FACT_FY18_Q4_Annual_Report_-_approved.pdf

Fostering Accountability and

Transparency (FACT) in Zambia

A female community-based natural resource management board (CBNRMB) chairperson facilitating a forestry management scorecard process in a community in Petauke

FY18 Annual Report & FY18 Quarter 4 Report

October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018

Submission Date: October 31, 2018 Resubmitted December 14, 2018

Agreement Number:

AID-611-14-L-00001

Submitted to:

Edward DeMarco, USAID Zambia AOR

Submitted by:

Chilufya Kasutu

Chief of Party

Counterpart International, Zambia

Email: ckasutu@counterpart.og

This document was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development, Zambia

(USAID/Zambia). It was prepared by Counterpart International.

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ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

AHTWG Adolescent Health Working Group ANC Ante-Natal Clinic AOR- Agreement Officer’s Representative ART- Anti-Retroviral Treatment CAG- Community Action Group CBN National Child Budget Network CBRNMB Community Based Natural Resources and Management Board CEFTA Citizens Engagement in Fostering Transparency and Accountability CHAI Clinton Health Initiative CHW Community Health Worker COMACO Community Markets for Conservation COP Country Operational Plan (PEPFAR) CRB Community Resource Boards CSPR Civil Society for Poverty Reduction CSO Civil Society Organization DAC District Advocacy Committee DDCC District Development Coordinating Committee DEBS District Education Board Secretary DESO District Education Standards Officer EITI Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative DHMT District Health Management Team DHO District Health Office DMMU Disaster Mitigation and Management Unit ESSP Education and Skills Sector Plan FACT Fostering Accountability and Transparency FISP Farmer Input Support Program GRZ Government of the Republic of Zambia HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus ICT Information and Communications Technology JAR Joint Annual Review LAG Lobbying and Advocacy Group LWA Leader with Associates Award MCH Maternal and Child Health MoH Ministry of Health MoGE Ministry of General Education MSL Medical Stores Limited NAPA National Adaptation Program of Action NDP National Development Plan NHC Neighborhood Health Committee OD Organizational Development PCC Project Coordination Committee PCSC Parent Community School Committee PEPFAR President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief PODA Participatory Organizational Development Assessment PTA Parent Teacher Association

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REFLECT Regenerative Freirian Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques RFA Request for Applications RICAP Rise Community Aid Program RMNCH+N Reproductive Maternal Child Health plus Nutrition 7NDP Seventh National Development Plan SI Statutory Instrument SMAG Safe Motherhood Action Group SMTWG Safe Motherhood Technical Working Groups TALC Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign TWG Technical Working Group USG United States Government USAID United States Agency for International Development WDC Ward Development Committee WECSZ Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia WfC Women for Change ZAMNCA Zambia Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health Alliance ZANEC Zambian National Education Coalition ZINGO Zambia Interfaith Networking Group ZNBC Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation ZOCS Zambia Open Community School

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1 Program Description/Introduction

1.2 Context Analysis

II. PROGRAM AND ACTIVITY IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS

2.1 Implementation Status

Objective 1: Strengthen capacity of local CSOs to enhance delivery and oversight of public service delivery in the education, health/HIV, sustainable rural livelihoods and environment sectors

Objective 2: Improved engagement between citizens and government service providers in the education, Health/HIV, sustainable rural livelihoods and environment sectors to improve service delivery

III. PROGRAM PRIORITIES FOR NEXT QUARTER

IV. INTEGRATION OF CROSSCUTTING ISSUES

4.1 USAID Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy

V. COLLABORATING, LEARNING AND ADAPTING

5.1 Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing with other USAID Activities

5.2 Collaboration and Coordination with other Key Stakeholders

5.3 Program Challenges

5.4 Lessons Learned

5.5 Adaptive Management

VI.AGREEMENT MANAGEMENT

6.1 Management/Administration

6.2 Financial Management

Annex A: FACT CSO Partners

Annex B: FY18 Indicators Performance Table

Annex C: Success Stories

Annex D: FACT Partner Capacity Building Blocks

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I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report provides a summary of the Fostering Accountability and Transparency (FACT) program activities implemented in the 2018 Financial Year (FY18) and the corresponding results. The goal of FACT is to improve the enabling governance environment of Zambia by increasing citizen demand for effective, transparent, and accountable service delivery. Implemented by Counterpart International, FACT partners with a range of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to strengthen and increase meaningful engagement between Zambian civil society, citizens, and the state to improve the lives of people in the communities where FACT partners operate. FACT aims to achieve this goal through the following two (2) objectives:

Strengthening capacity of local CSOs to enhance delivery and oversight of public service delivery in the education, health/HIV, sustainable rural livelihoods, and environment sectors; and

Improving engagement between citizens and government service providers in the education, health/HIV, sustainable rural livelihoods, and environment sectors to improve service delivery.

