Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
nkan - German
G D
Develop
pment Co
ooperation
Performa
ance Imprrovementt Project (PIP)
for de
evelopmentt actors in the North and East of
o Sri Lankka
200
2 09
Baaseline stud
dy rrepo
ort
Wo
omen in management
Wom
men Men
6
69% 66%
% Central tendency of distributiion:
%
61% 60% moode scores b
by professionn
39% 40%
4
31% 34%
28% Fieeld Senio
or
Officcers Managgers Teacheers
9%
Band d 2 Band 3 Band 4
Frequ
uency off compllaints byy catogo
ory
Public Utilities
Local Infrastructure
Environment
Land
Build
dings
Trinccomalee
The
e Performance Im
mprovement Prooject works with the Public Administration in the North and East off Sri Lanka
and is funded
d by the German Federal Ministryy for Economic Cooperation
C and Development (BMZ)
Augu
ust 2009
Ministry oof
Nation Buuilding and
Estate Inffrastructure
Developm ment
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Project background
1.2 Purpose of the study
1.3 Project log frame
1.4 Scope of the study
2. Summary of findings and recommendations 5
2.1 Human Resource Development findings
2.2 Human Resource Development recommendations
2.3 Local Government findings
2.4 Local Government recommendations
2.5 Community Development findings
2.6 Community Development recommendations
3. Human Resource Development (HRD) 9
4. Local Government 21
5. Community Development 48
6. Appendices 57
Appendix 1: HRD Data Collection 59
Appendix 2: HRD Results 85
Appendix 3: Local Government data source and schedule of visits for data 91
collection
Appendix 4: Local Government Data Collection Forms 97
Appendix 5: Awareness of Standing Committees and number of types of 159
Communication tools
Appendix 6: Redressal System Data Collection 165
Appendix 7: Community Development Data Collection 181
List of abbreviations
ACLG Assistant Commissioner of Local Government
ADB Asian Development Bank
BMZ German Federal Ministry for Economic Development
CAP Capacity Building for Implementing Authorities at Local Level
CBO Community Based Organisation
CDO Community Development Officer
CIM Centre for International Migration
CIRM Centre for Information Resource Management
CLG Commissioner of Local Government
DPCC District Planning Coordination Committee
DS Divisional Secretariat, District Secretariat
EPC Eastern Provincial Councils
FSCT Food Security and Conflict Transformation Project
GS Grama Seveka
GTZ German Technical Cooperation
HRD Human Resource development
IDP Internally Displaced People
LA Local Authorities
MA Management Assistant
MDTD Management Development Training Department
MC Municipal Council
NECORD North East Community Restoration and Development Project
NGO Non Government Organisation
NPC Northern Provincial Council
PA Programme Assistant
PIDT Public Information Dissemination Training
PIP Performance Improvement Project
PLA Participatory Learning in Action
PreSTEPS General English course (Pre Skill Through English for Public Servants
PR Public Relations
PRO Public Relations Officer
PS Pradeshiya Sabha
R/ACLG Regional Assistant Commissioner of Local Government (see ACLG)
RDO Rural Development Officer
RDS Rural Development Society
SLIDA Sri Lanka Institute for Development Administration
STEPS Skills Through English for Public Servants
TO Technical Officer
UNOPS United Nations Operations
UC Urban Council
WRDS Women’s Rural Development Society
WSPS Writing Skills for Public Servants
1 Introduction
Human resource development
For a large number of change agents in governance and development, human resource
development improves planning, management, communication, good governance and
conflict transformation skills. Directed through over 70 departments and organisations
within the Northern and Eastern Provincial Councils, activities include
• developing materials and training trainers to deliver Tamil and Sinhala courses in
effective communication, management, methodology and facilitation skills, integrated
local level development planning, public information dissemination, and self access skills;
• working through British Council Sri Lanka to train over 2,000 public servants to use
English as a link language for governance and development, effective management, and
conflict transformation
• Strengthening and making sustainable provincial council training courses and institutes.
1
Local government capacity development
For government agencies working at local level, local government capacity development
ensures better service provision and more participatory ways of working with the public.
