Citizen voice and state accountability: Towards ... - Capacity4Dev

92.3 Understanding context: what it means in practiceUnderstanding context is one of the core building blocks of CV&A projects, hence Figure 1 beginningwith o to lead to identification of opportunities, constraints andentry points for CV&A. This means any useful ToC needs to be informed by an understanding of howcontext shapes interactions between state and citizens. The focus of attention will then be onestablishing what kinds of interlocution processes work in each context, by which organisations orindividuals. However, the Mwananchi programme shows that understandings of context often fall shortof the actual dynamics that emerge when projects are in operation.The Mwananchi programme adopted the World Governance Assessment (WGA) methodology 20 as a toolfor establishing a broad understanding of national rules of the game. This was selected because ithelps to analyse the way rules or norms (in the case of CV&A thinking, between citizens and stateactors) are handled in each arena of interaction (Hyden et al., 2008), so as to understand outcomesemerging from investments in enhancing citizen voice (in the form of state responsiveness andaccountability in the provision of public goods). The other tool that helps to capture the rules of thegame an-corruptionAssessment (SGACA) 21 (Unsworth and CRU, 2007).However, it was realised that, given the complexity, dynamic nature and specificity of arenas of citizenstate actions that CV&A interventions target, there was a need for access to specific negotiations inorder to be able to examine the strategies and tactics used when interlocution processes are actuallyhappening. Systematic exploration of these specific interactions, some of which may prove criticalevents 22 or tipping points for change, could then provide more robust evidence on how V&A occurs indifferent contexts than could be accessed through the widely conducted processes in WGA and SCAGA.This would help in developing ToCs that are based on drilling down to the particular incentives andinterests of the actors involved, and how they shape citizen state negotiations and outcomes around anumber of public goods being provided. Tools such as WGA and SCAGA help to show broad evidence ofclientelism 23 and rent-seeking behaviour among state actors and citizens and how they affect the kindsof voice and accountabilities that might work or not work. However, to see how this actually happens inpractice (including accessing a wide range of strategies and tactics being used by citizens and thestate), practical projects with real narratives in play have to be observed and analysed.In other words, there is a need to look at narratives that come into play regarding CV&A within thecontext of everyday governance 24 or the rules in use as experienced by real people and a concretestate in a given context (Blundo and Le Meur, 2008), and then to draw out ToCs from these realities.The case study in Box 1 shows some of the early project narratives found in Mwananchi Leh Wi Tokproject in Sierra Leone.20See Annex 1 on how WGA works in practice.21In addition to establishing the formal and informal rules of the game, SCAGA analyses power and change aroundnment controls territory and the roots of social and economic factors that shape the politicalsystem, of longpressuresto which they are responding) (Unsworth and CRU, 2007).22what the government is doing. They often reflect serious limitations in government capability to get things done, manifestingas a shortfall in basic public goods, for example, where there is no clear demonstration to get things to change in the nearfuture (Long, 2001). These situations, if well analysed, could be important opportunities for CV&A change. Some of these smallbut deep changes could also result in change in some of the foundational governance factors that SCAGA highlights.23ients orfollowers. These bonds are founded on mutual material advantage: the patron furnishes excludable resources (money, jobs)to dependants and accomplices in return for their support and cooperation (votes, attendance at rallies). Patrons havedisproportionate power and thus enjoy wide latitude with regard to how to distribute the assets under their control.24The idea of going beyond the prevailing literature-driven notions of governance and neo-patrimonialism, citizenempowerment and participation, to empirically based everyday practices and meanings. In this process, the normativeelements of what things are and might be are laid bare, giving lived reality a chance to throw up evidence that might bedifferent from what is uncritically taken for granted as practice.