Conference Agenda

Problem Statement and Purpose

Social accountability aims to enhance the delivery of services through participatory processes. According to Claasen, Alpín-Lardiés and Ayer (2010:2), “The active participation and engagement of citizens and civil society groups in policy-making and implementation can greatly improve accountability and overall good governance”. This article focuses on social accountability in the South African context because of its increasing relevance to local governance and the country's challenges in service delivery. The South African local sphere of the government has been characterised by a plethora of challenges that limit service delivery, including an unsupportive institutional environment, negative power struggles, over-regulation, political interference, a tense and bureaucratic environment, lack of coherent management systems, absence of a culture of excellence, poor skill utilisation, poor oversight mechanisms, and a weak capacity to engage in collaborations. These problems are exemplified by growing service delivery challenges in many South African Municipalities (Shayamano, 2019). Carmago and Jacobs (2013:6), state that,

“Social accountability initiatives are increasingly expected to facilitate positive development outcomes such as more responsive local government, exposing government failure and corruption, empowering marginalised groups, and ensuring that national and local governments respond to the concerns of the poor”.

This study seeks to understand the effectiveness of social accountability using the lenses of Einstein’s Ladder of Participation. When writing this paper, no study had focused on social accountability in local rural municipalities using Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation.

Methodology

This study used a qualitative research approach and case study design, data was collected using secondary sources This study employs a documentary analysis methodology to explore the concept of social accountability using Arnstein's Ladder of Citizen Participation as a theoretical framework. Data for this study consist of documents, reports, publications, and records related to social accountability initiatives within the chosen context. These documents include government policies, municpal reports reports, project evaluations, meeting minutes, and community feedback mechanisms. To ensure the comprehensiveness of the documentary analysis, a systematic approach was adopted. Initial document collection involve comprehensive searches of relevant databases, institutional repositories, government websites, and academic literature databases. Documents were selected based on their relevance to social accountability efforts and their potential to provide insights into the implementation of Arnstein's ladder in practice. To ensure the trustworthiness of the finding documents aere derived from reliable sources.

Findings

The study revealed that the municipality uses several social accountability mechanisms, including ward committees, imbizo and participatory budgeting. In its current form, ward committees within NLM can be said to achieve procedural participation as they do not impact any outcomes. In addition, the study argues that Imbizo, as a social accountability tool, lacks authenticity. Imbizo only allows for partial participation since not everyone is allowed to participate. Citizens within the NLM lack the necessary support and resources to engage meaningfully in the participatory budgeting process and their participation has been rendered as a symbolic gesture as they do not influence any decisions.

Proposals

This study recommends strengthening its relationship with the communities, including civil society. The municipality must develop systems that allow genuine community participation in ways beyond the tokenism level. The municipality must stop imposing decisions on the communities, such as the service level standards, to the indigents without consent or knowledge of those affected as it borders on manipulation and therapy. It is recommended that participation during imbizo, ward committee, and participatory budgeting should move towards partnership level, delegation, and citizen control, which represent the presence of public participation in effective social accountability.

References

Camargo, C.B. 2016. Social accountability: A practitioner’s handbook. Franziska Stahl.

Masiya, T., Davids, Y.D. & Mangai, M.S. 2019. Assessing service delivery: public perception of municipal service delivery in South Africa. Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management. 14(2):20-40.

Ngqushwa Local Municpality. 2022. Annual Report 2021/22. Retrieved from: https://ngqushwamun.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/MPAC-Oversight-Programmes-on-2020-21-on-Annual-Report.pdf.

Shava, E and Mubangizi. B.C. 2019. Social Accountability Mechanisms in a Decentralised State: Exploring Implementation Challenges. African Journal of Governance and Development, 8 (2) PP 73- 93.

Problem Statement and Purpose

This article explores: with the development of Science and technology, various alternative service delivery methods have emerged, how to make full use of and bring into play the provision of alternative services to deal with the current situation of local government in the midst of“Trust deficit”, the continuous growth of corruption and the increasing poverty of the people, and on this basis to promote social development, for local government governance and the establishment of Public Trust is essential,

Methodology

Based on the analysis of local government governance and public trust building by domestic and foreign scholars, this paper attempts to answer the following questions: how to strengthen municipal governance by using alternative services to improve the transparency of government administration; And to promote the establishment of municipal governance and public trust on the basis of an expanded system of public disclosure complemented by a corresponding system of accountability, and ultimately to achieve effective governance by local governments,

Findings

Existing research: not enough attention has been paid to the role of various alternative services in the effective governance of local governments, which is accompanied by the development of science and technology, to break down the obstacles in government governance, to enhance the transparency of government information, and to establish the corresponding accountability system, and to promote the interaction between the people and the government with the help of new platforms and technologies, to express their views, to coordinate their actions, and finally,

Proposals

The results point to the establishment of local government governance and Public Trust: as New Technologies Drive the redistribution and decentralization of power, corruption continues to grow and people become increasingly poor, the role of the government in policy-making will face more pressure to change the way the public communicates and makes decisions, overcoming obstacles to local government governance through alternative services

References

https://xueshu.baidu.com/usercenter/paper/show?paperid=f001740d35f389ce753763f766b5e9c0