Our Governance & Accountability (G&A) programme changes how citizens in African countries participate in decision-making that affects them.
We achieve this by deploying our interactive radio method involving decision-makers, shaped by audience input (via SMS, instant messaging and social media), to create meaningful spaces for public dialogue. Connecting citizens, authorities, civil society and others in vibrant public discussion, Africa’s Voices fosters crucial citizen-authority encounters where issues are addressed, action is identified, and those in power are held to account.
We then turn this citizen voice into timely and compelling evidence at scale. We tell citizen evidence-based stories and support decision-makers through collaborative insight generation and ideas for action.
In Somalia, we have consolidated our efforts to enhance the country’s social accountability landscape under a flagship initiative, the Common Social Accountability Platform (CSAP). Launched in 2018, CSAP’s objective is to enhance the inclusion of citizens in decision-making across peace-building, humanitarian and development programmes.
The Common Social Accountability Platform approach is a kind of ‘think outside the box.’ The forums brought together displacement affected communities, local authorities and humanitarian partners. I believe if such dialogue continued, it will help the decision-makers to think long term solutions for IDPs living in a city like Baidoa.