Notable FY18 FACT Annual Program highlights:

FACT’s mid-term review, delivered in June 2018, evaluated the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of the fostering accountability and transparency model. Among other things, the report looked at the extent to which government has been responsive to citizen influencing and subsequently implemented improvements in how public services are delivered, resourced, and managed. The report affirmed that the FACT model remains relevant and important for broadening governance in public service delivery. It revealed that the tools, methods, and processes FACT uses have contributed to increased accountability by opening up opportunities for citizens to dialogue and explore the scope of public services across health and HIV, education, and environment and natural resources. Evidence suggests that these important district and community level links are stronger because of FACT interventions and that strong, sustainable partnerships were being created. The study notes that some of the most marginalized communities of women, young women, youth, people with disabilities, and those living with HIV now have an impactful voice in the community for the first time. All of these advances are leading to strengthened transparency and accountability between government and citizens, and – most importantly – improving lives for communities throughout Zambia.

In FY18 USAID extended the FACT award for an additional six months and provided additional funding for work with the extractive industries. Building on the strong relationships that FACT has established with local, regional, and national government representatives, the key objective of this expansion is to increase citizen awareness of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)-a global standard that promotes transparent resource use by the extractive industries. This will be accomplished via extensive outreach and accessible messaging in partnership with the media and other stakeholders. In Q4, FACT signed new grant agreements with three local partner organizations as part of the extractive industries initiative. The partners are the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction

(CSPR), which will work in Kasempa, Extractive Industries Transparency Alliance (EITA) which will work in Kalumbila, and the PANOs Institute for Southern Africa, which will cover national and local media outreach and public messaging. The year ended with a successful launch in Solwezi, Zambia’s copper mining region, and drew strong participation of government officials, mining companies, and

6 | P a g e civil society. The launch resulted in a partnership with the Zambia Extractive Industries Transparency

(ZEITI) Secretariat under the Ministry of Mines. The partnership is significant in two ways: First, it strengthens FACT’s influencing in the extractive industries space. Second, it offers the opportunity for greater citizen influencing of private sector behavior and government service delivery. FACT was also nominated to the Multi-Sector Group, the policy body for the EITI in Zambia. The resounding success of the launch is a testament to the commitment shown by the key stakeholders in the extractive sector: government, private sector, local leadership, and citizens.

The government has shown increased support for community schools in Chipata, including greater support for teachers and the provision of supplies, including supplementary teaching and learning materials and school furniture. Rise Community Aid Program (RICAP) now works closely with local authorities on policies affecting marginalized communities, and the Treatment Advocacy and

Literacy Campaign (TALC) has an important role in the Shibuyunji health performance review processes.

FACT utilizes the community scorecard (CSC) process in Zambia to bring together communities and government representatives to identify local gaps and areas of mutual concern in service delivery, and work together to develop action plans to address those gaps. After revising the CSC process in

March 2018 to better align with the Zambia context, Zambia Open Community School (ZOCS), Women for Change (WfC), and RICAP successfully trained community members on the scorecard elements, such as setting priorities, data collection, data synthesis and analysis, and the scoring itself. This training allowed FACT partners and community leaders to facilitate the community scorecard process independently, making this process more sustainable and ensuring local ownership. Opportunities to hold community scorecard sessions have already emerged with Chipata

District Education Boards (DEBs), Kafue DEBS, local authorities, and the health management teams in Nyimba and Shibuyunji.

FACT continued to engage its partners during the bi-annual CSO partners meetings. These meetings help partners learn from each other and exchange experiences on program implementation in a creative and interactive manner. The meetings focused on building organizational capacity for citizen engagement, encouraging citizen engagement for policy change, improving communication for policy change, and sharing best practices on financial management. As a result, FACT addressed key program implementation challenges faced by partners, such as improving financial reconciliations.

Government engagement

Citizen engagement remains a critical factor in encouraging accountability and transparency in the way public services are delivered. Key FY18 achievements include continued partnerships between government representatives and community and coalition partners at the local, district, and national levels.

Civil Society for Poverty Reduction worked with the Ministries of National Development Planning and Finance on the Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP) to design an electronic scorecard.

The scorecard evaluates citizen participation efforts and monitors expenditure on activities that encourage reform of the policies and laws that limit active CSO participation. The results of the first scorecard will be shared at the interface meeting in Q1 of FY19.

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The Lusaka Health provincial dialogues strengthened FACT’s positioning with the Ministry of Health

(MOH) Planning Unit and raised the profile of FACT’s health governance work. In 2017, the

Shibuyunji health management team cited FACTs community scorecard process findings in their quarterly performance review of the health sector, and our government partners in Chipata routinely use that information to identify gaps in support to community schools and develop action plans to address any concerns that are uncovered.

