KICK Kick Corruption Out of Kigezi
Civil society organisations at different levels can implement a variety of programmes in line with advocacy, service delivery and mobilisation strategies. However, KICK analysed its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and conclusively decided to implement three programmes which are most suited to achieving tangible and visible results. Below is an extract from our operational plan.
You can view or download an extended summary or our full Operational Plan (This is a very large pdf file and may take several minutes to download)
In the strategic plan the overall goal of KICK is stated as: “Facilitating the empowerment of communities in order to make them act independently, participating in society processes and advocate for their own interests”.
Then, based on the conclusions of the performed analyses, three programs were set up in order to achieve the goals mentioned in the first chapter:
1.Research. 2.Public information. 3.Poverty monitoring.
In the first year (2007/2007), the main focus was to set up a framework. This framework served as a basis for the programs where activities were built upon. Examples of elements of a framework put in place are: setting up procedures and guidelines, designing (reporting) templates, involving implementers in the district, building relationships with partners, gathering data.
Another focus wwas on capacity building. In order to implement the designed programs, skills and knowledge need to be built. This was deemed applicable at Secretariat level as well as district-implementation level. The building of capacity was directly linked to the needed skills and knowledge.
Following the “Think big, start small, scale fast” approach, first year programme implementation took place in one pilot sub-county in each district. This has enabled us to build skills and experience and test our approaches before gradually scaling up and implementing the programs in all the sub-counties in the KICK districts.
The planned programmes and progress of their implemented are as follows:
In line with the KICK strategic plan as supported by the Royal Netherlands Embassy as the major partner as well as ACCU and OXFAM as supplementary contributors, the following broad aspects were covered in one year implementation that ranges between July 2007 andJuly 2008:
a.Community sensitization using local FM radios as well as music, dance and drama. b.Conducting anti-corruption focused activities in the anti-corruption week of December 2007 in which mulpractices in the health sector were specially targeted. c.Conducting a baseline survey to establish the starting point of KICK interventions of the planned anti-corruption activities d.Dissemination of the baseline survey findings to a broad spectrum of the anti-corruption agenda stakeholders from the Kigezi region at a Kabale municipality venue and to the Donor fraternity at a Kampala venue. e.Conducting a detailed Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) in an unprecedented detailed manner that covered 4 districts finance and agriculture departments and tracked budget disbursements of the 2006/7 financial year covering 33 sub-counties f.Planning, piloting and evaluation of the primary schools anti-corruption project. It involved four schools, one in each district of our area of operation. g.Planning of the gender-specific Women Desk anti-corruption strategy focused on operationalisation of the KICK constitutional provision. This coincided with the national strategy of enhancing and accelerating attainment of Millennium Development Goal No. 3. h.The long planned visit by representatives of the Northern Uganda Anti-corruption Coalition (NUACC) to KICK took place giving both parties exciting experiences. i.Initiating the protracted process of training members of the local communities to have the capacity to effectively participate in the government planning and budgeting process at community level as well as having the capacity to monitor transmission and utilization of resources sent in form of service delivery budgets that are dispatched annually for rural development and poverty eradication. Two training courses were held and a total of 64 community monitors were equipped with knowledge and skills to monitor public resources at sub-county level.
We are ready to fast up-scale all the planned and tested aspects of our strategic objectives with a view to registering significant results, outputs and impact in our quest to kick corruption out of Kigezi.
Although the entire implementation process proceeded smoothly, we wish to highlight some specific successes.
We are convinced that our finance management systems and implementation structures utilized available planned and budgeted resources efficiently and resulted into value for money outputs / outcomes / impact. We also think that the flexibility and openness of the Embassy had a significant impact in our work: it allowed KICK to adjust budget and programmes accordingly to the learning experiences and feedbacks from the field, therefore making the best use of the resources granted
Support by the Royal Netherlands Embassy to KICK swift and reliable transport made a very big difference in coverage of the project area as witnessed in the activities details
Being pioneers in an intensive anti-corruption agenda at regional and communities level, we would not have been surprised to face significant résistance from local government officials at all levels especially when it came to scrutiny of their service delivery expenditure records. We are generally satisfied with the cooperation given to us by most districts, departmental and sub-county officials, some of whom went to the extent of photocopying the required financial transactions data and delivering them to our office. ose invited to our workshops attended and the Resident District Commissioners invited to officiate at our functions responded enthusiastically. For example, the two training courses for community monitors, held in Kabale and Rukungiri, were both closed by the RDCs, whom committed themselves to open cooperate with the groups of monitors
We are extremely impressed by the way communities respond to our anti-corruption empowerment advances on radio, drama, schools programme, women mobilization and taking up poverty monitoring responsibilities. Even at this early stage of only 1 year implementation, we are convinced that the Kigezi communities are ready for taking up a significant anti-corruption empowerment agenda.
