Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in ... - SASANet

critical role in promoting social accountability by informing local citizens about their legal rights
regarding the market relocation, as well as their political rights to voice their objections (Finding WSP 5).
WSP-UV AS A MODEL FOR SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY:
TURNING AN NGI INTO AN NGO
Clearly one of WSP-UV’s greatest strengths is the leadership of its coordinator. On the other hand, one of
the greatest risks to the organization is that it may not be able to survive without her. Moreover, the WSP-
UV’s success cannot be replicated without similarly qualified leaders. This problem has appeared even
within the coordinator’s own aimag at the soum level, where WSP-UV is run by volunteers who are
considered lacking “enough motivation to deal with everyday needs… [and] experience in either training
or capacity building” to serve their communities (WSP-UV 2002). The difficulties in replicating the
successes of the WSP-UV are clearly tied to the fact that WSP-UV is one of Mongolia’s many
nongovernmental individuals (Finding WSP 6).
Nevertheless, the coordinator strives for the institutionalization of WSP-UV. Whereas other NGIs operate
with one paid staff member, the WSP-UV has expended resources to build a staff, which the coordinator
mentors and involves in all of the organization’s activities. Moreover, the WSP-UV’s mission is to build
the capacity of other CSOs. For instance, WSP-UV encouraged Business Women’s Association’s
involvement in the campaign against the market relocation, which bolstered its reputation and overall
capacity.
Even if at the moment WSP-UV may be classified as an NGI, it is clearly embedded in and responsive to
the local community. As such, WSP-UV represents an important departure from other NGO branches that
maintain a dependent relationship with the national NGO (Finding WSP 7). One of WSP-UV’s long-term
strategies is to transform itself into an autonomous NGO that could serve as a model for grassroots
activism across the country, thereby thwarting the current model of UB-based NGOs that dictate the
agendas of their financially dependent branches.
Whereas the WSP-UV has undoubtedly been strengthened by its relationship with the WSP-UB, a key
feature of this relationship has been the fact that the national director has encouraged WSP-UV to
autonomously develop its own priorities and agenda. The benefits of such decentralized relationships
should be considered by other NGOs seeking to build networks and by the Mongolian government,
seeking to improve the opportunities for social accountability.
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: WSP-UV
Finding WSP 1. The capacity of the Women for Social Progress-Uvorkhangai to encourage citizen
participation in local government and monitor its actions is attributable in part to both its challenge and
collaboration with local and national public officials.
Recommendation: Given the typically adversarial relationship between CSOs and public officials, both
stakeholders should pursue collaborative relationships in various formal and informal forums while
maintaining clear boundaries between political and civil society.
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