ABCD PILOT PROJECT CASE STUDY- BOOK 2 (PHASE 2) by rentia ellis

ABCD PILOT PROJECT CASE STUDY- BOOK 2 (PHASE 2) Asset Based Community-Driven Development In Municipal Planning EASTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA

“It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another” Nelson Mandela

Table of Contents About this Case Study

ECNGOC work in the area of ABCD

Application of ABCD in the Pilot Project Phase 2

Activity 1 Digital Device Streetwise Collaborator

Activity 2 Design of E-Survey Questionnaire

Activity 3 Inception Meeting

Activity 4 Community Surveys

Activity 5 E- Survey Training

Activity 6 Stakeholder engagement

Activity 7 Community Feedback Sessions

Activity 8 Reference Group meetings

Replication of ABCD in other Municipalities

Conclusion

Annexures

ABOUT THIS CASE STUDY The first section of this publication is the Report that shows WHAT the project was all about. This Case Study provides detailed insights into the implementation of ABCD in municipal planning processes project phase 2 (E-citizenry), it shows HOW the project was implemented. This project was aimed at bridging the gap on meaningful citizen participation in Municipal Planning Processes. Citizen participation in local governance means the ability of ordinary citizens to assess their needs and contribute to develop their local public projects. This process of participation can be achieved by positive participation in municipal planning processes. After reading this case study, we recommend you to look through the Portfolio of Evidence POE (Book 3) of the publication. The POE consists of activity summary reports. We hope you enjoy reading the Case Study! The ECNGOC Team

ECNGOC WORK IN THE AREA OF ABCD The Eastern Cape NGO Coalition has been a key proponent of the Asset Based Community Driven Development approach to development since 2000. The ECNGOC in partnership with the COADY Institute (Canada) initiated a process of collaboration on capacity building and knowledge transfer on the ABCD methodology. As the momentum of popularising the ABCD development approach grew the ABCD community of practice in South Africa also grew. For a long period of time the ECNGOC intervention in ABCD has primarily been among civil society organisations mainly NonGovernmental Organisations (NGO’s) and Community Based Organisations (CBO’s). To this end the ECNGOC has documented success stories from civil society organisations on the application of ABCD in their work within communities and its impact. However, as the ABCD approach started accelerating, the ECNGOC as a representative structure for more than 900 NGO’s in the Eastern Cape, with its core business being capacity building, saw an opportunity to develop accredited training material, a process which started in 2008. This material was developed under the auspices of the Education ,Training and Development Seta (ETDP) and ECNGOC was approved as a formal service provider in 2011 offering ABCD at NQF Level 4 (10credits) in partnership with Dr Annatjie Erasmus (CSSD - Centre for Sustainable Development). The purpose of developing accredited material is to ensure that the next cadre of community development practitioners are empowered to influence the development paradigm from a “needs base” to an “assets orientation” to development, thereby placing citizens at the centre of their own development. In addition as a key proponent of ABCD the ECNGOC has a key focus area on “Influencing the development trajectory” from a deficiencies focus to an appreciative or strengths based approach. Therefore in 2012, the ECNGOC hosted an NGO Summit that focused on “Sustainability within the context of the Triple Challenge of Poverty , Unemployment and Inequality” , a key resolution from the summit was a shift from focusing on the needs within communities but rather focus on assets. ECNGOC has many member organisations that have been empowered in the ABCD approach and are playing a very significant role in popularising ABCD from the bottom up; there are many stories of how ABCD is changing lives at community level. 3

The accredited ABCD programme only started gaining momentum since 2013. As a result of the partnership between ECNGOC and the National Department of Social Development who is also a key proponent of the ABCD methodology, more than 1200 youth mentors were introduced to the ABCD Approach in 2013. In addition 104 young people have been trained in the accredited ABCD programme during August 2015 – March 2016 in South Africa funded by the National Department of Social Development. This shows that the momentum in popularising the ABCD approach is growing rapidly and has the potential to change the development trajectory for future generations addressing the complex socio economic challenges. During the period 2012 – 2013 the ECNGOC also played a key role in shaping the Eastern Cape Development Plan on which active citizenry and creating vibrant and economically viable communities is hinged, active citizenry and sustainable livelihoods is at the heart of ABCD. The Provincial Development Plan is the vehicle that was used as a catalyst to influence and shape development. In addition the ECNGOC was a champion of promoting the Eastern Cape AntiPoverty Strategy which was founded on Pillar 1 – Social Conscientisation, ABCD was popularised as the theory of change, shifting consciousness / paradigms from passive to active citizens. During the same period the ECNGOC entered into a partnership with GIZ to strengthen the interface between Government and Civil Society organisations and championed a programme in Cacadu. A detailed report on the key outcomes and effectiveness is available. It is clear from the above that from 2012 to date the work of ECNGOC in popularising ABCD has shifted from being primarily among NGO’s and CBO’s to the public sector and there has been growing interest for the past 4 years. In 2013- 2014 the ECNGOC in partnership with Fort Hare and the COADY Institute hosted annual workshops to shift ABCD from civil society and expose the public sector to ABCD. The Technical Support and Dialogue Platform (TSDP) played a key role in coordinating the ABCD workshops for 2 years as a strategic catalyst for ABCD to grow beyond civil society.

