Report - Validation of the Governance Programming Framework

Report - Validation of the Governance Programming Framework

Introductory Note:

This report aims to assess three ongoing CARE International – Sri Lanka projects with two specific objectives. First to identify gaps and how programme design could be better planned and improved; and second, to improve impact assessment by laying the basis for common governance indicators and methods of looking at achievements. The projects that will be looked at are LIFT 2 (North and East), PCEP (Plantations), and LEaD (Dry Zone).

The views of CARE–International Sri Lanka (SL) staff form the bulk of this report. The inputs of beneficiaries, power holders and other stakeholders from field visits would also be assessed from a staff viewpoint to complete the GPF validation process.

Contextual brief on three main programs of CARE SL:

Plantation Development Program

Tea, Rubber & Coconuts plantation sector is the largest employer in Sri lanka, employing nearly 20% of the working population .Plantation workers are some of the most vulnerable and marginalized group in Sri lanka, largely because of their reliance on the estates where they live. CARE SL works with plantation communities, management and government to improve living conditions for people living on the estates; jointly define problems and reach solutions and foster greater empowerment and self reliance of estate communities. Current projects in plantations attempts to facilitate a process through which the tea plantation community can improve their capacities to rise above the poverty level and integrate into the larger society in order for them to secure their citizen rights and lead a life of dignity. A key intervention is its continued and concerted effort to bring together duty bearers and rights holders in order to improve social relationships that in turn help reduce structural inequalities, and policy issues. The main project active in plantation sector of CARE SL is the Plantation Community Empowerment Project (PCEP).

Dry Zone Development Program

Nearly two - thirds of Sri Lanka falls into the Dryzone sector, an area with low annual rainfall and pronounced dry season. The Dry zone is predominantly rural, with many household relying on agriculture for their livelihoods. However, the contribution that agriculture makes to households is declining, and unemployment and poverty are on the rise. Mainly CARE SL targets the most vulnerable and marginalized group in Dryzone such as small holder farmers who are dependent on rain fed agriculture, Paddy farmers who are dependent on minor irrigation systems and Farmers who are considered landless and not having any legitimate right to their farm land. A project, Local Efforts for empowerments and development (LEaD) is being presently active in two dry zone districts is intervening to change the top down approach in rural development, improve community participation/ownership for rural development, facilitate community governance structures that represent village level needs, mainstreaming some of the underline causes of poverty – social positions and improving governance at various levels of political and administrative systems.

Conflict Affected Area development Program

CARE has extensive experience in implementing development and relief programs in conflict affected areas of North and the east part of the SL. The program works primarily to address the longer term development needs of people in conflict affected areas. The 03 decade old war was ended in May 2009 but its consequences are yet to be resolved .The conflict’s impacted on the lives of those living in the North and East has been severe in terms of health, personal and food security, the loss of infrastructure , natural resources, ,income generation and livelihoods. CARE SL’s Local Initiatives for Tomorrow (LIFT 2) project is one of the main longer term projects active in the North and East. LIFT 2 is to strengthen stakeholder capacity and commitment to share power and resources equitably , and to protect the fundamental human rights of all citizens .

Section 1: Concepts & Strategy

CARE SL currently does not have a governance strategy and is in the process of developing as part of its current LRSP process, while individual programs will seek to identify its governance strategies as well. Currently CARE SL’s project’s governance work is based on the broad CARE International concepts and principles.

