Affiliated Network for Social Accountability

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Opportunities, Links and Benefits The ANSA
network and Regional Institutions -Perspectives
from The Africa Policy Institute Presented by
David Mwaniki Vice President/deputy CEO APLI
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Africa Policy Institute (APLI)

• Conceived in 2003 by African policy experts,
  former senior government officials, civil society
  thinkers, intellectuals and top media
  practitioners as an independent, pan-African
  think tank to address the perturbing absence of
  Africa-based sound policy research and analysis
  to inform decision making and disconnect between
  leadership and policy.

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APLI Cont

• APLI is headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and has
  regional offices in Kampala, Uganda and Pretoria,
  South Africa, with field presence in
• Algeria,
• Burundi,
• Comoros,
• Democratic Republic of Congo,
• Djibouti,
• Ethiopia,
• Nigeria,
• Somaliland,
• Sudan
• Zimbabwe.

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Public Accountability

• Area of interest under APLIs thematic thrust of
  Democracy and Governance.
• Experience with parliamentary scorecard in
  Uganda.
• Currently working with partners in South Africa
  on Legislative governance (Short listed for
  funding to work with Gauteng Legislatures PCO
  audit)
• This is a new area for us and we are currently
  building capacity.

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Core Challenges

• Human capacity (the need for legislative and
  governance analysis)
• Depth of program
• The Uganda parliamentary score card was a
  snapshot in time rather that a longitudinal
  study.
• The planned Gauteng legislature work is limited
  to Party Constituency Offices Capacity and not
  delivery of services.

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Core Challenges Cont..

• Limited funding for public accountability
  activities.
• Weak institutional linkages with other like
  minded institutions.
• Maintaining balanced and factual perspectives in
  Public accountability work (need to deepen
  analysis).

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The Role ANSA-Africa could Play to Support APLI

• We view ANSA as being able to do the following in
  Support of our PA work
• Convening energy (being able to pull together
  like minded agencies, actors and institutions
  involved in Public Accountability)
• Capacity building coordinating the
  training/secondment of experts/development of
  tools etc
• Knowledge repository guaranteeing access to
  information on Public Accountability

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The Role ANSA-Africa could Play to Support APLI

• New Knowledge/Innovation Hub Capture and
  disseminate new policy and practice and
  innovations generated from implementation of
  programs
• Regional/International Influencing Platform ANSA
  could take the lead on advocacy and influencing
  on Regional and International issues
• Fundraising and resource support both funds and
  technical support could be facilitated by ANSA

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Red Flags to Watch Out For

• ANSA-Africas credibility in the region will come
  from the ownership of the process by Africa based
  institutions.
• ANSA should focus on proactive demand driven
  initiatives that have legitimacy of the public in
  the relevant countries (avoid the trap of being
  led by the donor)

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Thank YouWebale NyoAsante SanaNgiyabonga Kakulu