This case study will give special attention on the key activities implemented in the Making All Voices Count (MAVC) Pilot Phase 2 and processes involved that distinguish ABCD from any other development approach. These activities include: • Launch Event • Formalisation of partnership • Capacity Building • E-survey • Stakeholder Engagement

APPLICATION OF ABCD IN THE PILOT PROJECT PHASE 2 Process Overview For this specific phase of the pilot project, the ABCD was applied in the context of Community surveys in order to create a platform for the communities to raise issues of concern which can be cascaded to the municipalities for attention using a digital device known as the Streetwise Collaborator. The Phase 1 & 2 projects was implemented in the following stages and timelines: October 2014-Multi-Stakeholders workshop in East London Oct- Jan 2015-Formalisation of partnership with Lukhanji& Nkonkobe Local Municipalities March – Sept 2015- Capacity Building Phase Sept 2015 -Jan 2016- Focus Groups Sept 2015-Jan 2016- Community profiling Feb-March 2016- Ward based Planning. March 2016- Documentation of Lesson Learnt. March 2016- Stakeholder Engagement Jan-March 2017- Community Survey April – July 2017 – Community feedback session 5

ACTIVITY 1 DIGITAL DEVICE STREETWISE COLLABORATOR During 2014/2015 financial period the ECNGOC had an engagement with Mr Shaun Fourie from the company known as The Streetwise collaborator to discuss the use of the digital device in the work of the ECNGOC to enhance collective community voice. The discussions pursued up until March 2015 when ECNGOC hosted a donors/stakeholders engagement with HIVOS under the Making All Voices Count (MAVC) programme. At this meeting the ECNGOC presented the use of the digital device (Streetwise Collaborator). The Streetwise Collaborator provides an information connectivity solution that can be rolled out immediately with the minimum amount of infrastructure upgrade and maximum scalability. It provides a host of proprietary administration and communication applications and connectivity options to administrators, project managers and owners, NGOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, coalitions, organizations and groups that are in dire need of technology and connectivity. It offers all parties a portal through which they can communicate in both directions and in real time in a controlled, sustainable and scalable manner that is not prone to the deployment challenges of traditional solutions. It supplies real-time usage data and statistics to demonstrate tangible metrics and to enable remote management and monitoring of deployments, projects and recipient organizations. During that same period we had an opportunity to present out concept note in Grahamstown to showcase our digital innovation. The ECNGOC team entered the #Tech4CitizenVoice South Africa Competition by Making All Voices Count, in collaboration with Highway Africa. Our idea was selected as a finalist for the competition. We went to pitch our E-survey idea to a panel of judges on August 31, 2015. We unfortunately didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make it to the finals but from the feedback we received, we had an opportunity to critically analyse and rethink our programme design in the concept note. We then were given an opportunity to submit the concept note and then requested to submit a full proposal of the ABCD pilot Phase 2/ MAVC-E Citizen Survey. 6

ACTIVITY 2 DESIGN OF E-SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE The ECNGOC project team designed a basic outline e-survey questionnaire based on the ABCD Pilot project phase 1. A meeting was then held with a technical task team made of ECSECC, GIZ and ECNGOC during this meeting, the base line survey was presented to solicit input and to develop another version of the survey focusing on ABCD in municipal planning processes. At that meeting ECSECC which specialized in research design of surveys took the lead in working on the next version. This new version was embedded in the four back to the basics pillars champion by department of cooperative affairs (DCOGTA). ECSECC then sent the second version to ECNGOC to work on design and layout. A Canadian volunteer who worked at ECNGOC for one day designed the questionnaires. This questionnaire was then sent to the keys partners for the final input and was then sent to the streetwise collaborator to upload to a digital collaborator.

