Globally, increasingly vigilant and vocal civil society groups - important actors in the new multilateralism - are demanding openness, transparency and citizen participation in the discourse and practice of governance, which includes the right to information. This movement is facilitated by new technologies in the form of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook and sources like Wikileaks. A new generation of technology-enabled applications and innovations for open government is also being developed in the South. Numerous examples are emerging including the use of mobile phones, SMS (short message service) technologies and web-based platforms for providing feedback on services, reporting on corruption, and accessing services. For example, Global Voices, a virtual organization of bloggers, tracks and shares many of the more innovative applications, emerging in both middle-income and poorer countries. Although the impetus for openness comes from civil society, open government is, at its core, an enterprise of government transformation, the author of this article argues. The author believes that, eventually, citizens will be able to participate actively in the governance ecosystem, but only if governments create the right enabling environment for transparency through appropriate policies and disclosure rules for making information available, and if it creates the kinds of processes that enable citizens to participate in policy making.
Governance and participation in health
This Declaration of Commitment by Speakers of Parliament is based on the resolution to the Speakers from the fifth Session of the Second Pan African Parliament held on 3-14 October 2011, in Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, urging speakers of Parliament in the continent to prioritise the implementation of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health programmes with country reports on actions taken. The commitment promises high-level parliamentary support to hasten implementation of the Africa Parliamentary Policy and Budget Action Plan on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, agreed by Chairs of Finance and Budget committees of national parliaments in October 2010.
According to this article, the recent G20 summit in France and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Australia were both noteworthy for the continuing lack of substantive action on financial sector reform, climate negotiations, trade and the reform of international institutions. And the prognoses for the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in South Korea and the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in South Africa - scheduled for November 2011 - suggest more of the same will follow. The author argues that COP-17, originally billed as the People’s COP and the African COP, now appears unlikely to live up to either label. Nor, according to the author, does it appear likely that disagreements on the design of the new Green Climate Fund or on a second commitment phase for the Kyoto Protocol will be resolved in time for the conference. What will it take to break the deadlocks and spur leadership capable of responding to the crises, current and impending? As the 2011 movements in the Middle East and North Africa demonstrated, it is argued that civil society needs to challenge the legitimacy of the institutions charged with global governance and demand their radical overhaul or replacement.
In this study, researchers investigated use and understanding of nutrition labels on food packages among urban and rural consumers in Lilongwe, Malawi. They also examined the effect of socio-demographic factors and nutrition knowledge on use of nutrition labels. The researchers surveyed 206 consumers, approached randomly after they checked out at grocery stores. Shop managers and owners gave their consent to conduct the study outside the shops to avoid affecting customer behaviour and revenues. A pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data for analysis and interpretation. The findings show that self-reported use and understanding of nutrition labels were low, suggesting much lower use and comprehension in real-life retail environments. Urban, educated and female consumers were more likely to read nutrition panels when purchasing food. Nutrition labels were seen as important, particularly when purchasing a product for the first time and when considering buying certain products. In terms of nutrition knowledge, rural consumers were as knowledgeable as urban consumers, but they were less likely to connect their knowledge to emerging non-communicable diseases. The researchers caution that the study had some limitations: for example, they surveyed a small sample of shoppers drawn from one geographical area, therefore their findings are not conclusive. Objective, cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations in future would improve understanding of actual consumer behaviour in retail shops and homes in Malawi, the researchers argue. As this study is the first of its kind in Malawi, it is intended to provide baseline information useful to the healthcare professionals, the government, the food industry and consumers.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General’s proposal for reform of WHO has sparked controversy among WHO Member States, resulting in a meeting of the Executive Board (EB) convened on 1-3 November 2011. Member States expressed concern over the speed of the reform process; lack of information, analyses and independent evaluation to guide the reform; WHO's donor-driven approach and growing partnerships; the scope of independent evaluation; and proposals to limit WHO's scope. The EB meeting decided to establish a process for priority-setting of WHO's programme activities as part of the reform agenda, advocating a Member-driven process for priority-setting of the WHO programme, urging the Director-General not to be too hasty in pushing for the reforms until proper consultation with Member States had been made.