It must be noted that most of CARE SL’s programming has sought to either implicitly or explicitly address governance issues namely at the community level irrespective of the approaches, sectors, locations or thematic areas. Models used include: the Local Initiative for Tomorrow project’s Farmer Filed Schools (conflict affected areas of north-east), the SHAKTHI project’s Participatory Teams (plantations in central province), the Dry Zone Agriculture Development Project’s Farmer Organizations (southern, north-central, western provinces), and the Prevention of Gender Based Violence Project’s Village Action Groups (conflict affected east and north-central). Broadly these community based models were set up to help communities better influence service delivery, enhance accessibility to services and entitlements, promote duty bearers accountability to particular groups, enhance equitable, transparent and fair resource distribution, strengthen voice and agency particularly of those who are traditionally excluded from decision making, develop mechanisms for non-violent resolution of disputes, and establish platforms for strengthening dialogue at the community level. While none of the project’s primary goals or core business was good governance the practices and models used contributed to strengthening community level governance. One exception was the community Network Project that was implemented in partnership with Provincial Government Authorities in the North Western Province.

Description of work

CARE SL current projects are centred on governance at the community and district level. The Local Efforts for Empowerment & Development (LEaD) intends to achieve improved and sustainable levels of human development and livelihood security of selected 170 villages in two districts of Sri Lanka by 2012. CARE SL believes that LEaD will bridge the existing gaps of citizen participation in decision-making, accountability and transparency in pro-poor governance systems and ultimately developing legitimate frameworks for the non-violent resolution of disputes and conflicts. According to the present level of contribution received and interest shown from grassroots level to the district level, the approach appears to be successful and inclusive. Despite numerous institutional and policy challenges, CARE SL has facilitated the process of introducing accountability mechanisms to enhance the community governance in community space known as VOU- Village Operating Unit and RCC- Rural coordinating committee to improve community participation and engagement in Decision making.

The goal of the Local Initiatives for Tomorrow 2 (LIFT) project is to strengthen capacity and commitment to share power and resources equitably, and to protect the fundamental human rights of all citizens. Its purpose is to strengthen community institutions such as CBOs (Community Based Organisations) to effectively advocate for poor and marginalized households, and to undertake activities that address discrimination and rights barriers, reduce conflict, improve livelihoods and local economies, and prepare for emergencies. The project will strengthen the abilities of 190 CBOs in approximately 150 villages to facilitate dialogue within communities to prevent and resolve disputes/conflicts, and promote inter-community relationships that are founded on trust and mutual respect. Building on the experience of LIFT I, the community governance structure used by the LIFT 2 is an adaptation of its Field School approach and called the Local Initiative Group or LIG.

The programme Goal, CARE Sri Lanka Plantations Programme aims to improve the socio economic and political rights of plantation communities, particularly women and children living and working in tea and rubber plantations.

All these projects are aimed at improving community governance to include the excluded people in the development process specially those who are politically, socially and economically marginalized due to various reasons.

CARE Sri Lanka has already recruited an in-country Governance programme advisor for its LEaD. Other projects have also hired governance coordinators for their individual projects.

The GPF

According to CARE International – Sri Lanka staff, CARE works in all three domains of the GPF. Although achievements vary, the domains and sub-domains have been addressed. It was also evident from field visits that the domains and sub-domains had been covered through the work of CARE. It is important to note that CARE’s focus has been more at the community and less at the level of the power holders and has been consistent in all three projects that are covered in this report.

CARE’s work follows a rights-based rather than a needs-based approach and has aimed to strengthen communities by building their capacities and empowering them. In this regard the first domain of the GPF ‘Empowered Citizens’ has been fulfilled. This could be validated as communities’ address their problems collectively, understand the roles of power holders and know how to claim their rights. Whether the communities are able to achieve their desired objectives through these new capacities is questionable, but their awareness, which they stated they did not have in the past, has significantly increased through the work of these projects.

CARE has been working primarily with the communities and local level partners but has had limited engagement with power holders. Following a rights-based approach, it has aimed at filling the knowledge gap in the communities served under these projects so that they can in turn engage the power holders on their own. Primarily due to capacity and other limitations and constraints, CARE has prioritised the use of resources on building community capacities.