Directed through 77 local authorities in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, activities
support local government reform and include
• strengthening local government advisory and standing committees;
• facilitating grievance redressal between the public and their local authorities;
• supporting local government communication with the public and the way information is
disseminated;
• implementing integrated local development planning through central and provincial
structures at local level .
Community development
Through women’s groups and other community based organisations, community
development empowers the public to improve their livelihoods and make better use of
government and non government services. Directed through 30 Women’s Rural
Development Societies (WRDS) in Batticaloa District, activities include
• supporting livelihood development, microfinance and small scale socio‐economic
development at village level;
• providing advocacy training and proposal writing to empower women to make better use
of local authorities and donors;
• working with the Czech NGO People In Need to help WRDS and their local authorities
develop pre schools and pre school education.
2
1.3 Project log frame
Development impact
Equitable distribution of resources and greater public participation - through good governance, promotion of democracy at decentralised level, and balanced socio-economic development - contribute to peace building in Sri Lanka.
Indirect impact
Social equity is improved by conflict sensitive, participatory public services which benefit the vulnerable and the poor.
Outcome
Management tasks and service delivery for socio-economic development are carried out in a coordinated, participatory and conflict sensitive way at provincial and local level.
Indicator 1 Indicator 2 Indicator 3
650 people working at provincial and local government level apply what Conflict sensitive, participatory mechanisms (committees, redressal Plans and proposals from women’s/ community based groups are
they have learnt about good governance and conflict transformation in the systems) are established and used in at least two local authorities (Means reflected in at least 10 current, small scale socio-economic projects.
work place (Means of verification: gender sensitive survey) of verification: minutes, publications and agreements) (Means of verification: agreements and local development plans)
Provincial and local government staff and counterparts improve the way Local government becomes more responsive to the public by using Women’s groups submit realistic, needs based proposals to local
they work as service providers, within their organisations and with the improved mechanisms of communication and planning for better service authorities and other donors.
public. delivery and conflict mitigation.
Training courses and materials for key competencies in planning, Local government has improved systems for public committees, grievance WRDS have the confidence and skills to utilise the services of local
management, communication, good governance and conflict redressal, information dissemination, and local development planning. authorities and other donors for community development.
transformation are expanded and institutionalised.
• The Skills Through English for Public Servants (STEPS) programme is • Advisory and standing committee systems are strengthened. • WRDS leadership is strengthened for community development
expanded and made sustainable. • Public Redressal Systems are improved and expanded. purposes.
• The training capacity of the Provincial Councils is strengthened and • Information dissemination is improved. • Advocacy events are organised to bring the Local Authorities and
trainer competencies established. • Local level development planning is introduced in different areas. communities closer together
• Good Governance is taught through a variety of ways to stakeholders. • Livelihood development is strengthened.
• Pre schools are strengthened
3
1.4 Scope of the study
The baseline study was comprehensive and detailed. 7 separate studies were carried out in
five districts in the Northern and Eastern Provinces – Jaffna, Vavuniya, Trincomalee,
Batticaloa and Ampara ‐ between November 2008 and March 2009. In total, the opinions
and skills of 1,121 public servants and citizens were considered, representing 146
government and civil society organisations.
4
2 Summary of findings and recommendations
6
2.4 Local government: recommendations
• The project’s support for local government reforms should be done through the CLG,
ACLG, Secretaries, elected councillors and civil society groups.
• A feasibility study should be carried out prior to any larger engagement in
strengthening standing and advisory committees. This study should also form the
basis for any decisions on whether to strengthen existing committees or support the
formation of new ones.
• Balanced appointments of committee members should be made taking into
consideration gender, age, ethnicity, transparency, non‐elected status and sector
specific criteria.
• Quality assurance of how the committees function should be provided through
effective communication training for committee members.
• The redressal system should be standardised and improved and local authorities
should use the new system to improve the way they register, analyse and follow up
complaints. Existing PIP public relations and redressal training for local authorities
should be revised accordingly.
• Analysis of high frequency complaints in the redressal system and utilisation of the
Public Information Dissemination Training (PIDT) should lead to improved public
awareness and service delivery.
