Good governance is about the processes for making and implementing decisions. It’s not about making ‘correct’ decisions, but about the best possible process for making those decisions. Good decision-making processes, and therefore good governance, share several characteristics. All have a positive effect on various aspects of local government including consultation policies and practices, meeting procedures, service quality protocols, councilor and officer conduct, role clarification and good working relationships. The Following are the Characteristics of good governance;
Accountability is a fundamental requirement of good governance. Any Local government has an obligation to report, explain and be answerable for the consequences of decisions it has made on behalf of the community it represents.
People should be able to follow and understand the decision-making process. This means that they will be able to clearly see how and why a decision was made – what information, advice and consultation council considered, and which legislative requirements (when relevant) council followed. Transparent decision-making mechanisms at the municipal level ensure that urban populations gain the effective public services they need.
This means that decisions are consistent with relevant legislation or common law and are within the powers of council. In the case of Ugandan Local Governments, relevant legislation includes the Local Government Act 1997 (amended 2010)
Local government should always try to serve the needs of the entire community while balancing competing interests in a timely, appropriate and responsive manner.
A community’s wellbeing results from all of its members feeling their interests have been considered by council in the decision-making process. This means that all groups, particularly the most vulnerable, should have opportunities to participate in the process.
Local government should implement decisions and follow processes that make the best use of the available people, resources and time to ensure the best possible results for their community.
Anyone affected by or interested in a decision should have the opportunity to participate in the process for making that decision. This can happen in several ways – community members may be provided with information, asked for their opinion, given the opportunity to make recommendations or, in some cases, be part of the actual decision-making process. It is important to remember that under the Local Government Act 1997 the council is required to either make decisions or delegate the decision-making power to officers.
In order to promote Good Governance, KMDF will do the following;
One key to improving the lives of the poorest people is to see to it they receive such basic services as education, health care and sanitation. Indeed, delivery of these services directly translates into improved well-being and has been shown to increase individual income. But getting services to the people, particularly to the poor, often is hobbled by corruption and inefficiency. For example, according to World Bank, Uganda loses more than $300 to Corruption. Ugandan families living on less than $5 per day lose nearly a quarter of their income to corruption in the form of bribes to obtain essential services. In Uganda, lack of oversight allows for a 74 percent absenteeism rate among public health care doctors.
From 2016-2021, KMDF will support efforts to empower citizens in Kabale Municipality to demand for good governance. This will be done through engaging citizens against corruption and other governance weaknesses through activities comprising access to information about service entitlements and standards prescribed by the law, granting voice to beneficiaries regarding design and implementation of service programs, providing grievance redress mechanisms and citizens with tools and access to demand accountability from service providers e.g. third-party monitoring, public hearings, social audits etc.
This will be done to Increase awareness of rights and benefits through transparency of and access to information.
Articulating beneficiaries’ voices through consultation in design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation throughout the provision of public services typically involves events and defined processes to ensure informed two way engagement with stakeholders so that information is shared on proposed designs as well as on implementation progress, and stakeholders' views, particularly of direct beneficiaries and users of services, are sought prior, during and after public service delivery and are part of a feedback process. Tools that will be used here will include: Online and face-to-face dialogue instruments, multi-stakeholder committees, public hearings, participatory budget formulation among others
This strategy typically involves mechanisms for third party monitoring (TPM) and reporting of execution performance of programs, projects, and services. Monitoring and demanding service provider accountability for performance through independent third-party monitoring (TPM). Independent TPM may be done by independent planning and development committees that will be established: Tools that will be used are: Social audits, facilities surveys, Public hearings, Citizen report cards, Community scorecards, Beneficiary (Client) satisfaction surveys, Independent impact evaluations, Public expenditure tracking surveys, Investigative journalism among others
This strategy typically will involve establishing beneficiary feedback and grievance redress mechanisms to exert responsiveness. Systems and procedures are designed to handle and respond to complaints and grievances from: Beneficiaries /consumers benefitting from the service delivery and from suppliers or contractors of services. Tools that will be used here are: Hotlines, Web pages, Beneficiary Committees, Ombudsperson, Grievance Redress Mechanisms, and Crowd-Sourcing Technologies.
As a first step, KMDF will play an oversight role in order to influence how central government, Kabale Municipal Council and Kabale Local government allocates and spends funds. Through Planning and Development Committees, KMDF shall work on the following.
The focus here is on two primary sources of money for the delivery of basic services: Revenue from the local sources and foreign aid. KMDF will ensure that revenue from local sources actually reaches government coffers by pushing for public oversight and by offering the technical assistance to evaluate whether collected revenue match income. KMDF will support efforts both to reform how the Local Government of Kabale Municipality allocates and spends public funds.
The first step in the effective use of public funds is getting better access to information about how funds are being allocated in the national budget. KMDF will work with planning and development Committees as watchdog groups around Kabale Municipality to advocate for more budget transparency, and then to analyze budget allocations to determine whether they are responding to citizen needs and priorities.
KMDF strategy will also support the work of local and international experts to track expenditures and ensure that funds make their way from the central government down to service providers at the local level.
Even when funds make it to the agencies that provide services to the public, it is possible that the wrong services are delivered or they are delivered poorly. To curtail such problems, KMDF will support efforts to collect direct feedback on the quality of services from citizens who use them.