In addition to local and provincial level holders CARE also works with private sector power holders such as estate managers in the plantation projects. This is done in popular spaces such as community meetings where power holders have found it beneficial and more efficient in participating at these meetings so that they are better aware of the needs of the communities they are serving. It is also a forum for them to discuss estate development plans and make the communities more inclusive in this process. In playing the role of facilitator, CARE has expanded spaces for negotiation between the power holders and empowered citizens in a way that is mutually beneficial to both parties.

Section 2: Thinking towards impact

Characteristics of good governance

Table I highlights the perspectives of good governance from all three domains. Namely: Citizen groups, CARE staff and public authorities/power holders. As can be seen perspectives of good governance between the three groups are very similar.

Table I

Characteristics of Good Governance
A. Empowered Citizens / B. Public Authorities / C. Expanded Spaces
Accountability / Accountability / Accountability
Transparency / Transparency / Transparency
Trust / Trust / Trust
Collective Action / Collective Action / Collective Action
Impartiality / Impartiality / Impartiality
Equality / Equality / Equality
Empowerment / Empowerment / Empowerment
Rule of Law / Rule of Law / Rule of Law
Access / Access / Access
Inclusion / Inclusion / Inclusion
Representation / Representation / Representation
Social Cohesion / Social Cohesion / Social Cohesion
Inclusive participatory planning / Community interests reflected in development plans/ Planning with people / Public consultation
Enforceability / Responsiveness/efficient and effective service delivery / Citizen forum functioning
Decision making and monitoring / Voice / Network building between communities and power holders
Collective ownership for community development / Leadership / Balance of power
People are happy / Productivity
Equitable distribution of resources / Resource Management
Effective grievance handling mechanisms
Sustainability

Achievements

Through the course of the field visits a number of key achievements were identified by a range of stakeholders including: CARE staff, impact populations (beneficiaries), and other external stakeholders, such as government and estate managers. These achievements are presented against the domains and sub-domains, broken down by project, followed by revisiting the hypothesis for each domain, and then a section on limitations.

PCEP (Plantation Program)

Through PCEP and previous projects, CARE International – Sri Lanka has been successful in having communities being able to voice their concerns and needs at local level forums and shift power dynamics. This has enabled communities to influence decision-making processes in an inclusive manner (where all groups are represented) and given them access to resources at the state level. Their awareness on state structures and services has been built. Most notably communities have engaged collectively to achieve these results.

In terms of validating the GPF, starting with the first domain ‘Empowering Citizens’, CARE field staff felt that community awareness on rights and entitlements has increased and access to information has been gained. Community skills and capacities have also been developed and internal accountability mechanisms have come into place. Communities are also being represented in formal and informal forums, and they have worked collectively to access services from government and other power holders.

In the second domain ‘Accountable and Effectiveness of Public Authorities’, CARE field staff stated that they had raised awareness of regional provincial councils by successfully lobbying authorities and public offices to facilitate community access to estate and national development trust funds (NDTF). CARE staff has also worked with local government officials to sensitize and improve services, and establish successful community-government linkages.

CARE field staff felt that the objectives of the second domain would be achieved more effectively if public authorities engage fully and meaningfully in the CDFs, their roles and responsibilities are clarified and made aware to their constituents, their capacities are built to better understand, plan and monitor, and a collective forum is established for service providers and communities to engage. This will then lead to communities having increased access and better quality services and also greater accountability by public authorities.

In the third domain ‘Expanded Spaces for Negotiation’ CARE field staff stated that they had achieved setting up inclusive and representative Community Development Forums (CDF) and created spaces for dialog between estate workers and the management and amongst the estate worker themselves. They have also provided skills training in resolving disputes, the equitable allocation of resources, identification of priorities, and building relationships between estate management and communities.

CARE staff feel that CDFs will create spaces that will include all stakeholders (women, community, estate management, CBO representatives, government service providers, NGOs and trade union members) for negotiated development. If capacities are built for dialog it will also increase communication and promote non-violent conflict resolution. Similarly charismatic leadership will be fostered and genuine incentives created.