156 WIDENING PARTICIPATIONand decision-makers all have a role inmaximising the opportunities to ensurecitizens really have a chance to influencethe decisions that will affect their lives.Why is people’s participation so critical?Poverty is a multidimensionalphenomenon that goes far beyondincome. It prevents individuals fromrealising their full potential and havingthe ability to influence the decisionsthat affect their lives. If the post-2015framework is to eradicate extreme poverty,its architects and implementors mustlisten to the individuals and communitiesdirectly affected by those deprivationsand look for solutions that will solve theproblems they face every day.According to Participate, a participatoryresearch initiative that heard the prioritiesof the poorest and most marginalisedgroups in over 100 countries, peoplewant to be able to present the issues thatmatter to them and contribute to theirown development. They want institutionsthat respond to the needs and interests ofthose living in poverty; institutions that areaccountable, responsive and effective.For development to be sustainable,participation should be built into the heartof development processes. The inclusionof the most marginalised can help toidentify priority issues and is instrumentalin addressing inequalities and powerdynamics, ultimately contributing to thedevelopment of more effective policies andprogrammes.Informed and aware individuals are keyto holding governments to account andwill be essential in monitoring progressof the new SDGs. Access, participation,transparency and accountability are keyvalues of good governance and shouldbe embedded in the post-2015 agenda,from the design of the frameworkand throughout the implementation,monitoring and evaluation stages.Key barriers to meaningful participationOrdinary people face a number of barriersto influencing the ongoing post-2015negotiations. Firstly, the process canbe extremely complex to understand,with confusing stages of internationalnegotiations. Secondly, the negotiationsare happening within the UN system,which is difficult to access and canfeel quite exclusive, making it hard forpeople to engage with it. This makesthe participation of many civil societyorganisations more difficult – particularlythose from the global South, who havelimited funding, do not speak mainstreamUN languages and have less access toinformation.It is encouraging that some of themeetings within the post-2015 processcan be watched online and that somedocuments are shared in advance. The UNshould continue to increase transparencyand to disseminate as much informationas possible. But this information does notmean much if it is not timely and availablein different languages, and if there is noassociated funding for people to attendrelevant meetings.According to a recent report by Civicus:World Alliance for Citizen Participation,civil society organisations are dissatisfiedwith the ways in which internationalgovernance institutions, including the UN,engage with them. Consultations withcivil society are considered to be largelysuperficial. Civicus claims that there isdissatisfaction with a ‘double democraticdeficit’: national-level democracy that isdominated by elites, and an internationalgovernance system that is accessible toa select few, with few opportunities toaddress citizens’ concerns.Among Civicus’s recommendations formore open and transparent institutionsis the suggestion to look for radical newforms of representation and accountability,including citizens’ panels and assemblies.Resources should be earmarked for enablingbroader participation and accreditationprocedures should be simplified.Citizens need to be able to accessdiverse channels for engagement, andthose different mechanisms should reachthe widest possible number of voices,particularly those of the poorest andmost marginalised. Initiatives that seek tohear the priorities of people need to lookbeyond the usual suspects and adopt moredecentralised outreach at the local, nationaland regional levels.Including more voicesExciting digital, social networking andmobile technologies have emerged in thepast few decades, and the developmentcommunity has taken advantage of theseto find new ways to facilitate citizenengagement. These technologies havealso enabled citizens to collect live dataand share their concerns with millions ofpeople, holding governments to accountand using public pressure to demand betterdevelopment outcomes.In Brazil, a 13-year-old student createda Facebook page to denounce problems inher school and mobilise her community toimprove the school’s infrastructure. Her‘Classroom Diary’ page has more than600,000 likes, raising questions about thepublic education system across in Brazil,and has helped her secure a meeting withthe Education Ministry. Her approach wasfollowed by thousands of students who arenow using social media to demand theirright to education.Other initiatives, such as MakingAll Voices Count, support innovationand help harness new technologiesto encourage citizen engagement andgovernment accountability. Last yearits Global Innovation Competitionanalysed over 200 creative ideas toincrease democratic governance andaccountability worldwide.The shortlisted projects includeda mobile app to monitor attendanceby teachers and students at schools inPakistan, with the aim of motivatingcitizens to collect, analyse and disseminateservice delivery data to drive performanceand help effective decision-making.The initiative will now be extendedinto other policy areas, including healthand agriculture.In the post-2015 arena, one of theinnovative ways in which people can havea say about their priorities is through theUN’s My World survey, one of the largestglobal surveys ever carried out and whichhas already reached over two million votesfrom all over the globe. The survey isGLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS 2014