ACTIVITY 3 INCEPTION MEETING As we were concluding the ABCD Pilot Phase 1 in both municipalities, to solicit continuity and buy in of which we had an overwhelming consensus, we visited both municipalities and met with 2015 council. We had an opportunity to present pilot phase 2 and how this phase 2 roll out will strengthen what was done in phase 1. This was extremely crucial to solicit both political and administrative buy in so phase 2 can be implemented with minimal obstacles/hindrances. Due to the fact that the 2016 elections saw the election of more than 90 percent new ward councillors this meant that we go back in September/October 2016 after the project was delayed by almost 6 months and reintroduce the pilot to the new council to solicit buy in and continuity, fortunately the new council saw the benefit of the pilot and approved the roll out in both municipalities.

ACTIVITY 4 COMMUNITY SURVEYS During the period of May â&#x20AC;&#x201C; June 2016 before the 2016 Local Government Elections, the surveys were conducted using the Cluster Approach where ABCD champions together with Councillors, Ward Committeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and Community Development Workers invited 5 random community members from each ward meeting at a central venue. The sessions included feedback from previous surveys conducted, completion of surveys and NPO capacity building on ABCD. Before the participants would complete the surveys there will be an engagement session between the municipality and communities on service delivery issues and any other issues that affect community development and the people. The communities would also have an opportunity to learn about government processes and their roles and responsibilities. The cluster approach did not work well and that impacted on the attendance and beneficiary reach. Reasons why community members did not attend included (1) Adverse weather conditions, (2) The cost of using public transport over large distances and then only being partially reimbursed, and (3) Champions and community leaders were not notifying community members well in advance. We also noted that unemployed youth, women, disable people and older persons were under represented while we followed the cluster approach. In response the project staff decided to adapt to a village approach where ward-based meetings are co-facilitated with the ward councillor and ward committee members. This resulted in average attendance increasing to 70, which helped the project to reach planned targets. In addition project staff gained better insight into how the wards are constituted, where different villages are located and the circumstances under which targeted communities live. It is important to note that in some areas the communities did not complete the surveys using the digital device but were done in a focus group manner where communities orally voiced out service delivery issues. In some areas community members did not want to complete the surveys due to being tired of voicing out their views and nothing happens. The outcomes of the village approach were very positive and managed to reach the targets as planned. 8

ACTIVITY 5 E- SURVEY TRAINING One of the outcomes of the MAVC programme is to increase the number of ABCD champions per ward in ABCD awareness which looks at what citizens have to address and what they need. The participants were refreshed on ABCD concepts and tools aligning it to Municipal Planning Processes. The purpose of the session is to change the mind-set of the communities from being passive to be more proactive. In addition building capacity in municipal planning processes and how best they can leverage on community assets aligning them to Integrated Development Planning and Local Economic Development. The ECNGOC team took the participants through the survey. The session included: •

How to switch the device on and off

•

How to operate the device to work effectively?

•

How to answer each section of the survey?

•

Explaining the questions and elaborating on them to better understand.

•

Capacitate them on computer literacy.

The participants were very excited about the device. Most of them were not computer literate and that became a challenge and an opportunity for them to be capacitated on computer literacy. Before the completion of surveys, the participants were taken through the device, how to operate it operate effectively, what is expected of them and explained the questions outlined on the questionnaire to better understand and give meaningful input. The participants completed the survey with the assistance of the ECNGOC team.

ACTIVITY 6 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Community Engagement sessions were facilitated throughout the project roll out. The engagement between communities and municipalities would take place during the community survey sessions where communities had an opportunity to voice out their views pertaining service delivery and community development issues. The municipal representative also had a platform to effectively engage with communities in addressing some of the issues that came up. The Community Engagement session addressed the communication breakdown between communities and local government through meaningful and effective public participation. The session also provided communities with direct contact with its local government using a bottom up approach. This was a mechanism that accelerated the entire pilot as communities felt respected and recognised by the engagement with the local municipality throughout the process.

ACTIVITY 7 COMMUNITY FEEDBACK SESSIONS The ECNGOC team went back for the community feedback sessions and thus able to increase the public participation and improve service delivery in the Enoch Mgijima and Raymond Mhlaba municipalities. These processes also strengthened state / citizen relationships and build citizen confidence in democratic processes and restored HOPE. We aimed at inviting all the relevant sector departments to come give feedback on survey results and engage with communities on issues pertaining service delivery. With the assistance from the Office of the Premier, the Coalition sent out invites to the following sector departments: The Department of Human Settlements, Regional Roads and Public Works, Department of Safety and Liaison, Department of Water Affairs, Department of Social Development, South Africa Social Security Agency (SASSA) Municipal IDP, Chris Hani District and the Reference Group. In Enoch Mgijima we conducted four community feedback sessions. Even though we did not reach the target number that we expected to reach, we met the objective of the session, the participants were relevant and the session went well. The significant departments were well represented with only Public Works and Regional roads not there. In Raymond Mhlaba community we had three feedback sessions, one session was the same day with the IDP Road show, which meant that we had to be part of the programme and the targeted number of people we anticipated were not reached because the IDP Road shows were conducted simultaneously in different wards. The issues raised by the participants were addressed and Departments represented were Social Development, Amatole District, LED Manager, Portfolio Head, and the MAVC project reference group was represented by Office of the Premier, COGTA and Water Affairs.

