By Kemo Cham
An innovative project designed to improve on service delivery and accountability in governance in Sierra Leone officially came to an end on Tuesday, March 31, amidst praises for its impact.
The Strengthening Accountability Building Inclusion (SABI), a four-year British-funded project, sought to bridge a perennial gap between public service providers and users, creating awareness among citizens to enable them demand for services they are entitled to.
The project funded through the UK-Aid, was implemented by a consortium of local and international Non-Governmental Organizations led by the international charity, Christian Aid. It also included the local health NGO FOCUS 1000, which operated at national level and the youth-led development agency, Restless Development, which represented it at the community level, where it worked alongside about four other civil society organizations which provided guidance for community people and facilitated dialogue sessions with duty bearers.
Other organizations that were part of the consortium included Rehabilitation and Development Agency (RADA), SEND Sierra Leone, Social Development Direct, and Sierra Leone Social Aid Volunteers, all of which operated at community level.
SABI focused on three thematic areas: Health, Education and Social Protection. Through community engagement, the organizations gathered data which was used to influence development.
Saiku M. Bah, SABI Team Lead at Christian Aid, said among the effects of the project was that it put to an end a deep-rooted tradition of dependence on government and non-governmental organizations for development.
Mr Bah said that as a result of the initiative, the last four years witnessed a shift from the culture of dependence to one that has seen communities mobilize resources locally and built schools, hospitals and engage in other development initiatives for themselves.
“One good thing about the project is that it instilled a sense of urgency to do things for yourself. It trashed the sense of entitlement or reliance on others to do things for you,” he stated at a special press briefing marking the conclusion of the project at the Charms Hotel in Aberdeen, Freetown.
SABI was launched at the end of the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic, when Sierra Leone was struggling to recover from the devastating effect of the West Africa wide epidemic that claimed nearly 11, 000 lives.
Besides supporting the government’s development plan, including a multi-donor funded presidential priority delivery plan, the project’s main goal was improvement in the delivery of basic services, build relationships between citizens and the state, and promotion of gender equality and social inclusion.
Testimonies
SABI employed a number of inventive methods to engage community people and local authorities, including field and joint monitoring visits to communities which had issues with service delivery.
Through its Citizens Perception Survey (CPS), it gauged progress in service delivery. Through the survey, data was collected nationwide and fed into policy making.
The CPS report was presented to the nation at a National Service Summit (NSS) every year.
Over nine joint monitoring visits were conducted in the course of the last two years when FOCUS 1000 joined the consortium. The issues addressed during this period ranged from lack of access to safe drinking water, unavailability of essential drugs in health facilities, to prolonged delay in approval of schools and teachers for government support.
On Tuesday representatives of some of the implementing agencies gave testimonies of stories that exemplify the success of the project.
Mary Kpukumu, programme officer for Send Sierra Leone, narrated the experience of a community in Aberdeen where the people went through tough times dealing with poor health service delivery. The available health facility was decrepit with no reliable services. She said they had waited hopelessly, until SABI got involved.
After consultations, the community people eventually reached out to the District Medical Officer (DMO) who personally paid them a visit and, due to what he saw of the situation, ensured a new health facility was constructed.
There was also the story about the delayed approval of a community school in Pujehun. The community people, after repeatedly complaining about it, gave up.
When SABI was informed, through dialogue with the Deputy Director [district head] of the Education ministry, it turned out that the school had long been approved. The director never informed them. The community people where already paying huge money sending their kids to far flung communities to attend school.
According to Kpukumu, all those scenarios illustrated how lack of communication contributes to lack of development.
“The chain of communication is what makes things work. They (SABI) give you information and you (community) give feedback,” she said.
Kpukumu said while SABI didn’t provide cash for the people, it taught them how to use available resources to solve their local problems.
“Before SABI, people accused each other of failure to deliver, but they failed to play their own part,” she said of the attitude of community people.
Kpukumu also shared a lesson about the impact of the project on the working relations between NGOs and government agencies.
Working with MDAs, she said, hasn’t been easy, but over the years relationships have improved.
Existing structures
SABI worked with existing structures, like local elected representatives such as councilors, as well as ward committees and traditional leaders.
This, noted Mr Bah of Christian Aid, was important in that after SABI would have faded out, its legacy wouldn’t fail because the new structures it would have introduced would have died.
Gender equality and social inclusion were central to SABI. This way vulnerable and excluded groups were provided the skills and support they needed to become active agents of change in their communities.
Consequently, Ward Committees now involve persons with disability.
Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, Chief Executive Officer of FOCUS 1000, said before now people didn’t care about inclusion of disable people or women, but for SABI, they made it a condition for funding.
Mr Jalloh said SABI set a foundation that, if built upon, could change the narrative of how people approach development, noting that it instilled a culture that provided a room for every member of society to participate in community development, regardless of their social, gender or physical status.
Mr Bah added that because the people were not involved in development initiative, some communities didn’t see projects implemented on their behalf as theirs, which many a time led to failure.
The SABI project was initially supposed to end at the end December 2019, but it was extended for three months.
Its implementers said that was because they needed time to ensure a smooth transition and conclude some unfinished components of the project.
Elizabeth Mousa, SABI project manager at FOCUS 1000, led a lot of the joint monitoring visits which were facilitated by the health NGO. She recalled a chaotic situation around the school approval system, especially in the wake of the introduction of the Bio-administration’s Free Quality Education. She said because of a model developed by SABI, the ministry now had a school approval guideline which is under consideration for adoption.
As a result of SABI intervention, some communities have taken action to get their women attend Antenatal Clinic. Sometimes due to lack of communication or due to geographical limitations, woman have struggled to access healthcare service. Many women, as a result, opted to abandon health facilities. This has contributed largely to the high maternal and infant mortality rate in the country.
Another notable success story of SABI is the tone of data it generated within the period of its existence. The credibility associated with those data is also worth mentioning. Mousa said before now government agencies were reluctant to use data generated by NGOs. But this has changed with SABi, she said.
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