• The role of public relations officers in local authorities should be strengthened, so
that they can provide front desk services, organize public information dissemination
and run the redressal system effectively.
• Two‐way communication between the public and the local authorities should be
improved with more emphasis on face to face communication and outreach to the
community through, for example, open days and mobile services.
• Models of good service delivery that benefit the poor should be duplicated.
• Advocacy from community based civil society groups as a bottom‐up means of
strengthening channels of communication between the people and their local
authorities should be encouraged.
7
whereas 22% had visited their local authority at least once and 8% visited on a
regular basis.
• Citizen’s charters in their present form were neither reader friendly nor accessible to
women from the WRDS.
• WRDS did not use the PIP supported local authority system to redress grievances in
their communities. Four out of six local authorities in their area didn’t have the
redressal system and women in the other two areas didn’t use the system even
though it existed.
• WRDS had other ways of redressing grievances in their communities. Approximately
one third resolved problems through the Grama Seveka or other village leader, one
third through the president of the Rural Development Society or Women’s Rural
Development Society, and one third through the police.
• DS supported community based organisations – the Rural Development Societies
and Women’s Rural Development Societies – did not coordinate with the Provincial
Council supported community based organisations – the Community Centres.
• Rural Development Officers, who look after WRDS, and Community Development
Officers, who look after Community Centres, did not coordinate at village level.
Duplication and gaps were evident.
• WRDS did not utilise the services or amenities offered by the Community Centres.
However they would be interested in doing so in future.
8
3 Human resouce development (HRD)
3.2 Background
In the 2005 – 2008 phase of the project, the Human Resource development component
focussed on strengthening the two main provincial council training service providers, the
Management Development Training Department (MDTD) and the Centre for Information
Resource management (CIRM). This involved building up training facilities, courses, materials
and in‐house trainers and using these new resources to begin to meet the needs of the
provincial councils as determined by the 2005 HRD training needs analysis. As a result, 46 in‐
house Tamil and Sinhala speaking trainers were trained and placed, nearly 800 programme
and management assistants did Induction training for Public Service, and a further 1,500
field officers, middle and senior managers from the public service successfully completed
Skills Through English for Public Servants at three levels, courses in Spatial Planning, Self
Access Skills, Effective Communication, Management, Proposal Writing, Impact Monitoring
and Assessment, Information Management, and English language training in the UK.
The 2009 human resource development component of the project continues quite
systematically from the 2005 – 2008 phase with many of the courses and target participants
remaining the same. However, in this new phase the training programmes are to be
expanded and made more sustainable and work‐place oriented. This will involve developing
new courses for local government, increasing the pool of provincial council trainers and
finding a permanent home for Skill Through English for Public Servants programme, as
planned for the STEPS Institute, Jaffna. It will also involve ensuring direct links between the
training room and the workplace and proving that a significant number of course
participants use their new skills in good governance and conflict transformation in their jobs.
An extensive HRD training needs analysis was carried out in 2005. On going project
monitoring and evaluation since then shows that training needs remain the same. The 2009
baseline study was therefore designed as a way of collecting quantifiable data on a known
problem in order to measure progress more systematically at outcome level.
3.3 Methodology
Scope of the study
Questionnaires and English language Placement Tests were administrated to 473 public
servants from management support level (Management Assistants) to senior managers
9
(Divisional Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, Heads of Departments) working in the Northern
and Eastern Provincial Councils and representing 65 organisations. See Appendix 1 pp.60‐66.
Respondents filled out the questionnaires at the same time as they sat for the Skills Through
English for Public Servants (STEPS) placement test.
12 Feb 09 Batticaloa ACLG Office 36
26 ‐27 Mar 09 Vavuniya ACLG Office 85
Future respondents will fill out the same questionnaire prior to other Performance
Improvement Project (PIP) courses so that the impact in different professional fields can be
measured at the end of the project.
