Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in ... - SASANet

are reluctant to assume full responsibility for running the shelters and for building others for which there
is a clear demand.
ADVOCACY FOR THE PROVISION OF A PUBLIC SERVICE
After learning that the government had allocated funding to the Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor to
implement the National Program on Promotion of Status of Women, the NCAV launched a campaign in
2000 to obtain government funding for their UB shelter. Senior NCAV officials invited the minister to the
shelter where he was shown photographs of battered women and briefed on the legal and practical side of
DV. Meanwhile, within the ministry, a NCAV board member advocated official support for shelters
based on provisions in the national program. At the same time, the NCAV emphasized the need for the
GoM to provide services to DV victims at events such as the roundtable discussions on DV organized
with health and social workers in 2000–01. NCAV collaboration with public officials and its
encouragement to the GoM to assume its role indicates that the GoM-CSO relationship is not necessarily
adversarial nor it is competitive (Finding NCAV 4).
In December 2001, the NCAV signed its first contract with the MSWL for one year of funding worth Tog
2.9 million for the “operation of shelter, legal and psychological counseling and limited health care” for
victims of DV. Although the contract was renewed in 2002, only half of the funds were transferred
despite persistent efforts by the NCAV. This contributed to a six-month delay in the extension of the
contract in 2004. Having learned its lesson, the Center requested that the contract extension for 2005
provide for the transfer of funds in a single installment; the ministry agreed. Although the MSWL
contract provides Tog 3 million, approximately 60 percent of the total expenses of running the shelter, the
NCAV had hoped for Tog 5 million, the sum necessary to cover all of the shelters’ costs as the ultimate
goal is to transfer these facilities to the GoM.
The NCAV has also had problems with the Han-Uul administration in its attempts to create a new shelter
specifically for DV victims who are children. Although the District Governor officially agreed to provide
accommodations for the new shelter, he reneged on this promise in April 2005. The NCAV contacted the
head of the city’s property department, who preferred to lease the space rather than provide it for free to
abused children.
In a desperate effort to find funding for the shelters and other DV services, NCAV is analyzing the local
government finance laws; exploring various government funds, such as the Crime Prevention Fund,
administered by the MSWL; and using participatory budgeting and budget monitoring techniques,
especially at the local level. 58
An obvious precondition to the transfer of shelters to government management is that the GoM must
shoulder the full cost of the shelter. According to its director, NCAV’s top priority is to force reluctant
officials to accept their legal responsibility to provide shelter to victims of DV, and to manage the NCAV
shelters as required under the new DV Law. She noted, however, that when she and her CSO colleagues
have confronted officials with their legal responsibility, they put the document aside and indicate that they
will study it later. This illustrates the important role CSOs play not only in advocating for but also
insuring implementation of legal reforms.
58 One of the aimag chapter coordinators participated in the Social Accountability Regional Seminar in Bangkok in
March, 2005, and is now assigned to lead the local government-sponsored network of aimag shelters.
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