FACT commissioned an environment mapping survey which exposed entry points for enhanced citizen participation and highlighted opportunities for families to benefit from carbon credits.

Improved livelihood options are being proposed for many community households losing their traditional income source due to forestry by-laws and wildlife policies (i.e. the effort to limit charcoal burning).

Community Mobilization

In FY18 FACT made progress in increasing grassroot civil society participation across the education, health/HIV, sustainable livelihoods, and environment sectors. This has mainly been through awareness raising and sensitization on spaces for community participation in service delivery. By the end of FY18, Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC), Zambia Interfaith Networking Group (ZINGO), RICAP, Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO), WfC, Civil Society for Poverty Reduction

(CSPR), EITA and PANOS mobilized 62 communities in 11 FACT target districts; these efforts alone resulted in FACT reaching 4,609,545 community members. Within the health sector, this outreach resulted in improved antenatal booking within the first 14 weeks (100% in 9 target communities in

Nyimba), improved adherence to postnatal visits (75% in the 9 target communities in Nyimba), reduced home deliveries (none in the 9 target communities in Nyimba in FY18), and improved relationships between service providers and users (in all communities where the community scorecard process was conducted, relationship between providers and users was scored at above 75%).

Building on the achievements of FY18, in FY19 FACT will continue strengthening our long-standing relationships with civil society, government, and community members across sectors. Our capacity building efforts will emphasize sustainability and local self-reliance as we transition towards the end of the FACT project. As several of our programs and initiatives come to fruition, FACT will embrace the momentum and global excitement around the EITI launch and the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with the extractive industries to improve the lives of citizens throughout Zambia.

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1.1 Program Description/Introduction

In September 2014, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded the Associate

Cooperative Agreement No. AID-611-14-L-00001, under the Leader with Associates Cooperative

Agreement No. DFD-A-00-09-00141-00, to Counterpart International (Counterpart) to implement the

Fostering Accountability and Transparency (FACT) in Zambia program. FACT is a 5½-year, $6.4 million program that began on September 30, 2014 and will end on March 31, 2020. The goal of FACT is to improve the enabling governance environment of Zambia by increasing citizen demand for effective, transparent, and accountable service delivery. FACT focuses on engaging a range of sector-specific Civil

Society Organizations (CSOs) to strengthen and increase meaningful engagement among Zambian civil society, citizens and the state. FACT aims to achieve this goal through the following two (2) objectives:

1) Strengthening capacity of local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to enhance delivery and oversight of public service delivery in the education, health/HIV, sustainable rural livelihoods and environment sectors; and

2) Improving engagement between citizens and government service providers in the education, health/HIV, sustainable rural livelihoods and environment sectors to improve service delivery.

FACT is implemented in four of Zambia’s ten provinces namely Central, Eastern Lusaka and

Northwestern Provinces. In these provinces, FACT is being implemented in 10 districts, two in Lusaka province: Lusaka and Kafue; one in Central province: Shibuyunji; four in Eastern province: Nyimba, Chipata, Lundazi, Mambwe and Petauke; and two in Northwestern province: Kalumbila and Kasempa.

Theory of Change

The theory of change for FACT is that citizen demand for accountable and transparent public service delivery will increase if the ability and capacity of citizens, CSOs, and the other non-state actors to hold the state accountable for enhanced service delivery is strengthened. As the demand grows from citizens and civil society, the theory of changes envisages that the government of the Republic of Zambia will respond positively to improve the delivery of services. See Figure 1 below for the theory of change that guides FACT.

Figure 1. FACT program Theory of Change

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II. COUNTRY CONTEXT

2019 National Budget

The Minister of Finance presented the 2019 budget of 86.8 billion kwacha to Parliament on September

28th, 2018. Although public service expenditure is projected to increase by 21% from the previous year, the 27% increase in debt servicing (from K14.24 in 2017 to 23.6 billion in 2018) will negatively impact public service delivery. This is likely to reduce fund disbursement to education, health, and environment sectors, compromising these sectors’ ability to provide effective services.

Allocation to the Education, Health, and Environment sectors

The 2019 budget allocation to the education, health and environment sectors was reduced by an average of 0.8 percent. This reduction - consistent, in education and health, every year since 2016 – will have a substantial bearing on the achievement of the SDG indicators related to the FACT program. Reprioritization of expenditure within the education and health sectors could serve to improve the likelihood of impact in these areas. FACT coalition partners such as Zambian

National Education Coalition (ZANEC) and CSPR are closely following these trends in budget and expenditure tracking in service provision.