The ECNGOC team were able to look at all the participant’s feedback which are mainly basic amenities and summarized as below: •

Roads – No tar road and therefore emergency vehicles like ambulances and police vans found it hard to get to their villages.

•

Water and Sanitation – They used pit toilets that were of poor quality which does not flush, in most cases some of waste were blown away by the wind.

•

Electricity –Even though they acknowledged that they have electricity in their house yet, they also found it unsafe to go anywhere at night because there we no street lights, or even one search light for each village.

•

Houses – The standard of the houses were not the same, some collapsed and destroyed the furniture inside which the municipality intervened and upgraded the standard but left the ones that fell out.

•

DSD/SASSA – The elderly complained about how the selection of who gets to get the food parcels as only the same households get them each time they are available.

•

Health services – Some of the wards we went to only had mobile clinics which come once a week and some do have clinics but had to travel a long distance to get to it.

ACTIVITY 8 REFERENCE GROUP MEETINGS The ECNGOC / MAVC project has held 5 reference group meetings. •

The first meeting was for the introduction of the Streetwise collaborator device and the review of survey questionnaire. The second meeting was the discussion of alignment and replication of ABCD in other municipalities, and the use of ABCD as the government planning tool. The third meeting was to give feedback and update on what has been done up to now. The meeting was also based on how we can best facilitate feedback sessions. The last meeting was to share survey results with sector departments and discuss the upcoming community feedback sessions in terms of how can we engage and give feedback to communities on issues pertaining service delivery issues.

•

• The deliberations of the reference group paved the way to the recognition of ABCD Approach. ABCD now is being recognised by the Office of the Premier and has been endorsed to be part of Operation Masiphathisane and be within the concept of War Rooms

No.

Institution

Role

Link to the ABCD Pilot

ECNGOC

Coordinate strategic partnership

Act as a coordinating structure, use the information from the documented results in phase one in municipal planning process to initiate dialogue in quarterly reference groups

GIZ

Coordinate and funding partner

GIZ will replicate the results from the pilot globally as they have global programmes on

Eastern Cape Socio Economic Consultative Council ( ECSECC)

ECSECC’s mandate is to offer technical support on governance in the province

It’sgovernance been offering technical support from the onset of the pilot.

Office of the Premier ( OTP)

Planning, Coordination, and policy imperatives on public participation and scale up in the Eastern Cape.

Their role is to review the public participation policy and establishment of public participation mechanism using interventions from the ABCD Pilot as a point of reference. In addition the OTP will be responsible to replicate and scale up the ABCD model to other 45 municipalities in the Eastern Cape.

SALGA

Strengthen capacity building initiatives at all spheres of local government

SALGA will make use of results from the pilot to create awareness on citizen participation. To assist in replication and roll out of the pilot.

COGTA

Enhance municipal support for service delivery. Conduct quarterly reference group meetings and submit reports

COGTA’s role would be to align community profiling tool used in the pilot with ward based planning to develop all future ward based plans that are asset orientated. Link to the Back to Basics Campaign Link to the Provincial War on poverty strategy Assist in replication and roll out of pilot

Local IDP & LED Departments in Lukhanji & Nkonkobe municipalities

Planning and coordination of the pilot( training sessions and focus group meeting)

These departments have already aligned the community profiling tool used in the pilot to the 2016 ward based planning