Even at this early stage where implementation took place at piloting level, impact realised at that level is a clear indicator of the potential for KICK to significantly reduce corruption in service delivery all over the region.
a.We have samples of health centres where communities and patients can testify improvement in services as a result of KICK activity. For example a KICK monitoring team which visited Kafunjo health centre in Buhara sub-county and found service delivery ridiculously poor made a radio complaint which got the staff annoyed and coiled in self defense first. On inquiry, they understood the civil society mandate and our follow up evaluation indicated a drastic improvement not only at Kafunjo Health centre but in all health centres of Buhara sub-county who feared a similar attacks from our monitors. b.We have a record of local government which have convened meetings and responded swiftly to corruption issues raised by KICK on radio, drama or dialogues. For example the Kabale District Internal Security Officer has assigned one of his staff to capture KICK-instigated radio complaints on service delivery to report to relevant government officials for appropriate remedial action as an alternative to calling back in self defense. c.We have reports from primary schools where discipline, efficiency and ethics have improved as a result of implementing the KICK plan of cultivating a culture of anti-corruption values in primary school children. For example in Kaharo Primary School our Kabale district pilot for the primary schools anti-corruption programme, we have reports of the significant impact on teachers discipline which has curbed late coming and indecent approaches to school girls which is a result of the KICK –instigated suggestion box and integrity committee at the school. Headteachers from neighbouring schools are already asking for KICK to reach them soon. d.We have samples of feeder roads which have been well done or re-done as a result of KICK “noise”. For example we are aware that the Kashambya – Bucundura feeder road culverts which had been omitted and the road which had been made too narrow were all rectified as a result of KICK formal complaint on the road presented to the Inspector General of Government regional office in Kabale. We are even aware that the rroad to Kiyebe in Ikumba which was made during the same period by the same contractor at the same time 0of KICK pressure was very well done to avoid KICK disturbance. e.We have examples of water supply points which are better managed as a result of community empowerment piloting done by KICK. For example KICK monitoring of water in Buyanja sub-county of Rukungiri resulted in the overthrow of an inefficient water management committee and installation of a preferred one. Water services at that source have been efficient since and no more complaints have been recorded. f.We have many examples of local government units which have become more cautious in financial transactions and others which have been cautioned by their superiors as a result of KICK activities. For example as a result of our PETS findings, the Nyakishenyi sub NAADS accounts were re-audeted and other sub-counties were warned by the Resident District Commissioner of Rukungiri to wait for KICK and comply with the data requirements. Subsequent KICK visits to the remaining sub-counties found no more significant problems of record keeping.
These indicative signals show the potential of KICK up-scaled implementation of its strategic plan.
The surveys, piloting and dialogues so far undertaken have yielded a sequence of findings that can be verified with empirical data. They are:
a.Budget disbursements made at national level actually reach destination expenditure units (ref findings of our Public Expenditure Tracking Survey) b.Funded rural development projects in PAF priority sectors (agriculture, public health, primary education, feeder roads and water/sanitation) reached destination communities and are evident on the ground (ref findings of the KICK baseline survey)
It is concluded that real and intensive corruption is concentrated in the short final stage of service provision – procurement, allocation and implementation / distribution processes. We therefore recommend that all anti-corruption stakeholders – international, national, regional and local – focus their attention on this short but critical aspect of service delivery which is sometimes reserved at Ministry or district levels and often ends as finished product at community level.
Resources permitting, KICK plans to move forward by finalizing the planned pilot activities and upscale them using a mode that incorporates experiences gathered in the first year of project implementation. It involves:
a.The research programme - Carrying out a value for money survey to establish the magnitude and aspects of corruption in the procurement, allocation and implementation/distribution in service delivery at community level. This survey will aid the anti-corruption fraternity to aim at correct and significant targets. c.The public information programme - Using an integrated approach that includes civic education, civil society organizations strengthening, media partnership and advocacy in the implementation process. d.The poverty monitoring programme - Fulfilling the ultimate KICK strategy of empowering community representatives to effectively get involved in the government planning process, the budget cycle and the anti-corruption public resource monitoring system.
There was almost no challenge in the whole half until the last month when a mega-challenge showed up – KICK had all along assumed that the implementation process was going on so well and accountability so acceptable (as officially acknowledged by RNE) that funding continuity by RNE was almost guaranteed. We were wrong and had to make last minute adjustments in activities and budgets. Follow up and responses seem to indicate positivity and recovery sooner than later.
The Chief Administrative Officer of Kisoro district does not seem to be as sensitised about civil society mandates as the rest of his workmates we encountered. He refers to some of the public information which is supposed to be displayed on notice boards a “sensitive’ and to the civil society monitoring process as “unauthorized” and “not auditors”. There is still need for senior and junior local government officials to be adequately sensitised on the provisions of the Access to Information Act and other statutory provisions that provide for community participation in monitoring service delivery.
We would like to diversify KICK partnerships through converting planned and piloted programme aspects (media, women, drama, primary schools, gospel, community empowerment and membership strengthening) into project proposals for marketing in appropriate organizations and institutions.
We have decided to drop the idea of using a universal monitoring tool and opted to adopt a KICK-specific monitoring tool developed participatory with our up-coming monitoring teams. This has been necessitated by the fact that the universal monitoring tool developed by high level technical teams is too general and difficult to localize for our purposes.