From: Joseph Mansilla Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2015 4:38 PM Cc: Leanne Michelle Bayer; Saki Kumagai; Sean Bradley; Keith W. McLean; Sanjay Agarwal; Jeff Thindwa; Xin Tong; Armine Grigoryan; Susan Wong; Bernard Harborne; Kyung Min In; Syed Abdul Salam; Colum Garrity Subject: Social Accountability and DFGG Newsletter—Issue Number 16, June 25, 2015 1 Issue Number 16 Thursday, June 25, 2015 This newsletter is circulated to the SA&DFGG and ODTA CoP mailing lists (external) BLOGS & ARTICLES Building International Standards for Parliamentary Ethics It is critical to the strength of parliament that indivi members make efforts to meet citizen expectations ethical behavior and conduct. To help fill the gap developing international norms and standards for this and to start a global conversation about it, members of Open Government Partnership’s Legislative Open Working Group have drafted Common Ethical Principle Members of Parliament. The draft principles were develo in conjunction with members of the OpeningParliament civil society community and the broader parliamen community and is now open for public comment (closes 24). More here. Building Trust in the Government One Text at a Time Albanian citizens who recently received treatment at a state-run hospital are likely to receive a text message that r something like this: “Hi, I am Bledi Cuci, Minister of State responsible for anti-corruption. Our records indicate that recently received care in a state hospital. Could you kindly tell me if you were asked to pay a bribe? Reply is free. Thank for your time.” The SMS campaign, supported by the World Bank and implemented by the Ministry of State for Local Is and Anti-Corruption, has reached more than 33,500 citizens in a country of three million. About 20 percent h responded, reporting many service delivery problems. More here. Feedback Loops: Cultivating Relationships for Better Outcomes “Ongoing efforts suggest that [stronger relationship] metrics – i.e., indicators of the quality of relationships – may predict economic outcomes, at least in some circumstances, and perhaps better than the demographic data that is o captured in client intake processes,” writes Katherina M. Rosqueta, founding executive director of the Center for 2 Impact Philanthropy. With this information, LIFT, “a nati organization that works to lift people out of poverty,” is working to improve their services to maximize the quality of relationships in their clients’ lives. More here. How Ukrainian Activists Are Fighting Corruption in Cour YouTube A group of Ukrainian activists got tired of waiting for government to fight corruption in the court system and decide take matters into their own hands. Their main weapons? YouT live streams, and legal expertise.“Open Court” is a grassr project launched by Stanislav Batryn and Oleksandr K cofounders of the “Open Ukraine” human rights NGO, to com corruption and lack of transparency in Ukrainian courts. Toge with a group volunteers, they intend to attend court hearings in Kyiv, capture the proceedings on camera, stream them online when possible, and upload the archived videos to YouTube. More here. Social Accountability: The ‘New Normal’ in Achieving Development Mario Marcel, Senior Director for the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice, reflects on the GPSA Global Part Forum. He cites the example of social accountability in Tajikistan, where “a GPSA project works to ensure water delivered when and where it is supposed to, thanks to a citizen-based advisory body that has helped build transpar through better registration of service complaints. As a result service fee collection has risen from 70% to 85% allowin further service improvements and investments by the water provider.” More here. What’s Proactive Governance? Proactive Governance is a process where government proactively seeks feedback directly from citizens about the quali its services and makes it mandatory for service providers to use smartphones and creates dashboards for citizens to real-time information on service delivery. The model was first introduced in 2011 in Punjab, the most populous provinc Pakistan. More here. Why Technology Hasn’t Delivered More Democracy The first fifteen years of this century have been a time of astonishing advances in communications and informa technology. These all imply a profound empowerment of individuals through exponentially greater access to informa tremendous ease of communication and data-sharing. Yet despite these changes, democracy — a political system base the idea of the empowerment of individuals — has in these same years become stagnant in the world. The numbe democracies today is basically no greater than it was at the start of the century. More here. RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS Adapting to Higher Energy Costs: Public Perspectives and Responses to Rising Energy Costs in Europe and Central Asia Over the past five years, the World Bank has provided guidance to more than 14 countries in the Europe and Central Asia re on implementing energy subsidy reforms. This publication complements a large body of research on the poverty impac these reforms. Specifically, it gives voice to poor and middle-income citizens, and presents their perspectives and concerns regard to rising tariffs and reforms in the energy sector overall. Download the report here and its companion piece “[t]ow gender-informed energy subsidy reforms” here. Confronting the Crisis of Global Governance The Commission on Global Security, Justice & Governance recently published a report that seeks to launch a conce effort to promote, among others, “global governance innovations.” Among the report’s key points: “A coherent se 3 global governance reforms to better promote just security requires innovating and streamlining global institutions engaging critical regional organizations, local authorities, the business community, and civil society across generat more effectively.” More here. Social Compact in Electricity Privatization in Southeastern Turkey About 70 percent of electricity users in Southeastern Turkey are not used to paying for electricity, partially due to protracted situation of conflict and lack of trust between citizens and the government in the region. The social com pilot implemented in two provinces in this region, Mardin and Sanliurfa, set up stakeholder committees representing u and rural communities to forge and sustain a dialogue between the consumers and the electricity company on incre electricity payment and improved service quality. This is the beginning of a process to build dialogue and conse between the citizens and the electricity company towards improved cost recovery and service. More here. STAY IN TOUCH Social Accountability & Demand for Good Governance (SA&DFGG) Community of Practice (CoP) combines peers, tho leaders, and subject matter experts to share ideas and experiences on Social Accountability (SA), Demand for G Governance (DFGG), and Citizen Engagement (CE). This CoP is co-managed by the Global Social Development Unit of Global Practice (GP) for Social, Urban, Rural, and Resilience (GSURR) and the Collaborative Governance Unit of Governance GP (GGP). The team would like to thank Fabian Soria, Kyung Min In, and Zeynep Darendeliler for their contributions to this edit of the newsletter. Note: The CoP team will be on summer break! The next issue of the newsletter will be sent in September. On behalf of Lea Bayer and Saki Kumagai, we thank you for your continued support. –Joseph Mansilla USEFUL ONLINE RESOURCES • SA&DFGG Website and Resource Database (internal to the World Bank) • Social Accountability E-Guide • SA&DFGG Website • World Bank Governance Global Practice Website 4