Finalization of the Education and Skills Sectors Plan (ESSP)

Finalization of the ESSP has stalled because the document is being created through a participatory process, aligning the Ministry of General Education (MoGE) with the 7NDP. The Plan has undergone multiple revisions to ensure it meets the 7NDP targets and to include additional input from stakeholders in the education sector. The change in sector support budget managers from DFID to UNICEF then to

World Bank has slowed the process as well. Despite the positive nature of the collaboration-heavy process, these delays have still meant that interventions planned by FACT partners to monitor implementation of the MoGE on the ESSP have not been implemented since FY17, resulting in delays of

FACT partner annual plan implementation. To respond to this challenge, FACT is working with ZANEC to develop interventions for “quick gains” that will still move us closer to the ultimate goal of the ESSP1.

Environment - National Land Policy Consultative Process

The National Land Policy consultation process is now entering its third year with no clear road map. The

Lands Minister informed Parliament on June 13, 2018, that the chiefs rejected the draft document for failing to adequately provide for the roles of the chiefs in land administration and management. Further, chiefs felt that the invitation of 22 chiefs to the validation meeting was exclusionary, considering that

1 The Education Sector Strategic Plan is the national plan that guides the direction of the Education and Skills Sector for the country. This Plan is the Education and Skills Sector elaboration of the Education Chapter of the Seventh National Development

Plan and is supposed to guide all Annual Work Plans and Budgets.

10 | P a g e there are 288 chiefs in total. To resolve this dispute and ensure full stakeholder inclusion, the ministry is currently waiting for the House of Chiefs to present recommendations from the Chiefs’ Indaba. These recommendations might offer a way forward. Land alienation and re-classification has a huge impact on the lives of communities either displaced or alienated as a result of these policy changes. For the FACT program, critical land issues include the extractive work with communities affected by the mining activities; the change in district status would mean a loss of public services as the new district is set up and an impact on livelihoods and social or religious rights to communal land, and could increase conflict among traditional leaders, negatively impacting development and the people.

Creation of Sandwe District

In April 2018, the Ministry of Local Government instigated the reclassification of certain boundaries and established the Sandwe District, moving some wards and village areas outside of Petauke district. This change will mean that FACT partners working in this region might have to re-introduce the accountability work to the new communities, and the second implication is resourcing both in terms of financing and deployment of civil service to the new district teams might be impacted as well. Given that this is the final year of FACT implementation, this change has the potential to halt or slow down the project activities.

Health – Office of Inspector General’s Report on the Theft of Health Products at Medical Stores

Limited

The investigation report on the Global Fund Grants to the Republic of Zambia: Theft of Health Products from Medical Stores Limited was released in April 2018. The report revealed that the Medical Stores

Limited (MSL), a government distributor of health products including HIV test kits, had reported a theft from their warehouse. The report further revealed that Global Fund-financed health products totaling

US $1.06M could not be accounted for. Evidence suggests that these products were stolen over a two-year period, between 2014 and 20162. This incident is indicative of weak oversight and governance systems in the health sector and underpins the importance of the work that FACT and other health sector partners can continue to play in strengthening citizen oversight mechanisms for public health service delivery.

Investigation Report, Investigation of Global Fund Grants to the Republic of Zambia: Theft of Health Products from Medical Stores Limited, April 2018

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III. PROGRAM AND ACTIVITY IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS

2.1 Implementation Status

Objective 1: Strengthen capacity of local CSOs to enhance delivery and oversight of public service delivery in the education, health/HIV, sustainable rural livelihoods and environment sectors

Result Area 1.1: Increased strategic capacity of civil society organizations to foster citizen engagement

Strengthening CSO institutional and technical capacity to mobilize, motivate, and promote community interest to influence how public services are planned and delivered is critical to enhancing citizen engagement. FACT Zambia continued to build on its processes and methodologies to strengthen the strategic capacities of its partners that include:

a) Grant Modifications & New Awards

In Q1, FACT modified and extended the awards for CSPR and ZANEC to amplify influence on policy, in fiscal and national development, and in the education sub-sector. CSPR will continue to track the implementation of the fifth pillar of the

7NDP. Monitoring this domain is critical to ensuring government commitment to accountability and transparency in the way it does business. ZANEC continued to work on the

ESSP policy alignment with the 7NDP to ensure that the education strategic plan better captures the intent of the national plan, and the production of an education budget that is commensurate with the aspirations of the education plan. In August 2018, USAID awarded Counterpart additional funding to support work in the

Extractives industries sub-sector. Through a competitive process, three CSOs were selected to implement extractive industries advocacy and awareness raising activities.

PANOS Southern African Institute will focus on short term media initiatives and civic awareness in the Copperbelt and northwestern provinces.

EITA will implement awareness raising activities in the Northwestern province.

CSPR will receive a costed extension to implement activities on strengthening the voices of citizens to demand for accountability and transparency in the extractive sector of the Kasempa district.

