ENCISS policy dialogue forum promotes chiefdom councils engagement in governance

14 February 2012

Key partners in decentralized governance have today converged at the British Council Tower Hill, Freetown to explore practical ways of engaging citizens in local budget formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The policy dialogue forum, organised by ENCISS, was attended by more than one hundred and fifty people including his lordship the Acting Mayor of the Freetown City Council, councillors, traditional leaders, government officials, directors of local authorities, city treasurers, planners, academics, resource persons from civic organizations and representatives from the private sector.

The transfer of power from the central government to the local authorities is rapidly gaining attention from governments, civil society, and international development agencies as an innovative platform for strengthening citizens’ voice in participatory budget planning and delivery of public goods and services. The focus will be on the potential of participatory budgeting in realizing good governance and deepening local democracy.

Lessons learnt from more than twenty countries including many in Africa have shown that participatory budgeting is not only an effective mechanism to improve targeting of public resources to the poor, but also a new agenda in decentralization and social accountability.

The former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been quoted as saying “Better governance means greater participation coupled with accountability,” His Road Map for implementing the UN Millennium Declaration singles out citizen involvement as one of the main strategies. Improving the delivery of services at local level is deemed essential for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Speaking at the event, Catherine Chatham said “this forum is aimed at breathing life into decentralisation and to promote accountable public administration at local levels”.

His Lordship the Acting Mayor of Freetown said “this is possibly the single most pertinent gathering for local government practitioners to share experiences on participatory governance and to closely examine the potential of participatory budgeting in fostering social accountability in local public administration”

Citizens have often been being ignored or deliberately excluded by local leaders in decision making processes. This policy dialogue forum aims to mobilise knowledge and garner reflections and experiences on ways of engaging citizens in governance at all levels.

Strengthening citizen engagement in governance within Sierra Leone is a key theme in ENCISS, a programme that is jointly funded by UKaid from the UK Government’s Department for International Development and the European Union (EU) and managed by Christian Aid.