July 09 Methodology 20
July – Dec 09 Public Information Dissemination Training 50
Aug – Dec 09 Effective Communication 50
Oct – Nov 09 Integrated Local Level Development
30
Planning Guidelines
As the indicator at outcome level requires a gender sensitive survey, it was important that
data at the baseline level was also analysed in a gender sensitive way. Therefore data
collected was analysed first collectively and then disaggregated by women.
Measuring instruments
An English language placement test was administered which consisted of two parts – a
listening paper and a grammar paper. Both were multiple choice and clerically marked out of
100. Overall marks corresponded to a banding scale and participants’ ability in English was
measured according to this system, and to the GTZ PIP courses on offer.
Band 0 ‐1 Beginner; no course available
Band 2 Elementary (Council of Europe A1); Pre STEPS
Band 3 Pre intermediate (Council of Europe A2); STEPS
Band 4 Intermediate (Council of Europe B1); WSPS 1
Band 5 Upper Intermediate – lower advanced (Council of Europe B2); WSPS 2
Band 6 Advanced (Council of Europe C1); WSPS 2.
A questionnaire in Tamil and Sinhala was used to find out to what extent six key skill areas
for governance and conflict transformation were being used in the workplace, as shown in
the table below. These skill areas corresponded to training needs identified through
• the PIP 2005 training needs analysis
• emerging needs identified over four years of project implementation
• the requirements of the Northern and Eastern Provincial Councils as identified through
the PIP stakeholder planning workshops in February and March 2009.
10
Each skill area was divided into its key sub skills which form the main components of PIP
training courses:
Skill Sub skills
transparency, accountability, dealing with corruption,
Good
1 responsiveness, public participation, equality, consensus,
Governance
efficiency and effectiveness
Conflict dealing with conflict in the home, workplace, community; armed
2
Transformation conflict; conflict resolution
local level development planning, resource mapping, integrated
3 Spatial planning
local level planning, compiling development profiles
Management and assertive communication, time management, effective meeting
4
communication skills, information management
Public information
5 public information management
dissemination
6 Writing skills text types for writing, proposal writing
The questionnaire was designed so that data could be analysed at sub skill level and then
aggregated, to get an overall picture. See Appendix 1 pp.67‐75 for the questionnaire and pp.
76‐84 for an example of a filled one. For each of the six skill areas, respondents were asked if
a) they knew about the skill and its sub skills and b) they were using the skill and its sub skills
in the work place. If they said ‘yes’ to b) they were required to give an example that ‘proved’
they used the skill in the workplace. Those collating the questionnaires went through a
standardisation exercise to agree on which examples from respondents would be considered
‘good’ and which ‘invalid’. Responses were considered good, and therefore counted, if they
referred to practical use of the sub skills in the workplace. Responses were considered
invalid, and therefore not counted, if they referred to personal experience without relevance
to the workplace, or showed misunderstanding of the concept in the first place.
Examples of answers classified as ‘Invalid’
Good governance: efficiency
Public assets were being vandalised by someone so I advised the public to catch the people who were
responsible.
Good governance: responsiveness
When the public approached our office, I told them that we couldn’t provide services for them due to
lack of fund allocation from our line ministry.
Good governance: accountability
Agriculture inputs provided by the government were distributed among the farmers.
Conflict transformation: dealing with conflict in the work place
During the school sports meet a lot of conflicts came up among our staff.
11
Exaamples of answers classsified as ‘G
Good’
Goo
od governancee: transparen
ncy and dealin
ng with corrup
ption
An iinquiry was caarried out for why extra mo
oney was bein
ng charged at the public cem
metery.
Spa
atial planning:: resource ma
apping
We do a resourcee map plan for wells, mobile water contaainers, driverss and easy pub
blic access points
in order to managge the water problem in th
he dry season in our local auuthority area.
Man
nagement an
nd communica
ation
We discussed witth the DS in ouur divisional leevel planning coordinating committee (D
DPCC) meeting the
needs of the IDPss in the campss.
Pub
blic informatio
on disseminattion
We disseminated d information through leafleets about birtth registration
n in order to reegister those who
had not yet registtered their ch
hildren’s birthss.
Wriiting skills
With the supportt of a partner organisation, I prepared a proposal for U
UNOPS and ree‐edited it sevveral
timees according tto the documeent requiremeents.
