Partnership for Learning: Piloting Citizen Accountability Mechanisms in Kenya

IRC is assisting with programme design, materials development and facilitation towards the establishment of multi stakeholder accountability mechanisms in three cities in Kenya, aimed at improving water services delivery through partnerships between government, utilities and citizens. The initiative is hosted by the Water and Sanitation Regulatory Board (WASREB) of Kenya, and supported by the World Bank Institute (WBI) and World Bank-Water and Sanitation Program (WB-WSP) Kenya.

This initiative builds on the Citizen Report Card (CRC) process carried out in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, which enabled users of public services to assess the performance and level of service by providers. Similar to report cards used to rate students in school, the Citizens Report Card (CRC) gave consumers an opportunity to ‘score’ the quality and adequacy of water and sanitation services, and express their satisfaction with them. The CRC equipped citizens to understand service performance issues affecting them and created space for systematic engagement between citizens and water and sanitation sector actors.

Broad-based stakeholder alliances (consortiums) were created to enable dialogue, and foster ownership of the CRC feedback. Service providers, resident representatives, Water Service Boards and civil society organizations came together in the three cities to build shared understanding of citizen’s experiences and the performance of service providers from a consumer perspective.

The purpose of a workshop to be held in Nairobi in late July 2008 (Partnership For Learning: Piloting Citizen Accountability Mechanisms In The Water And Sanitation Sector), is to develop action plans to transform the CRC consortia into effective accountability mechanisms, based on lessons from international experience in social accountability, and within an action learning and process documentation framework. The ultimate aim is to learn from the pilot mechanisms over the next year, and implement the accountability model at scale in Kenya.

Contact: Alana Potter, Programme Officer, Knowledge Development and Advocacy, e-mail