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122. The destructive effects of state capture in the Western Balkans: EU enlargement undermined
- Author:
- Wouter Zweers
- Publication Date:
- 09-2020
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Clingendael Netherlands Institute of International Relations
- Abstract:
- This Clingendael policy brief analyses the destructive effects of state capture in the Western Balkans and how it undermines the EU enlargement process. Using the case of Serbia, this policy brief shows how state capture mechanisms selectively strengthen the ruling party and its leadership while it weakens the opposition and independent institutions. State capture weakens the effectiveness of EU conditionality and reduces the credibility of the EU enlargement process. Tackling state capture, through strengthening accountability structures and increasing transparency, is identified as a key priority for the EU enlargement process to be successful in the future.
- Topic:
- European Union, Accountability, and Institutions
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Serbia, and Balkans
123. Defending the Right to Health in Guatemala: Reflections of Two Indigenous Women on the Frontlines
- Author:
- Benilda Batzin, Paulina Culum, and Julia Fischer-Mackey
- Publication Date:
- 04-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Accountability Research Center (ARC), American University
- Abstract:
- The Guatemalan Constitution guarantees the right to health for all Guatemalans, but indigenous citizens face multiple barriers in accessing public health services. In addition to the transportation challenges and under-resourced facilities faced by rural communities around the world, indigenous Guatemalans face racial and linguistic discrimination and corrupt officials demanding fees for free public services. Two organizations that formed to combat these problems are the Center for the Study of Equity and Governance in Health Systems (Centro de Estudios para la Equidad y Gobernanza en los Sistemas de Salud, or CEGSS) and the Network of Community Defenders of the Right to Health (Red de Defensores y Defensoras Comunitarios por el Derecho a la Salud, or REDC-Salud). REDC-Salud volunteer health defenders educate citizens about their rights, provide accompaniment to patients, monitor health services, and advocate for health system improvements. The CEGSS team provides technical support and capacity building to REDC-Salud members and coordinates monitoring and advocacy at the municipal, departmental and national levels. In the following interview excerpts, Benilda Batzin of CEGSS and Paulina Culum of REDC-Salud describe how they work together to make government health systems more accountable to all citizens. Benilda and Paulina’s unique approach involves mobilizing established community leaders to engage on health access issues at multiple levels of government and forming alliances with groups including the national Human Rights Ombuds. As Maya Tz’utujil women from Sololá, Western Guatemala, Benilda and Paulina faced multiple barriers to civic participation and leadership. And yet, their commitment to bringing positive change to their communities have led them to initiate and join organizations and acquire new skills. Those skills and leadership qualities have been widely recognized and resulted in formal and informal opportunities to lead: Benilda was elected by her colleagues to become Executive Director of CEGSS and was invited to give testimony at the United Nations General Assembly; Paulina chairs her town’s Community Development Council, has served as the national chairperson for the Tz’utujil Women’s Organization and mentors young female activists. This Note highlights strategies and accomplishments of these leaders and their organizations while reminding us of the work yet to be done by activists and their allies to defend the rights of all Guatemalans.
- Topic:
- Women, Accountability, Indigenous, Public Health, Community Engagement, and Activism
- Political Geography:
- Central America and Guatemala
124. From Peoples' Struggles to Public Policy: The Institutionalization of the Bhilwara Framework of Social Accountability in India
- Author:
- Rakshita Swamy and Aruna Roy
- Publication Date:
- 10-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Accountability Research Center (ARC), American University
- Abstract:
- This Accountability Note describes and explains a set of principles for social accountability that emerged out of the struggles of some of the most marginalized people in India. Although firmly rooted in the experience of local resistance, the Bhilwara Framework of Social Accountability speaks directly to national and global struggles for accountability. The essential elements of the Bhilwara Framework were first framed by Dalit activists fighting discrimination and structural injustice, who reflected on and theorized about the causes of their marginalization. These elements were then accepted, developed further, and disseminated by activists and social movements. This Note discusses the social origins of the Bhilwara Framework and explains how each of the six principles was derived and applied. The principles include: 1. Access to meaningful and usable information; 2. The formal registration of citizen grievances; 3. The need for time-bound inquiry processes; 4. Platforms for citizen participation; 5. Protection of complainants against reprisal; and 6. Public and collective spaces in which citizens can dialogue with their state. This Note also describes how the Framework was refined and expanded, and how it was consequently institutionalized within the state. Unlike most activists’ agendas, the Bhilwara Framework has made the transition from concept to policy. India’s Supreme Audit Institution and Comptroller and Auditor General used the Bhilwara Framework to develop a set of minimum standards for social audits. The Framework has also been used to frame state and national policies on accountability for social justice and security for Dalits, rights holders accessing their entitlements under the right to work, food security, education, etc., urban poor