See Appendix 2
2, pp. 86‐88
8.
3.4
4 Finding
gs
Agg
gregated findings
f
Out of the 473 respondentss in the HRD
D baseline sttudy, 51% off respondennts were wommen.
Accoording to th
he sample, more wom men than me en working as Teacherrs, Managem ment
Assistants, and Programme Assistants are
a being no ominated or putting themselves forw ward
for ttraining courrses provided
d by the Perrformance Im mprovement Project. Butt more men than
wommen workingg as Senior Managers, Community
C Developmen
D nt Officers o
or Administraation
Officcers were abble to take ad
dvantage of tthe training opportunitiees offered byy the projectt.
Women in managgement
W
Women Men
91%
69% 72%
61% 66%
60%
39%
% 40%
31% 34%
%
28
8%
9%
See Appendix 1, p. 65.
12
We would havee to comparre our baseline figures with w the acttual proporttion of men and
wom men workingg in these jo
obs to see iff the male‐fe ourses correlates
emale uptakke for PIP co
withh the genderr demograph hic in the wo orkplace. Acccording to th he Eastern Prrovincial Cou uncil,
therre is a 70‐30 female to m male ratio att Manageme ent and Programme Assisstant level w which
reveerses to 30 – 70 at Seniorr Managemeent level. In rrough terms then, the figgures correlate. It
is also a commo on fact that ffewer womeen work as field officers ((CDOs and R RDOs) because of
the rural travel iinvolved in the job. But it may also b managers are more willin
be true that m ng to
release women in certain jobs (e.g. Maanagement and Program mme Assistants) than otthers
(e.g.. Administrattion Officerss) for trainingg.
Resppondents weere more coonfident to claim
c knowledge about the perhaps more ‘gen
neral’
areaas of good go
overnance (7 79%) and co onflict transfo
ormation (75
5%) than theey were with h the
morre technical skills of man
nagement co ommunicatio on (56%), wrriting skills (51%) and sp
patial
plan
nning (36%).
Howwever, for alll subjects, th
here was a vvery big discrrepancy betw
ween what rrespondentss said
theyy knew and w
what they co ould prove th
hey knew.
Respond
dents’ statted vs. proven know
wledge
79%
75% knowledge proof
60%
56%
%
51
1%
36%
15%
11%
3% 3% 6% 3%
Resp
pondents weere weakest in evidencinng practical uunderstandin ng of conflictt transformaation,
mannagement coommunicatio on and spatial planning. Of thesse, the bigggest discrep
pancy
betw
ween knowleedge and pro oof was for cconflict transformation: 75% said theey knew abo out it
but only 3% could provide practical exam
mples of usinng the skills aat work.
In general,
g therre was no siignificant diffference bettween what men and w women said they
knew w and whatt they could prove theyy knew. How wever, in thee field of pu
ublic informaation
disseemination, more
m than twice
t as many women (8%) than men m (3%) co ould substanntiate
their knowledgee with practiccal exampless from the workplace. See Appendix 2 2, pp. 86 – 88.
Thesse results corroborated
c d the findings of the PIP
P 2005 Trraining Need ds Analysis. The
pondents neeeded to close the gap between their know
resp wledge and performancce in
mannagement, planning,
p com
mmunication n, report wrriting propossal writing, and informaation
mannagement in n good govvernance, co onflict transsformation contexts. In n addition it is
impoortant to no
ote that 94%% of the resp
pondents staated they haad not followwed any typ
pe of
train
ning course in these subjjects before. See Append dix 2, p.90.
13
Diffferences in what men and women cou
uld prove they
knew
W
Women Meen
8% 8%
7%
3% 3% 3%
%
2% 2% 1.5
5% 1.4% 1.4% 1.6%
Findings by skill
s and sub
s skill
Engglish
The placement ttest results w were entirelyy consistent with the preevious 1500 test takers from
the public servvice in the North and East of Sri Lanka bettween 20055 and 2008 and
corrroborated the findings off the PIP 200 05 baseline sstudy for English. IN the 2009 study 81%
of all those testeed could be accommodate on PIP de esigned English courses inn the STEPS suite
whicch are suitabble for thosee who scoredd Bands 2 to 5 on the tesst. Between 2005 and 20 008 it
has been between 81 and 83 3%.