The author of this article argues that, in Africa, some governments have dodged their responsibility to implement famine-prevention measures because they require a socio-political contract between the government and civil society that allows citizens to hold governments accountable for famine. Instead, through their inaction and acceptance of foreign aid, governments have ceded that responsibility to non-government organisations (NGOs) and ‘foreign technical experts’ with a narrower definition of social responsibility and far less vested interest in the well-being of citizens. In the last sixty years, well over a trillion dollars of ‘development aid’ has been transferred from the West to African nations, but the author cautions that this aid comes at a cost: donor dependency, corruption and lack of incentive for governments to govern well and efficiently. In fact, NGOs may well be in competition with African governments as they provide goods and services that the governments do not. As NGOs step in and fill the gaps with their foreign-funded resources and growing presence and capacities, the legitimacy of aid-recipient states is called into question. Arguably, the legitimacy crisis of NGOs is in tandem with the legitimacy crisis of African governments. Because the provision of public goods and resources is part of the socio-political contract between the government and civil society, NGOs do risk undermining the legitimacy of the government. On the flip side, the legitimacy of foreign-funded NGOs comes under question when the interests of their international and surpranational funders conflict with national interests.
This report draws on the results of the 2011 Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration, building on similar surveys undertaken in 2006 and 2008. A total of 78 countries and territories volunteered to participate in the final round of surveys, which look at the state of play in 2010. The results indicate that, at the global level, only one out of the 13 targets established for 2010 – co-ordinated technical co-operation (a measure of the extent to which external funders co-ordinate their efforts to support countries’ capacity development objectives) – has been met, albeit by a narrow margin. Nonetheless, it is important to note that considerable progress has been made towards many of the remaining 12 targets. Globally, the survey results show much variation in the direction and pace of progress across external funders and partner countries since 2005. For the indicators where responsibility for change lies primarily with developing country governments, progress has been significant. For example, improvements have been made in the quality of tools and systems for planning and for financial and results management in a number of developing countries, often requiring deep reforms that go beyond aid management to broader aspects of government processes.
Representatives of over seventy national, regional and global civil society organisations met at the CIVICUS World Assembly held in Montreal, Canada, on 11 September 2011. A number of key points arose from the meeting including the need for civil society leadership to frame the discussion and guide the process on the post-2015 global agenda, and the need for a new global vision for the people and the planet that is radical, ambitious and universal. The vision should be strongly rooted in and use International Human Rights instruments as the basis for accountability, and should also be universal in its application across the north and the south and address the redistribution of wealth. It should empower communities on the ground to claim their entitlements and should aim at equity, with explicit commitments towards women and traditionally excluded groups. Furthermore, the vision should be holistic and address the issues of human rights, inequality, gender justice and environmental sustainability. Participants at the Assembly called on the United Nations (as opposed to other global fora such as the G20) to lead the process, with the UN Secretary General providing personal leadership on the post-2015 agenda. Until the end of 2015, civil society will aim to work together to develop a unifying, coherent global agenda and take action to influence the positions of national governments and the UN, participants concluded.
Corruption is eroding the benefits of good health projects in Africa and governments must look inwards for funding, the World Health Organisation (WHO), has said. In a meeting with African Ministers of Health and Ministers of Finance on 30 August 2011 in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire, WHO said solving the problem of funding was necessary for the health sector to thrive in the continent. Director-General of WHO, Margaret Chan, said proper harnessing and utilisation of resources would reduce the dependence on external funders for sponsoring health projects. Chan said the inclusion of these funders in health budgets posed challenges as most of them would weigh options and zero in on areas of interest and priority, which did not necessarily align with government objectives. She said most external funders gave little notice before shifting their targets, thereby creating huge gaps for funding in the countries. She added that ‘health care has to be regulated so that the private sector provides good services without ripping the people off,’ emphasising that health care projects must not be built only on the principle of attracting funds from politicians, but on principles of effectiveness and sustainability.
The current financial crisis in Swaziland is so severe that aid agencies are predicting that in the absence of major new loan, a humanitarian crisis could develop within the next few months. Stocks of antiretrovirals have fallen dramatically, reportedly standing at one month's supply, despite Swaziland having the world's highest prevalence of HIV (26.1%), with 70% of the population below the poverty line. However the author reports that loans and other resources are not reaching those with greatest need, and that wide inequalities in wealth exist.