REPLICATION OF ABCD IN OTHER MUNICIPALITIES The Eastern Cape NGO Coalition has been a key proponent of the ABCD approach in the Eastern Cape since 2009 with the aim of Influencing the Development Approach from a " needs base " to an " assets orientation " to development. The ECNGOC work with ABCD has been primarily among civil society organisations. Hence since 2014 the ABCD work has shifted to private sector but has placed great emphasis in the public sector. Hence the accredited ABCD programme has been rolled out in the Country to 104 youth funded by the National Department of Social Development. The ECNGOC then rolled out its non-accredited ABCD programme entitled ABCD in Municipal planning processes since 2014 in partnership with GIZ (German Development Partner). As a result of the setup of the reference groups during pilot phase 2 key partner such as OTP/SALGA/COGTA/ ECSECC have come on board to strengthen citizen participation in municipal planning processes primarily through the IDP and LED Planning processes. As a result of buy in from the National, Provincial and local spheres of government the ECNGOC attracted great interest in ABCD both as a social facilitation methodology and a theory of change. The ECNGOC then rolled out phase 2 which was entitled " Making All Voices Count - pilot phase 2 (e citizenry) funded primarily by HIVOS. This pilot phase 2 built on pilot phase 1 and embedded the ABCD asset orientation principles placing citizens at the centre of their own development within these 2 municipalities over a period of 3 years. Therefore in line with the Operation Masiphatisane championed by the Office of the Premier , the ABCD pilots (phase 1 and 2) have been in principle adopted by a resolution taken at the Premiers Coordinating Forum on 24th March 2017 to adopt the ABCD approach and align it to Operation Masiphatisane as social facilitation methodology and theory of change. The Office of the Premier played a key role in the ECNGOC community feedback sessions by ensuring that the relevant sector departments were present as well attendance by the Stakeholder Management unit of the OTP, presenting their role as a coordinating structure was appreciated and welcomed by communities. It was agreed that the OTP will continue to host community engagement sessions as a key outcome to keep communities periodically updated hence decreasing the numbers of protests arising out 15 of community dissatisfaction with service delivery.

The ECNGOC will continue to strengthen and harness its relationships with all key stakeholders of the reference group to ensure the citizen /state relationship creates a â&#x20AC;&#x153;new social compact" of accountability, openness and transparency.

CONCLUSION

Our ďŹ ndings are relevant for investigators and all the stakeholders conducting this particular topic of Asset Based Community Driven Development pilot Projects in relatively rural, low-income communities, especially with disadvantaged minority populations. The ABCD pilot phase 2 (MAVC E. Citizen survey) projects is a game changing programme that looks at bridging the gap between local government and communities through the use of a digital device. Despite the challenges encountered during this WORK INhave THEsuccessfully AREA OF met ABCD quarter, itECNGOC is safe to say that we the objectives and while we may have not met all the targets due to factors completely beyond our control, in spite of great efforts made to reach all targets. The MAVC pilot phase 2 was well received in the ABCD pilot municipalities, participants really emphasized sentiments valuable having a ECNGOC WORK their IN THE AREA on OFhow ABCD real time device to capture service delivery issues is of great significance. Some participants got to have a chance to be capacitated on computer literacy, they all showed interest and enthusiasm about the programme being implemented in their communities. These are some of the unintended outcomes that have had far reaching implications for community empowerment and upliftment. The communities have confidence in the pilot in terms of service delivery issues that were cascaded to the municipality and relevant sector departments. The new councillors also received the approach with the view that the approach is aligned to the IDP and will assist with service delivery in their communities knowing very well what communities wants and how they view service delivery in their wards. This pilot mainly the survey results contributed to corporate governance as a compliance requirement from the Office of the Auditor General to have physical evidence showing that communities do participate in the IDP and LED planning processes; hence this pilot has set a benchmark. 16

Despite the challenges and the lessons learnt the community engagement session and the survey process went off very well. The community members received the programme with enthusiasm and hope increased feeling that the issues raised on the survey have been addressed and will continue to be addressed. The community feedback sessions were very successful and communities appreciated that they were respected and the issues they raised were recognised and for the first time felt that there was great efforts in giving proper feedback to strengthen meaningful public participation. The active participation of the OTP as sector departments and the role of intermediary played by ECNGOC was received with great appreciation. The MAVC (pilot phase 2) no doubt has raised and captured the voices of the people which will be aligned to the IDP and LED Planning processes. This social innovation is being considered for scale up and replication in other municipalities within the Eastern Cape.

ANNEXURES

DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM Mobilisation of Social assets for Social action & Social Change

What is Asset Based Community-Driven Development? ABCD is a strategy and approach that reinforces community-led and sustainable development and builds on the assets that are already found in the community. Differently stated, the approach essentially mobilises individuals, associations and institutions to come together and build on their assets and social cohesion (ubuntu). This is in contrast to more conventional community development strategies and approaches that tend to focus primarily on community problems and needs. ABCD is a strategy directed towards sustainable economic development and uses the social capital of communities that includes networks, norms and trust that helps to increase productive potential.

ABCD Principles 1. Seeing a glass as half full rather than half empty ABCD focusses on the half full part of the glass, where the strengths, capabilities and assets of the community lie.

2. Identifying and naming assets rather than seeing needs ABCD uses asset maps to illustrate strengths and skills of people, organisations and businesses 20

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