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

esponsiveness. The Sierra Leoneanpeople (in Box 1) is a powerful symbol of deep listening and respect for the people. Similarly, in thecase of Choice Ghana, once the youths demonstrated respect in accordance with local norms andculture, they were treated with respect by the chief and the elders. In essence, citizens undertake theirresponsibilities before claiming their rights.Therefore, voice as expressed and heard within the socio-culturalwho they are (with respect to age, gender, authority, etc.) and where they belong (implying a sense ofassociation and obligations) (Chabal, 2009). These socio-cultural characteristics of voice are notlocked away when people are acting in the capacity of public office. They are very much alivesomewhere, despite increasing levels of education (see Mattes and Mughogho, 2009), which blurs thedistinctions between personal/private/ , peo Thisforms a significant part of what success or failure might mean in an interlocution process.The key question to explore is, to what extent and under what circumstances does fulfilment of socialpractices associated with citizenship and public office deliver the results citizens expect? 25 Thepathways of change in this case are about expanding spaces and opportunities for citizen voices tothose of the marginalised). It is alsoabout opportunities for citizens to sanction public office holders who fail to perform in ways that aresuitable to the context in question.It is important also to note that projects such as the Parliament and the People project in Box 1 suggestshifts in symbols and words that constitute voice. For example, a girl talks while standing up andspeaking directly to elders, even though it is usual for girls of her age to speak through parents if theywant to get their concerns heard in public meetings. This means that, when it comes to communityprojects, different groups of people are finding or even creating new opportunities for voice all the time.This happens in ways and using dynamics that cannot be forced by the CV&A project (if they are to workwell). These transformations often do not come undergiven to particular categories of people (e.g. youths or women) in the literature. These categorisationsoften result into generalisations of behaviour across different spatial and social contexts usingrepresentations that are markedly different from how those who actually live in the situation thinkabout their environment. The categorisations also overlook the context-specific dynamics that reinforcemarginality over time. 26The emergence of these spaces and actors in a CV&A project in ways that are integrated with thechanging culture and power relations between citizens and their immediate institutions, and then stateactors at various levels, is important for articulating and supporting citizen voices. It is in thesearenas of power and livelihoods that citizens find room for manoeuvre, through small or large nudgesor tensions in their own culture and traditions. In the process, ordinary citizens also find the requiredpolitical leverage to articulate and push for change when engaging with state actors. This constitutesthe pathway of change for CV&A projects.Citizens often strategically navigate their pathways towards sustaining or improving their livelihoods bybuilding alliances with the like-minded or those from the same age group or sex. This is also a way ofsharing the risks of engagement involved in speaking up to those in power. Citizens are at the sametime strategically or tactically engaging with various external actors, who may come to them in thename of supporting the poor. This, too, is an important negotiation and bargaining process, often25It is important to explore these questions analytically in a CV&A project because public office holders and citizens canmanipulate citizenship and social norms to their own ends (e.g. promote rent-seeking behaviour and patronage) that havenothing to do with development, especially inclusive development.26Marginality can be seen as the other side of the coin to citizenship (where citizenship is discussed as a sociological termrather than as a nationality with a passport). In this case, some individuals could be experiencing (and feeling) marginalitye representative to represent needs in parliament and losing outfind other routes to public resources, they can become the citizens they would like to be again and exercise their voices.13