By: Jesper Elias Lauridsen & Drilon Shala – 10 May 2023
In Kosovo municipalities are by the Law on Local Self-Government obliged to inform and engage citizens and interested organizations on plans, projects and activities of public interest. This is meant to foster civic participation and influence. However, public meetings and hearings have proven ineffective towards building people’s power to engage in local democratic processes. While many activities are done to inform and consult communities on their needs, less attention is given to hold local authorities to account when agreed priorities and actions to improve public services and implement developmental projects are not followed through.
The Decentralisation and Municipal Support Project (DEMOS) supports all municipalities of Kosovo to bring systemic changes that promote good governance, and the provision of better services that positively affect the daily life of citizens. The Project has i8n particular become known for providing performance grants to municipalities. The better the municipality’s performance, the higher the grant. By developing positive competition between municipalities, the performance grant has brought positive changes in the behaviour of municipalities towards improving financial and human resources management and strengthening inclusive decision-making processes where ordinary citizens have a voice and opportunity to influence.
For municipalities to be more accountable towards the promises made to citizens, DEMOS, in cooperation with CiviKos Platform, have in the Municipalities of Peja, Kamenica, Lipjan and Rahovec initiated “social audits” meant to monitor the implementation and impact of projects funded through the municipal performance grants.
So, what exactly is a “social audit”? It is an approach towards achieving social accountability, through a process of constructive engagement between communities, civil society, government agencies and private sector. It assesses the performance of municipalities who are responsible for providing services such as access to water and health facilities and for implementing community development projects such as road infrastructure and rehabilitation of public spaces. Social audits are founded in the principles of democratic governance, which means that the process is participatory, inclusive, transparent and solution oriented. When successful, social audits lead to improved planning and management of public resources delivery of public services and projects that benefit people, especially vulnerable groups in society such as women, youth, disabled and ethnic minorities. Social audits should not be confused with classical financial audits. Social audits are however complementary as they can help municipalities and the public to assess the quality of the projects and services to which the finances are allocated.
In the four municipalities social audit teams comprising 16-20 members where carefully set-up to ensure diversity and representation of vulnerable groups. Following the approach developed by DEMOS, these social audit teams, in collaboration with the four municipalities and with facilitation from CiviKos, audited the following projects:
- Peja: Restoration of Karagaq Park – budget 69,879.24 Eur
- Rahovec: Construction of infrastructure for persons with special needs – budget 71,569.00 Eur
- Lipjan: Construction of the Water Reservoir and Rehabilitation of the Water Supply Network in Janjevo – budget 32,930.94 Eur
- Kamenica: Water distribution for the villages of Hogosht and Lisocke – budget 321,184.17 Eur
The social audits typically concluded that that residents are not always consulted during the planning process of the projects. Also, they often lack information about the allocated investments. As concrete examples, the social audit of Karagaq Park in Peja revealed that the metal seats do not offer comfort for people, especially elderly people, to sit and relax. The park does not provide suitable infrastructure such as ramps for wheelchair users and there is no lighting in the park after 11:00 p.m., so people do not feel secure. Vandalism is frequent since there are no guards to protect the public space at night. In Rahovec the social audit team found that there are too few ramps in public spaces and the ramps located in the city center are narrower than the permitted standards for wheelchair users. Also, there was no signposting to signal paths for people with special needs and the buzzers at the traffic lights did either not work or had too low volume for pedestrians. In Lipjan municipality the social audit found that the water supply grid in Janjevo village is outdated and there are uncontrolled leaks in uninhabited houses. This has caused lack of drinking water, especially in the Roma neighbourhood. In Kamenica municipality it was recommended in future to conduct water source quality analyses and share results with communities and to repair the potholes and damages caused by the operator that constructed the water reservoir in Hogosht village.
The social audit teams diligently documented their findings and presented them with proposed recommendations to Mayors and engaged in constructive dialogue to collectively address the gaps.
While this was the culmination of the social audits, the entire process demands certain steps and actions to be meaningful and effective:
Planning:
- Define the scope of the social audit
- Ensure buy-in from Municipality leadership
- Consulting, creating awareness and mobilising civil society and communities
- Set-up social audit teams using clear criteria for broad community representation
- Hold preparation meeting with technical staff from municipal executive
Data Gathering & Analysis:
- Preparing questions and indicators for measuring performance and quality
- Agree on dates and persons involved in social audit
- Collect and document information and data
- Analyse information and data and make recommendations
Public disclosure and evidence-based dialogue
- Develop a communication strategy to clearly convey well documented findings
- Pre-discuss findings and recommendations with Municipal Executive to avoid potential misunderstandings or inaccurate analysis
- Present findings to public and openly dialogue with municipality to clarify, rectify and propose solutions based on given recommendations
Follow-up:
- Follow-up meetings to track the progress towards implementing the agreed upon actions and ensuring that the efforts and results of the social audit inform durable solutions and sustainable changes
The experiences from the four municipalities show that social audits come with opportunities but also challenges. It is an effective approach towards raising public awareness and strengthening community voices to confidently engage with local authorities and hold them to account. At the same time, it provides a platform for the elected leadership to explain why and how developmental projects do not always go to plan. The joint efforts to find solutions to identify gaps enhance the mutual trust between civil society and municipalities. Social audits however initially require considerable technical support in terms of collecting and analysing data. Also, it can take time to build relationships and for municipal staff and elected leadership to willingly provide access to public records and engage in open dialogue which, if not done conflict sensitively, can inflame emotions and potential harm.
The social audits were, as illustrated in this video, received positively. So far half of the thirty-eight municipalities in Kosovo now show interest to replicate the social audit process. Equally, the Ministry of Local Government and Public Administration has decided to financially contribute to the scaling up of social audits in more localities across the country.