workers, and other marginalized groups. It also informs an ongoing attempt to draft a legal framework for accountability by the Rajasthan State Government, a fitting tribute to where the struggle for these principles began. The Framework has helped define and develop the practice of ‘independent facilitation,’ which refers to the efforts made by the State to provide institutionalized platforms, institutions, and processes for enabling citizens to hold the State to account, that are independent of the latter’s control and interests. Similar breakthroughs have been made in contemporary grievance redress reforms. Recognizing that complainants will face difficulty and perhaps intimidation while registering a grievance at the very office that is the cause of the grievance, the Bihar Public Grievance Redress Law mandates Information and Facilitation Centers to provide single window support centers for information, to register grievances and track their status, an independent officer to hear appeals, and a wide scope in the definition of a complaint. The Framework served as the point of reference for State and civil society jointly building the country’s first web portal for mandatory disclosure of information (the Jan Soochna Portal). It has played an instrumental role in forming the basis of wider conceptions of social audits in tribal autonomous regions, labor welfare schemes and corrective or rehabilitation institutions run by the State. These interconnected efforts have emerged from concerted grassroots struggles and refined by social movements and ordinary citizens and users of India’s various rights-based legislation. These essential struggles deepen social accountability strategies, rooting them firmly in social justice and participatory democracy.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Democracy, Social Justice, Accountability, Institutions, Marginalization, and Community Engagement
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
125. Citizen Participation in Latin America’s Supreme Audit Institutions: Progress or Impasse?
- Author:
- Marcos Mendiburu
- Publication Date:
- 08-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Accountability Research Center (ARC), American University
- Abstract:
- The notion of citizen participation in external audit processes dates back to the end of the 20th century. A few declarations of the General Assembly of the Organization of Latin American and Caribbean Supreme Audit Institutions (OLACEFS) and the work of its Citizen Participation Commission (CPC) have contributed to its conceptualization and recognition, encouraging the work of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) around this theme. This has been reflected in the institutional strategic plans and annual reports of a set of SAIs in the region. Therefore, the current debate now goes beyond whether citizen participation in the audit process is necessary and why. After more than two decades since the first reference to citizen participation in external auditing in a statement from the OLACEFS General Assembly, the question is how much and in which way SAIs’ promotion of citizen participation has made progress, and what are the results to date. That is to say, the question currently centers around the scope and depth of such citizen participation. Based on in-depth interviews and desk-review, as well as submitting requests for information, the analysis shows that the incorporation of the term “citizen participation” as an ingredient for audit process has advanced at a faster rate than its implementation. The implementation of citizen participation varies significantly among SAIs in the region in terms of its scope and depth. In many cases, it is still limited to a bounded exercise—generally a particular type of practice and/or to promoting participation during a specific phase of the audit cycle. Nonetheless, there is no evidence of the existence of a meaningful strategy—with specific objectives, instruments and results indicators—for citizen participation linked to broader organizational and learning processes within SAIs, nor a profound transformation in the exercise of audits. For this reason, after 20 years, it is worth considering whether progress is really being made, or there is an impasse in addressing citizen participation by SAIs in the region. In terms of the scope of citizen participation in oversight in the audit cycle, with exceptions, there is a significant deficit of practices and experiences of participation in SAIs during the phase of executing audits and following up on the findings and recommendations issued by SAIs. Regarding the depth of citizen participation in audits, there is an emphasis on the use of citizen complaints or channels for denunciations [although evaluations of its effectiveness are lacking] as well as dissemination of audit reports, followed by public awareness or training. However, according to the maturity model on citizen participation proposed by the Declaration of the OLACEFS General Assembly of Punta Cana in 2016, the practice of citizen complaints is associated with its most basic level of citizen participation. Furthermore, SAIs tend to promote consultative practices rather than collaborative practices, unlike other innovative spaces for participation, such as the Open Government Partnership. Finally, the number of SAIs that use new information and communication technologies for participation and collaboration with citizens is limited—beyond the use of online complaint systems and social media for communicating SAI work. For this reason, the question arises as to how far SAIs are adapting to the latest innovations and changes in citizen participation. This working paper provides an overview of citizen participation in external auditing in Latin America. After the introduction, Chapter 2 presents a synthesis of the evolution on citizen participation within the OLACEFS, as well as the progress observed in SAIs in the region. Chapter 3 proposes an analytical framework on citizen participation in auditing based on two dimensions: its scope and depth. Chapter 4 examines a set of SAI citizen participation practices in the region according