Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in ... - SASANet

Although the Environmental Impact Assessment Law exists, environmental NGOs stress that there is lack
of both capacity and consistency in enforcing that law. Citizens therefore have few opportunities to give
their views on natural resources projects prior to government approval. The Ongi River Movement case
study (Annex 3) provides an illustration of mining operations that were begun without prior EIAs.
3.4.2 Findings and Recommendations Relating to Negotiation
As with the enabling elements of Voice and Information, formal mechanisms for Negotiation with public
officials have dramatically increased since the transition to democracy in the early 1990s. Nevertheless,
citizens and CSOs alike seek informal opportunities to negotiate with officials. However, informal setting
such as this one results in highly ad hoc basis for negotiation that favors CSOs with extensive social
capital (networks) and greater proximity to officials (UB-based). Although some of the obstacles to
negotiation may be mitigated through GoM, CSO, and donor actions, as outlined in the following
recommendations, the most critical challenge to Negotiation (as well as Voice and Information) is the
lack of understanding about the CSO role in promoting civic engagement/social accountability among
officials and the general public.
Finding 3.4.1. While the Community Scorecard, as part of the World Bank-supported Sustainable
Livelihoods Project, allows beneficiaries to assess the quality and effectiveness of SLP subprojects, it
could be enhanced to provide more opportunities for Voice, Information, and Negotiation.
Recommendation: Incorporate best practices from the portfolio of Bank-supported operations using
CSCs into the Sustainable Livelihoods Project so that citizens can monitor the quality of services and
negotiate the necessary changes to improve the program. This effort may be supported, for example,
through “South-South” learning and in-country capacity-building activities. The SLP should create
partnerships with CSOs and develop their capacity to use community score cards effectively.
Finding 3.4.2. Mongolia’s intergovernmental arrangements, particularly the PSMFL, limit local
government accountability to local constituents and constrain citizen participation in local governance.
Recommendations:
1) In consultation with CSOs, public officials should address the lack of downward accountability.
They should consider legal and regulatory reform and the creation of forums or other
mechanisms, as well as the need for leadership from senior public officials to change the current
political culture of upward accountability.
2) The Ministry of Finance and Economics, in particular, should collaborate with CSOs to enhance
citizen engagement in the budget process. There should be greater budget disclosure to local
citizens, more forums for civic involvement in setting local development and budget priorities,
tracking expenditures, and in evaluating performance. There must also be mechanisms for
transparency and direct accountability; governors, khurals, and citizens should also be responsible
for the local components of line ministry budgets (for example, schools and hospitals).
3) Since local governors wield substantial power but lack downward accountability, the GoM,
CSOs, and donors should evaluate the adverse economic and governance consequences of this
structure of authority, and develop programs to increase awareness of the important role that
citizens and CSOs play in improving local governance, and how local governments can facilitate
such a role. Such a program, which could benefit from international best practices, may inform
future proposals for improvement of political and fiscal decentralization in Mongolia.
Finding 3.4.3. There are no formal mechanisms through which CSOs can become involved in the
legislative process or policy formulation.
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