WIDENING PARTICIPATION157© Reutersavailable online and on mobile phones,but traditional methods have not beenforgotten and the highest number of voteshas come from written forms.While technology can be anextraordinary tool to gather real-timedata, disseminate information and enableoutreach to new audiences, it is also truethat it may not be available to the mostmarginalised.It is essential, therefore, that innovativeideas are coupled with more traditionaloutreach methods that target the hardestto reach, avoiding the unintendedconsequence of empowering certaincitizens while further marginalising others.Enabling participationCivil society is a key vehicle throughwhich citizens can get organisedand advocate for their views. It canplay an important intermediary rolebetween negotiations that happenat intergovernmental level and theindividuals who will be most affectedby the decisions taken by their officialrepresentatives. Civil society organisations(CSOs) thus have the responsibility toensure that the voices of the poorestand most vulnerable, who they seek torepresent, can be heard.Hazara students gather at Ummat Public School inQuetta, Pakistan. An innovative mobile app to monitorschool attendance in Pakistan, to engage citizens inperformance improvement, will now be deployed inhealth and agricultureMany civil society organisations havebeen engaging with the process to definea new post-2015 framework, trying toinfluence decision-makers and UN officialsinvolved in the conversations. However,often it is the larger, better-resourcedorganisations that can attend internationalmeetings and speak at relevant events.Organisations have different motivationsand capacity to engage, but they shouldall take responsibility to democratise theprocess and use their knowledge andexpertise to bridge the gap between theUN corridors and people living in poverty.CSOs can help increase the transparencyof the process by providing and translatinginformation, equipping citizens tohold governments to account for theirinternational decisions.According to Civicus, if CSOs fail toenact this connection to real citizens andtheir priorities, their legitimacy may bequestioned. They may also be seen toreinforce an exclusive process, in whichthey act as gatekeepers, underminingthe chances for people to genuinelyengage with the negotiations. CSOsshould therefore strive to ensure theirparticipation and inclusion values areapplied to their actions as well.Beyond 2015, a global civil societycampaign pushing for an ambitious post-2015 framework, is working to bringthe voices of organisations, from smallcommunity-based to international NGOsin over 100 countries, to the negotiatingtable at the UN. The campaign is alsoestablishing national hubs in severalcountries, improving coordination andfacilitating engagement so organisationscan put pressure on and hold to accounttheir governments at the national level.Bond represents Beyond 2015 inthe UK, hosting a platform for UKorganisations interested in influencing thisprocess. We disseminate information, worktogether on collective priorities and createopportunities for CSOs to engage with keydecision-makers.Working with partners internationally,Bond will be part of a new campaign toengage citizens and raise awareness ofthis key process to define the future ofdevelopment post-2015: action/2015.This will be an exciting opportunity fororganisations and citizens across the globeto put further pressure on governments asto the path they will define for our peopleand planet. The post-2015 process offers agreat opportunity for ordinary people tohave a say on the world they want tosee in the next 15 years. The challengein any intergovernmental negotiation,which involves myriad different interests,is to find genuine spaces to promotegreater democratic engagement andpeople participation.Organisations such as Bond and Beyond2015 are trying to do just that by creatingplatforms through which CSOs caninfluence the post-2015 agenda and raisingawareness of current debates with citizens,academics, CSOs and decision-makers.We hope the UN will also continueto favour a consultative approach andprovide timely information and resourcesto enable people to play an active rolein this crucial process: delivering anambitious set of SDGs.GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS 2014
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