to the four-level classification (basic / low / intermediate and advanced) proposed in the OLACEFS Declaration of Punta Cana. Chapter 5 analyzes a couple of practices and experiences of citizen participation in auditing due to its degree of institutionalization: participatory planning in the annual audit program of Argentina’s General Audit Office and the articulated audit at the General Comptroller Office of Colombia. Chapter 6 delves into the citizen participation policy of the General Comptroller Office of Colombia. Finally, the conclusion highlights some findings and recommendations for the future. As a result of the analysis undertaken, this study recommends that the OLACEFS’ Citizen Participation Commission promote an evaluation of the extent of citizen participation in each SAI according to its proposed levels of maturity, and that each SAI publicly reports on the effectiveness of the practices implemented (including the SAI’s responsiveness) as well as the impact of such citizen participation on external auditing. Brendan Halloran of the International Budget Partnership contributes a preface that frames citizen engagement with Supreme Audit Institutions in the broader context of accountability ecosystems. This study was commissioned by ControlaTuGobierno and ARC as a background study for the International Seminar on Citizen Participation and Oversight, held Sept. 2-4, 2020 with governmental and civil society participants from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia Mexico and Peru. https://fiscalizacion2020.mx/
- Topic:
- Accountability, Transparency, Participation, and Audit
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
126. Picturing Accountability: What We Learned from the Photography of the Rana Plaza Disaster
- Author:
- Ismail Ferdous and Naomi Hossain
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Accountability Research Center (ARC), American University
- Abstract:
- Visual evidence can be a powerful part of strategies for pursuing accountability and social justice, and with the means of recording and viewing images now literally in our hands, we are becoming ever more sophisticated makers and users of visual evidence. This essay examines the role of photography in creating visual evidence in support of struggles for accountability. It draws on one photojournalist’s experience of photographing one of the worst industrial accidents in world history, the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh in 2013, as well as its aftermath in the lives of those affected. Visual evidence frames accountability demands because it can produce powerful emotional and moral responses to social injustice, as was seen in the response to the video of George Floyd’s murder; these responses make it possible to build solidarity across groups and geographies, as the Black Lives Matter movement showed. Yet activists have often struggled with precisely the problem of how to use images of pain and suffering, for fear of further victimizing their subjects or of inuring viewers to such images through their overuse or abuse. These are some of the thorny questions addressed here. Among the key themes of this paper is that it matters not only what the images depict, but why they were produced, and by whom. Images that promote accountability through solidarity are not (just) digital commodities to be circulated to support a particular struggle; they are a form of testimony or witnessing that is rooted in fellowship and humanitarian principles. Yet while visual evidence can help frame and amplify accountability demands, pictures are rarely enough to hold the powerful to account. Bangladeshi garments workers have continued to face violations of their labor rights, despite a series of efforts to improve factory safety by governments, trade unions, and firms since Rana Plaza. Most recently, workers and local firms have struggled to get paid for clothes they have already produced, as international brands have refused to pay up at a time when the COVID19 pandemic has led to economic crisis and falling fashion sales. Images of clothing labels in the rubble of Rana Plaza fingered the brands involved in sourcing garments in the unsafe building, and in so doing may have tarnished their reputations briefly; but they had no lasting impacts on those firms’ legal liability or profitability. Visual evidence plays its main role in framing the demands for accountability, we argue, by identifying and allocating responsibility, making plain the scale or severity of the human costs for failures, and by raising awareness and questions about how systems fail and who pays the price. Pictures allow us to see the human face of the tragedy and to remember the need for change. Pictures also let us see garments workers as they organize and fight for their rights, reminding us that they are not helpless victims, but agents of their own empowerment, despite the (visibly) great odds against them. Based on the analysis here, a collaboration between a photojournalist who photographed Rana Plaza and a researcher who studied the disaster, we propose that accountability research could usefully pay more attention to the visual, artistic and cultural repertoires so often involved in accountability struggles. There is much to learn about how visual repertoires have been deployed. Those who commission photography in the pursuit of social justice could valuably strengthen their relationships with visual activists and photographers, helping them build sustained engagement with frontline actors. Popular music, street art and video all appear to have had powerful framing and norm-shifting impacts in accountability struggles; in part this paper is a call for the transparency, participation, and accountability field to invest in better understanding of how visual evidence works in accountability struggles, and how it might empower those facing powerful opponents. The ethics and politics of visual evidence are shifting fast with the social media age. Among the themes we address here are: how can activists on the frontlines of struggles for accountability navigate this terrain? What principles and practices are important?