To strengthen engagement in the environment and natural resources sub-sector, FACT will lead policy engagement and facilitate stronger district level partnerships in the forestry and conservation farming space. A Request for Proposals was released in FY18, and unfortunately after a rigorous selection

EITI Grant Award Signing Ceremony with PANOS

12 | P a g e process none of the applicants met the requirements outlined. FACT opted to expand COMACO’s current award to focus on strengthening the role of traditional leaders in conservation efforts across farming and natural resources, exploration of the Statutory Instrument on community forests; the community resources boards and carbon credit beneficiations; and including land and extension services. In Q1 of FY19, FACT plans to finalize the cost extension to COMACO to continue building on this work.

b) CSO Organizational Development Assessment and Institutional Development

Following the Participatory Organizational Development Assessments (PODAs) started in FY17 and completed in Q2 FY18, Counterpart continued to support the partners with their capacity building action plans. It is clear from the analysis that FACT CSO partners require deeper strengthening of their capacities around financial sustainability, financial management, knowledge management, and external relations. Different approaches have been used, including one-on-one consultations and accompaniments where the grants officer works with a partner organization over a few days to either help strengthen systems and processes, create spreadsheets and templates for ease of financial tracking and reporting, enhance skills for project management staff, or train cohorts in subjects enhanced social accountability. These efforts will support improved partner advocacy campaigns and lead to greater government responsiveness in FY19.

Initially partners were reluctant to support the OD process as a result of misunderstandings about the implications of both the process and tool. At the Q4 partners meeting, FACT staff addressed these concerns directly, leading to increased buy-in by partners and recognition of the value of the OD process to their organizations’ growth and sustainability. Partners now understand that identifying organizational gaps is an opportunity for targeted growth rather than a liability when approaching donors (outlined in

Annex D). Partners are using the assessment findings to negotiate funding and support with other funders as a result.

It is important as a sustainability measure that partners embrace this process of assessing their organizational health and explore measures for corrective action. In FY19, FACT will spend considerable efforts to build and strengthen partner systems, processes and technical capabilities in preparation for long-term sustainability. As pointed out in the MTR, the capacity building interventions put in place so far (i.e.

Media Training and the Gender and Social Inclusion Training) have been useful for partners, but additional financial resources to address capacity gaps (like providing technical trainings on resource mobilization) would complement these efforts. The sustainability training planned in FY19 will respond to some of these technical training areas.

“As a result of the last PODA, which revealed a weakness in external engagement, we have improved on our partner and media engagement skills. These improvements have resulted in us being recognized as an important district stakeholder [as] we are part of most major district activities and participate in the

District Development Coordinating committee meetings.”

Estella Nambela

Field Officer, RICAP

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d) Capacity Building and Cascading Skills in Policy Advocacy

Media Training

The media training (total 26 participants) held in Q2 yielded considerable results with more partners engaging more consistently with media outlets. Since the training, CSPR has hosted several radio and television engagements to sensitize and engage public debate on fiscal management and transparency in public resources management, and to broaden citizen understanding of the Public Act. CSPR strengthened its partnership with different media houses, including Zambia National Broadcasting

Corporation (ZNBC), private radio stations, and community radio stations at district level. RICAP strengthened its community radio outreach in the Kafue district to educate communities about the re-entry education policy and to share information about the services provided at different health facility points in Kafue. WfC ran a series of radio discussions on forest management to sensitize communities in

Petauke on conservation by-laws, ensuring greater participation in community policing and monitoring for illegal activities.

Advocacy Training

To reinforce social accountability as a process to hold government accountable and enhance citizen engagement, FACT facilitated an advocacy training in Q4

(total 15 participants). The session taught partners about techniques to increase government responsiveness and galvanize changes in the way public services are delivered. The training was specifically designed to respond to gaps in the PODA external relations evaluation, partners observations of advocacy interventions within their communities, and the MTR findings.

The training focused on better understanding strategic entry points that could lead to positive changes in the way government responds to the needs of citizens. The overall goal of the advocacy training was to use the issues generated from the CSC, public dialogues, interface meetings, and other key strategic government engagements to help partners strategize specific action plans to strengthen education, health and HIV, and natural resources policies in their communities. FACT is working to strengthen partner capacity to influence policy at the implementation level (through examining service standards, barriers to access, citizen participation in planning and priority setting, resources, and service monitoring) while creating links to broader provincial and national policy.

Partner field officer making a group work task presentation at the advocacy training

“This training brings a whole new meaning to advocacy; it is doable, and changes can be small and incremental.”

Rodewell Mbewe, Program Officer, ZINGO

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Health Sector Public Dialogue Forum

In Q4, FACT convened a health sector public dialogue forum (PDF) with 43 participants drawn from the three FACT health focused partners, one coalition partner, CSOs focused on health and governance, and the Ministry of Health. Partners shared lessons learned and best practices in community engagement for improved public service delivery. Notable lessons included that youth participation in health service delivery increases governance responsiveness; that community awareness and understanding of services increases service use and participation; and that citizen participation in health planning and monitoring increases effective delivery and contributes to overall community well-being. The dialogue also identified ways that FACT partners can engage in the health decentralization process, and strategies around the district health performance reviews. At the end of the PDF, FACT worked with partners to develop FY19 action plans on how to implement lessons learned.

