team further observed that the council did not provide resources to support the ECDE teachers as was expected by communities, since the national government does not cover their salaries. The council therefore left this in the hands of poor communities.
Jiamulie raised these issues to local leadership and government agencies, who were recommitted to follow through with their duties.

For communities in Winam, the CVA approach has been the key in rebuilding the relationship between citizens and local government. Not only has the methodology enabled improvement in public services, but has also mobilized citizens to seek sustainable change.