By internationall standards, 81% of goveernment serrvants tested
d fell into an
n ability rangge in
Engllish that cou
uld be enhaanced by a four week training
t couurse enough to improve e the
capaacity of the organisation
n they camee from. By extension,
e m
more than thhree quarters of
thosse tested had d the potential, through English language trainingg, to establissh more effective
om other parts of the co
linkss with publicc servants fro ountry. The rresults affirm med the pote ential
of the
t PIP appproach to use
u English as a tool for
f effectivee managemeent and con nflict
tran
nsformation.
Placcement te
est band le
evels
Band 5 WSP
PS 2 Band 0‐1 N
No
Band 4 WSPS 1 2% course
13%
19%
Baand 3 STEPS
30%
Baand 2 Pre
STEPS
36%
Sp
pread of sscores by p
profession
n
60%
40%
20%
0%
Band
d 0 ‐1 Band 2 Band 3 Ban
nd 4 Band 5
Ce
entral ten
ndency of distribution: mode
e scores byy
p
professionn
Midddle
manageers, Field
Officeers and Senior Man
nagers
Clericaal staff Band 3 TTeachers
Bannd 2 Band 4
Band 0 ‐1 Ban
nd 2 Band 3 Band 4 Band 5
In the
t entire sample
s no‐o
one scored higher thaan Band 5 (Upper Inteermediate‐Lo
ower
Advanced level, Council of Europe level B
B2).
See Appendix 2, p.89
15
Good governance
79% stated that they knew about good governance. However, only 15% could prove they
used it in the work place. No significant gender difference was found.
Effectiveness 4%
Conflict transformation
Conflict transformation Men 75% stated that they
Women
knew about conflict
% that said they knew about it 37% 38% transformation. How‐
ever, only 3% could prove
% that could prove it with a good 1.6% 1.4%
they used it in the work
example
place. The difference
here between stated
knowledge and proof was the largest in the whole survey. No significant gender difference
was found.
In all areas (from dealing with conflict
Skills % who proved it at home to dealing with armed
conflict) respondents were unable to
Conflict in the work place 5% substantiate their knowledge with
Conflict in the community 4% good examples of using skills for
conflict transformation. Even if
Conflict in the home 3% respondents had valid strategies for
dealing with armed conflict it would
Armed conflict 1%
have been unlikely for them to have
written them down in the
questionnaire, given the present situation in Sri Lanka. However, one third of the
respondents (156) gave invalid examples with specific reference to dealing with conflict in
the home, community and workplace.
16
said they knew about public information dissemination and more than twice as many
women as men could give practical examples from the work place.
Management communication
56% stated that they knew about management communication. However, only 3% could
Management and communication Men Women prove they used it in the
work place. No
% that said they knew about it 27% 29% significant gender
difference was found. A
% that could prove it with a good example 2% 2% few more women than
men said they knew
about management communication but the same number could prove it.
Writing skills
51% stated that they knew about writing skills. However, only 6% could prove they used
them in the work
Writing skills Men Women
place. Slightly more
% that said they knew about it 24% 27% women than men
said they knew
% that could prove it with a good example 3% 3% about writing skills
but in terms of good
examples, both men and women didn’t have a lot of proof.
Respondents showed more awareness and skills in proposal writing than in text types. This
may have been because respondents were
Skills % who proved it
more familiar with proposal writing
Proposal writing 9% courses offered through NECORD, CIRM,
and SLIDA. ‘Text types’ is not such a
Text types for writing 4% familiar approach in Sri Lanka.
17
Spatial planning
36% ‐ approximately only one third of respondents ‐ claimed to know about spatial planning,
and this was the skill that scored the lowest on the questionnaire, in terms of both
knowledge and
Spatial planning Men Women
proof. Of those few
% that said they knew about it 19% 17% who said they knew
about spatial
% that could prove it with a good example 1.4% 1.5% planning only 3%
could give an
example of applying spatial planning
Skills % who proved it skills in the workplace. This finding
Preparing development profile 5% correlates to earlier findings by CIM
experts working in the Provincial
Resource mapping 3% Planning Secretariat. Slightly more
men than women said they knew
Integrated local development 3%
planning
about spatial planning but slightly
fewer of them could prove it.