Environment Sector Public Dialogue Forum

In June 2018, FACT hosted the Eastern Province Public Dialogue Forum on Natural Resources and

Environment Management and Governance which focused on Exploring Policy and Practice Issues. The event drew 86 participants from Provincial and District Level Forestry departments, Department of

Agriculture, and Wildlife and National Parks, six districts in Eastern province, farmer cooperatives from COMACO, and four Community Based Natural

Resources Management Boards (CBNRMB) from

WfC. The PDF sought to broaden understanding of the Statutory Instrument Number 11 of 2018, which outlines benefit sharing mechanisms around carbon credits and agriculture. As a result of this training, COMACO and WfC are supporting Community

Conservation Task Forces and CBNRMB respectively and will be registered as community forest groups.

The SI on Community Forest Groups provides ways in which registered groups can own and manage a forest for income earning opportunities. So far, 27 forest groups have been formed and 18 are in the process of registering.

“This is a very good initiative because it creates a platform for open discussion of the challenges in the delivery of health services. Let’s put our selfish interest aside and focus on improving service delivery for the benefit of poor people in our country.”

Mr. Mannix Ngabwe

Principle Planner, Health Service, MoH

Officer

“Natural resource management is critical in ensuring the achievement of efficient ways of managing the resources. This is the reason why government is calling upon all stakeholders to implement good polices…such as tree planting, to ensure that the forests are protected and also to discourage bad forest management practices, such as illegal charcoal production and logging.”

Martin Musela

Acting Eastern Province Permanent Secretary

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Community scorecard revision training

The community scorecard revision training helped consolidate FACT use of a tool that can strengthen citizen engagement and monitor public service delivery. In addition, partners learned how to cascade the training to additional community leaders, such as the NHCs, REFLECT circles, CBRNMBs, and PCSCs, to ensure that the skills and technical knowledge are shared in the community. In FY18, partners trained

74 community members and 36 of trainees successfully facilitated the administration of the scorecard across all three sectors in the Petauke, Kafue, Nyimba and Chipata districts.

Zambia Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (ZAMNCH) Stakeholders Advocacy Training

The Zambia Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health Alliance (ZAMNCHA) advocacy and coalition strengthening training was held on May 22-24, 2018 for 16 participants (eight males and eight females) from its network member organizations. Participants included member organizations of the Alliance, the

Provincial and District Health and Education offices, Disaster Mitigation and Management Unit (DMMU), and Reproductive Maternal Child Health plus Nutrition (RMNCH+N) TASK Force. They developed a position paper on the critical need to increase midwives and obstetricians in health facilities in Eastern

Province, which they presented in the Technical Working Group on maternal and child health.

Traditional Leaders’ Training in Social Accountability.

In Q4, ZOCS hosted a training for traditional leaders on social accountability in community school management and governance. The training taught traditional leaders about community school standards, government policies on community schools, the role of traditional leaders in land allocation, and techniques to ensure government responsiveness to improve service delivery. The training targeted the District Advocacy Group in support of their advocacy work around community school funding and resourcing. Previously, the traditional leaders struggled to have a voice with the District Education

Boards and during community mobilization engagements. FACT aims to build the capacity and convening power of the traditional leaders, establishing them as influencers and key partners in district and national development planning efforts.

District Advocacy Committee (DAC) Media Training

Following the media training in Q1, ZOCS held a radio script writing training for the District Advocacy

Committee (DAC). Participants drafted 13 radio scripts for the 13-radio series. ZOCS head office worked with Radio Breeze to craft scripts and the DAC ensured featured guests were prepared for the sessions.

However, the training sought to support skills transfer and sustainability, ensuring greater involvement by the DACs, especially as their role expands beyond ZOCS to the community schools’ movement.

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Training of the Extractive Industries Community Action Groups(CAG)

Extractive Industries Transparency Alliance (EITA) trained and convened three Community Action

Groups (CAGs) in three mine host communities of Kalumbila

District. The training oriented the community members on civic education and community mobilization techniques for the extractive initiative. The CAGs will be the key implementing partner at the community level, and it is their role is to organize and mobilize communities, raise community champions for transparency in the extractive industries, hold community interface meetings with the local government and private sector, and support community campaigning activities, including district stakeholder meetings.

Result Area 1.2: Sustainable strategic alliances and issue-based partnership development among CSOs

Building sustainable and strategic alliances anchored in issue-based partnerships is one of the key drivers for effective advocacy under the FACT program.

