Project

Civil Society Engagement for Democracy and Good Governance

Grantee: West Africa Network For Peacebuilding - Côte d'Ivoire

The main focus of the project in Côte d’Ivoire was to put in place five departmental committees and one national committee for the monitoring of democracy and good governance. By strengthening the capacity of the members of these committees, the project promoted voluntary involvement in the management of communes and the exercise of civic control. By relying on the country’s policy of decentralization, the project helped local populations develop an interest in governing local affairs through learning about their roles as citizens. This was done through cooperation and engaging in dialogue with locally elected leaders.
With this project the grantee integrated strategic priorities of the national decentralization policy into local governance. It also managed to take into account the context of the Ivorian crisis, which was characterized by a weakness of democracy and poor governance. It was therefore a kind of post-crisis pilot project on raising awareness and approaches to training in democratic education and good governance. The project could have applied a more nuanced approach in relation to the different groups that were part of the target population, particularly women and young people and provided more local support.

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Lessons from Project

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Neither the civil society organizations at local level, nor the monitoring committees had the necessary autonomy to pursue further citizen oversight activities or provide minimum stability to their members. It is unclear that activities will continue after project completion.

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The budget was not balanced. The coordination team undertook the minimum of work with the beneficiary groups and instead relied heavily on the involvement of volunteers. While recognizing the importance of volunteering in civil society, activism also requires the necessary resources to carry out actions. The lack of resources compromised the quality and sustainability of the results.

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The project was too ambitious to bring about the hoped-for change in behaviour, due to the vast geographic scope -18 communes – of the activities and the short length of the project.

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There was a multiplier effect among the volunteers who were trained. They were in a position to drive further citizen participation following the end of the project. In particular, the women who participated in training sessions will ensure future awareness raising within their communities and women’s associations.

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Mayors and municipal counsellors in Côte d’Ivoire became more aware of the essential role of the Commune and the importance of dialogue with citizens. As examples from this project have shown, such dialogue required officials to be more transparent for example by regularly reporting to the population on their activities.

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The project successfully engaged with local state authorities in Côte d’Ivoire, notably the Ministry of the Interior, the Union of Cities and Communes, and members of the national monitoring Committee. These groups provided support to the trainings for elected representatives and civil society actors. This paved the way for establishing the monitoring Committees which allowed for practical dialogue and debate on local issues.

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Despite the socio-political and post-election crises in Côte d’Ivoire the grantee managed to inspire democratic behaviour. The project effectively put in place five Committees monitoring democracy and good governance in order to improve citizens understanding of how the local town hall works and what rights citizens have that allow them to participate actively in governance to improve their living conditions.

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