Social Accountability approach initiated by PCaB programme

The UNDP, Australian Aid and GovPNG's Provincial Capacity Building (PCaB) programme recently launched a Social Accountability (SA) approach in order to get citizens? perceptions on the quality of public services delivered to the provinces and districts. The initiative has been designed to be developed through a specific survey to a sample of the population in the province, which will facilitate the collection of information for further analysis.

The launching of the survey exercise was initiated in Kerema, Gulf province last week by PCaB management team.

This exercise is part of the baseline assessment in the new provinces (Gulf, West Sepik, Western Highlands and AR Bougainville) where PCaB is starting its capacity building support.

The aim of this approach is to get the initial status (baseline) on the quality and quantity of basic public services addressed to the population, and then compare them later on (after two or three years) upon PCaB intervention. This will allow the evaluation on the impact of the programme and its contribution in the improvement of these referred services

The SA assessment is technically supported by the Basel Institute of Governance, based in Switzerland, and it is carried out in several countries including PNG.

The survey will be finalized by the end of March 2014, and the results will be share with programme stakeholders, including the respective provincial administrations.