Reinforcement of cross-sectoral advocacy networks and coalitions

a) Coalition Partner Engagement with Government

CSPR’s Engagement on the 7NDP: FACT coalition partners continue to make significant progress in generating and presenting evidence-based recommendations to decision makers. These recommendations are intended to improve delivery of public services and enhance citizen engagement at the provincial and national levels. The research on the Role of social accountability in Zambia3 and the

Budget Expenditure incidence analysis report4 continues to provide evidence of what is happening in the public service arena. CSPR used these studies to tailor recommendations for government and garner public debate.

CSPR led a scorecard process to assess citizen participation in the 7NDP, in collaboration with the

Ministry of National Planning (MoNP) and Ministry of Finance (MoF). The results of the first scorecard will be shared at the interface meeting in Q1 of FY19.

ZANEC’s Engagement on the Education and Skills Sector Plan (ESSP): ZANEC has held numerous meetings with the Ministry of General Education (MoGE) over the Review of the Third National Implementation

3 CSPR (2017) The Role of Social Accountability in Zambia.

4 CSPR (2018) 2018 Budget Expenditure Incidence Analysis Report.

“This project is very important because we have never had a platform where we have engaged the stakeholders such as the Local Authority, Mining Companies and Line Government Departments … The composition of the CAGs which include demographic groups such Women, Men and Youth shall have a participatory and inclusive community structure that will play a significant role in stimulating public debate on the EITI reports and

Social Accountability.”

Kalumbila community member

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Framework (NIF III) in the Eastern province. At the end of FY18, the ministry requested that ZANEC present the implications of low education allocations in the national budgets and delayed disbursement to the sector at the Project Coordination Committee (PCC) and at Joint Annual Review (JAR) meetings.

ZAMNCH’s Engagement on Improved Resource Allocation to Child Health: Zambia Alliance for Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health (ZAMNCH) joined the National Child Budget Network (CBN), a coalition of

CSOs advocating for improved resource allocation to child health in the national budget. Through this partnership, ZAMNCH advocated for greater government commitment to the reduction in maternal, infant and child mortality through the provision of emergency obstetric and neonatal care. In FY19, FACT will convene a post-review of the national budget presentation to further understand allocation and expenditure on equipment and the supply of vaccines and food supplements for children, as articulated in the 2019 national budget.

b) Social Accountability Network (SAN)

The Social Accountability Network is an informal consortium of civil society organizations working to spearhead social accountability practices and ideas in Zambia. The social accountability network is growing, albeit slowly for several reasons: 1) The high expectations resulting from FY17 National Social

Accountability symposium; 2) The need to examine the extent to which CSOs foster change in the way government services are provided, and; 3) The challenges that arise from establishing a network with a clear mandate and responsibilities for all partners. In early FY18, FACT was constrained in its ability to manage this process due to a staffing shortage, and there was no other organization willing to take on the task. At a September 2018 meeting, attendees resolved that there is need for greater commitment by all members who want to see the Network survive. To this end, the members agreed on core principles which include: at joining, each member signs a memorandum of understanding, provides a short brief that clearly articulates why they are joining the network, and commits to ensuring that it is essentially a learning and sharing platform. There are currently 16 members that wish to continue its mandate. In FY19, some of the planned network activities include mapping profiles that will identify location, issue of focus, tools and methods, and partnerships for social accountability in Zambia. FACT and other members will continue encouraging additional national and local organizations to become members.

Participation in the National Policy Arena

FACT continued to consolidate its participation and articulation of citizens voice on government invited policy engagement spaces through identifying and communicating critical examples of what works in public services delivery.

CSPR strengthened its participation in the Cluster Advisory Groups (CAGs) of the 7NDP. Thus far CSPR has participated in one CAG meeting and presented on the issues of citizen participation and oversight.

Further, CSPR continues to galvanize other CSO in their participation in the Technical Working Groups

(TWGs) meetings. They have been instrumental in making presentations on development policies that support economically disadvantaged communities.

FACT and ZANEC continued to participate in PCC meetings, where they share evidence produced from coordination meetings in Chipata. They also conducted a review of financial resources management documents, including the auditor general’s reports, and conducted community education service

18 | P a g e delivery assessments. Much of this evidence focuses on the impact of resource mismanagement and ineffective implementation of education plans on education outcomes. The PCC is an essential forum for informing and influencing policy implementation in the education sector.

Objective 2: Improved engagement between citizens and government service providers in the education, Health/HIV, sustainable rural livelihoods and environment sectors to improve service delivery

Result Area 2.1: Strengthened citizen oversight in the delivery of education, health/HIV, sustainable rural livelihoods, and environment activities.

FACT continues to progress in providing opportunities and spaces that improve engagement between citizens and government service providers. This has strengthened CSO oversight and held government service providers accountable.