- Topic:
- Accountability, Disaster Management, and Photography
- Political Geography:
- Bangladesh and South Asia
127. The Fundamental Conceptual Trinity of Cyberspace
- Author:
- Bruno Pauli Medeiros and Luiz Rogerio Franco Goldoni
- Publication Date:
- 01-2020
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Contexto Internacional
- Institution:
- Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
- Abstract:
- This article is based on the premise that the increasing human interaction in cyberspace elevates it to the level of a strategic domain and, as such, raises theoretical and practical challeng- es for International Relations. It is founded on an epistemological reflection on the fundamental assumptions of the paradigms that permeate International Relations. The main objective is to con- ceptualise cyberspace as the strategic domain in the 21st century, as well as to develop an analytical framework that will both provide evidence and investigate the resilience of the foundations of cur- rent International Relations, these being specifically, the following precepts: i) sovereignty based on territoriality, ii) state monopoly of power, and iii) accountability between international actors. With this in mind, the approach refers to defence documentation and scientific sources in order to reach a definition that will characterise cyberspace, considering its technical, scientific and strategic aspects. At the same time, the bibliographic work underpins the development of the analytical tool known as the Fundamental Conceptual Trinity of Cyberspace, based on the characteristics of the cyberspace domain: i) deterritoriality, ii) multiplicity of actors, and iii) uncertainty.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Accountability, Monopoly, Cyberspace, and Territory
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
128. Implementing the UN Management Reform: Progress and Implications for Peace Operations
- Author:
- Wolfgang Weiszegger
- Publication Date:
- 07-2020
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute (IPI)
- Abstract:
- In September 2017, UN Secretary-General António Guterres proposed a new management paradigm to enable the UN to confront global challenges and remain relevant in a fast-changing world. The new management paradigm would bring decision making closer to the point of delivery, empower managers, increase accountability and transparency, reduce duplicative structures and overlapping mandates, increase support for the field, and reform the planning and budgeting processes. Eighteen months after the management reform came into effect, this paper examines the implementation of the reform and its impact on peace operations from the perspective of both UN headquarters and the field. The paper highlights the current state of the reform, identifies good practices, flags areas for possible improvement or attention, and offers forward-looking recommendations for UN headquarters, mission leaders and managers in the field, global or regional support offices, member states, and staff at large. While the reform is still a work in progress, it has continued to gain momentum, and implementation has become more systematic. Nonetheless, the paper concludes that greater effort must be made to get input from personnel in peace operations to ensure that the reform responds to their needs and constraints. More work is also needed to fully realize the potential of the management reform and ensure that it aligns with parallel reforms underway in the UN peace and security architecture and development system.
- Topic:
- United Nations, Peacekeeping, Reform, and Accountability
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
129. The Accountability System for the Protection of Civilians in UN Peacekeeping
- Author:
- Namie Di Razza
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute (IPI)
- Abstract:
- Over the last two decades, UN peacekeeping operations have striven to protect civilians from physical violence. The protection of civilians (POC) is now based on a clear normative and policy framework, and its practical implementation relies on a number of innovative tools, tailored and multidimensional approaches, and the more proactive posture of peacekeepers. On a number of occasions, however, UN missions have failed to prevent or respond to threats despite being aware of the risk, receiving adequate warning of an attack, or being in the proximity when abuses were committed. Numerous reports and investigations into these incidents have highlighted shortcomings in performance and called for more accountability. Despite institutional ambitions, however, there is still limited accountability for the actors involved in protecting civilians. To help address this challenge, IPI undertook a project to map how existing accountability mechanisms in the UN could be applied to peacekeeping missions with POC mandates. Through a combination of desk research and key informant interviews, IPI developed a set of tools to help guide the UN and its member states in building a robust, multi-actor, multilayer “system of accountability for POC.”
- Topic:
- United Nations, Peacekeeping, Accountability, and Civilians
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Darfur, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Central African Republic, and Global Focus
130. Harnessing Public Accountability in the Public Service for Better Governance in Cameroon
- Author:
- Tazoacha Francis
- Publication Date:
- 11-2020
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Nkafu Policy Institute
- Abstract:
- The failure of governance in Cameroon is a result of the acute lack of public accountability. Public administration is a major preoccupation in all contemporary democracies in the world today, even though there are disparities in the benchmarks, means, and agents of such culpability based on the nature of the polity ranging from traditional to modern, conservative to liberal, capitalist to socialist [1]. Public accountability is the major concern of contemporary democratic governance in every society today. Democratic consensus will remain abstract if those in leadership cannot be held responsible by the community for their deeds and oversights, for their judgments, their policies, and their expectancies. Therefore, there is a dire need in every public office be it government or private to make sure that this exercise is carried out in order to make checks and balances in these services for effective management of resources, proper accountability, and sustainable development.
- Topic:
- Economics, Governance, Accountability, and Public Sector
- Political Geography:
- Cameroon