Spatial local level development 2% Respondents were slightly better at
the needs analysis side of
development planning (provincial council planners may have had more experience in
preparing a development profile or doing resource mapping) but respondents were less
good at evidencing implementation skills for spatial or integrated local development
planning.
3.5 Recommendations
• Training should continue to be delivered based on the main needs identified in the 2005
training needs analysis, the 2006 CAP organisational analysis for local government,
needs arising from other PIP project activities 2005 ‐ 2008 and requirements from
stakeholders expressed in planning meetings in 2009. These needs include
- using English as a link language and tool for management, conflict transformation,
critical thinking and learning about governance and development;
- improving communication skills in all three languages (English, Sinhala and Tamil)
including writing better letters, minutes, and proposals and conducting better meetings;
- encouraging on‐going professional development by increasing self access skills and the
pool of qualified trainers and resource persons;
- making government organisations more effective and efficient and more responsive to
the public;
- finding ways of running longer, more intensive courses in order to change they way
people do things, without depleting departments of their key staff too often.
• The approach of relating all ‘general’ training courses ‐ like STEPS, effective
communication, information management and self access skills training ‐ to practical
skills for the work place should continue.
• Senior managers should be more actively involved in making their staff apply their
newly gained skills in the work place. They should become more familiar with the
content of the training courses on offer through MDTD, CIRM and PIP, and find ways of
incorporating the best practices promoted through those courses in the workplace on a
daily basis.
18
• PIP should increase awareness amongst secretaries and heads of departments of how
the courses on offer are of benefit to the work place. This could be done through PIP
preparing
- more regular reports and presentations for provincial council meetings
- short articles for EPC and NPC newsletters and websites
- short ‘taster’ courses and awareness raising sessions for secretaries and heads of
departments.
• New courses on guidelines for integrated local development planning, public
information dissemination, redressal system, and methodology should contain a
practical component which obliges participants to apply their new skills in the work
place. Courses should be designed so that recognition, funds or eligibility to continue to
the next level, depend on implementing a project or activity using the skills gained from
the training course. Certification should only be granted after participants have ‘proved’
they have utilised the new skills at work, measured against agreed criteria.
• The pool of qualified Provincial Council trainers should be increased and quality
assured, based on an agreed list of trainer competencies, in order for more training
courses to be run with follow‐up visits in the workplace.
• PIP should update local government training courses and materials in the light of the
PIP/CAP experience and changing frame conditions, to make them even more work
oriented. Changes should be made to
- spatial planning, to include the Kinniya experience and incorporate the integrated local
level development planning guidelines
- redressal system training, to standardise the approach, include lessons learnt since the
initial training, and add some more practical examples/case studies to make the
materials more relevant and specific. (See recommendations, Redressal System, p. 46,
bullet point 3.)
• PIP should continue providing the highest number of places for Pre STEPS and STEPS
courses to accommodate the 66% of all public servants who are placed in these bands.
However, because these numbers are so large and the placement test is a fairly crude
measuring instrument, the 66% represents a wide range of ability. To accommodate this
range, the STEPS suite should be expanded to bridge the gaps between Pre STEPS and
STEPS and between STEPS and WSPS so that more staff get a chance to continue at the
right level.
• Once WSPS 1 (letters, emails and minutes) is developed and understood as catering to
different needs than WSPS 2 (concept papers, reports and proposals), the two writing
courses should be used to target specific needs related to specific posts. For example,
more senior managers should follow WSPS 2 while those with greater administration
needs (Management Assistants, Chief Management Assistants and Administration
Officers) should follow WSPS 1.