Assess government engagement and opportunities for dialogue

Health

RICAP has built its strategic position with the Kafue District Authorities by supporting training of four

Ward Development Committees, participating in the District Development Management

Committees, and influencing their social and inclusive policies. For RICAP, the Kafue District

Authority presents a huge opportunity to influence planning, priority setting, and the monitoring of public service delivery.

RICAP is seen as a thought leader by other stakeholders, culminating in an invitation to participate and lead district development and social events, such as the sixteen days of activism against gender-based violence, World AIDS Day, and International Day for Persons with Disabilities.

TALC has built successful partnerships in Shibuyunji and is considered a key partner of the District

Health Management office. With the large transfer of health personnel at district office in FY18, TALC continues to build relationships with new staff. Despite this transition, the Shibuyunji Local

Authority has committed to their partnership with TALC in raising awareness on HIV and other health issues.

ZANEC made progress consolidating its engagement with policy makers in the education sector. The parliamentary standing committees on education and public accounts were engaged in October 2017 and September 2018 to discuss the 2018/2019 national budgetary allocations to the education sector. Over 100 participants attended the meetings, which included local

CSOs, UNICEF, and the Norwegian Embassy.

ZANEC was invited to make a presentation on the impact of inadequate allocation and recommendations to support increased funding.

As a result of their consistent engagement and articulation of evidence on the impact of

Post-Budget meeting with members of the Parliamentary committee on Education, Science & Technology.

19 | P a g e government pro-poor social sector interventions in Zambia, CSPR was asked to become a member of the Cluster Advisory Groups (CAG) looking at the fourth (Enhancing Human Development) and fifth pillars (Creating a conducive governance environment for a diversified Economy) of the 7NDP.

The MNCH Alliance initiated a partnership and introduced its work to the Ministry of Health (MoH) through the Reproductive, Maternal, Child Health plus Nutrition (RMNCH+N) focal person. To strengthen this link, ZAMNCH is supporting improved participation mechanisms and processes to ensure greater accountability in the delivery of maternal and child health services. To further enhance this effort, the Alliance is exploring joining or participating in the UNICEF/MOH social accountability platform, as opposed to the current parallel interventions. To further enhance its influencing positioning, ZAMNCH joined the Adolescent Health Working Group (AHTWG) as well as

Safe Motherhood Technical Working Groups (SMTWG). These platforms present a great opportunity for influencing policy and standards in the maternal, child, and reproductive health areas. As an

Alliance, this gives greater opportunity to link micro-level issues to macro level issues. This is an important link in supporting the generation of evidence of what works in maternal and child health service delivery, and what gaps exist in ensuring better policy design and government service provision.

Environment

COMACO continues to engage with government on sustainable farming and natural resource conservation. As part of these efforts, COMACO held their bi-annual provincial roundtable forum in

January 2018 in Chipata. The forum brought together government officials, farmers and traditional leaders to share experiences and influence improvement of government extension services and provision of farming inputs. Stakeholders were given the opportunity to discuss government programs and services in agriculture, wildlife, conservation, environment, forest management, and land use management.

Key outcomes from this forum included:

The government made a commitment to strengthen extension support services to farmer groups in COMACO catchment areas;

Community members and traditional leaders pledged to enforce community policing and safeguard natural resources through community natural resources boards.

COMACO used the opportunity to advocate for the inclusion of conservation activities and inputs in the

Farmer Input Support Program (FISP). This addition would demonstrate a commitment by the government to conservation farming practices, especially for small scale farmers. Another key achievement of this process was the distribution of 30 Community Conservation Plans (CCPs) to 30 producer cooperatives in 30 chiefdoms. These are plans that have been designed through COMACO with the traditional authorities to garner greater community support for conservation efforts. The conservation plans have since been translated into local languages and distributed widely among community and farmer groups.

Health

ZINGO held three quarterly review meetings in FY18 to examine implementation progress of the action plans from the community interface meetings and scorecard interface. Participation in the quarterly

20 | P a g e reviews included officials from the District Health Office and other government departments, and representatives from the Kalingindi and Mkopeka rural health centers, and the District Program

Committee. In the Q4 review meeting, revealed the need to involve other civic leaders, the District

Commissioner, and the Member of Parliament to galvanize district resources to respond to MNCH challenges. ZINGO has struggled to secure greater government commitment to significant changes in service delivery. Despite this challenge, successes have included the building of mothers’ shelters, in which communities have played a significant role in providing resources contributions.

Social Accountability Approaches

a) Community scorecard

To integrate lessons learned from the use of the community scorecard in FY17, FACT refined the

CSC’s ability to monitor public service. The aim was to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the process and sustainability by building a cadre of community facilitators to administer the scorecard in their own communities. Four partners (RICAP, ZINGO, ZOCS and WfC) have since administered the revised scorecard.

The community scorecard has been recognized by government officials – including the District

Education Board in Chipata, the Shibuyunji District Health Management Office, and the Petauke Forest department - as a viable tool for engagement around government services.