• PIP and its project partners should work together to ensure equal participation by
women including at the higher management and administration levels. This should be
done as part of a longer term initiative to promote more women to senior management
level and even out the 60/40 junior management – 30/70 senior management female to
male ratio. For example targets for women in senior management could be set for 40%
19
by 2015 and 50% by 2020. The Performance Improvement Project should contribute to
this process by
- collecting real data on the female‐male staff ratios in both Provincial Councils,
disaggregated by job title
- conducting a special placement test for women in senior management and
administration so that more places can be provided for them on courses
- considering school principals as a rich source of women in senior management
positions, encouraging more of them to attend training courses like STEPS, and through
them establishing more positive role models and longer term professional development
patterns for girls and women
- comparing the number of women on residential and non residential courses and seeing
if there is a correlation between women with family responsibilities being more likely to
attend non residential courses at district level, and if so, providing more of these
courses (e.g. in Batticaloa, Vavuniya and Jaffna).
• PIP should continue to offer a choice of course dates to maintain the good will of senior
management and at the same time maximize the release of staff.
4.2 Background
From August 2005 to October 2008 the Performance Improvement Project’s sister project,
Capacity Building for Implementing Authorities at local level (CAP), strengthened 28 tsunami
affected local authorities primarily in the Eastern Province. During that time, CAP built
capacity in local government through
• organisational development: training in organisational analysis and the development of
organisational change plans
• responsiveness to the public: grievance redressal systems in 20 of the 28 local authorities
• better coordination with the central line authorities: integrated local level development
planning in Kinniya ‐ the first time in Sri Lanka that a Divisional Secretariat, an Urban
Council and a Pradeshiya Sabha had worked together on an integrated four year plan and
budget.
The importance of local authorities for the development of the country as a whole was
underlined by the Government’s 1999 Local Government Reforms circular No. 4 and in the
National Policy Declaration for Local Government (2007). The Citizens' Charter, adopted in
2008, emphasises public participation as a crucial prerequisite for sustainable, democratic
development.
In 2009 the local government component of PIP was extended to support the
implementation of local government reforms in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, to
enable greater public participation in local authorities through standing and advisory
committees, improved communication and redressal systems. Work in these areas builds on
what had already been achieved through CAP in 2005 – 2008 (see above). Specifically PIP will
work towards making local government more responsive to the needs of the communities
they serve through piloting models of workable, participatory standing and advisory
committees, an improved and standardised public redressal system, public relations officer
21
(PRO) front desk training, information dissemination training, capacity development for
service delivery, and integrated local level development planning.
4.3 Methodology
Scope of the study
Committees and communication mechanisms
For gathering baseline data on local government standing and advisory committees and
mechanisms of communication, 15 local authorities were assessed.
See Appendix 3, p.92 for further details.
Local authorities were selected to include
• all types of local authorities ‐ Pradeshiya Sabha (PS), Urban Council (UC) and
Municipal Council (MC)
• a mixture of elected and non elected councils
• the districts where PIP could work (local authorities in Vavuniya, Kilinochchi,
Mullaitvu and Mannar were not included due to their conflict related inaccessibility)
• those previously assisted by the GTZ supported CAP project
• a range of government and civil society respondents.
Redressal system
For gathering baseline data on the redressal system, staff from 32 local authorities were
interviewed and their redressal systems assessed: 25 local authorities in the East and 7 in
Jaffna. 20 of these Eastern Province local authorities had already set up redressal systems
with the support of the CAP project before the end of 2008 (see 4.2 above.) For this study,
five other local authorities in the Eastern Province (Manmunai West PS and Poratheevu PS in
Batticaloa District, Ampara UC in Ampara District, and Kuchchaveli PS and Trincomalee UC in
Trincomalee District) and the 7 local authorities in Jaffna who had not had the same support
were also assessed, with a view to setting up the system systematically for them in the
future.
In addition 52 citizen plaintiffs from 18 local authorities were interviewed whose grievances
had purportedly been redressed successfully.
22
Date District No. LAs No respondents Conducted by
Local government committees and communication mechanisms
In the Eastern Province, five structured interviews were used and answers recorded in the
format included in Appendix 4, pp.97 ‐ 104. These consisted of
• Three questionnaires for local authority secretaries and chairmen, on standing
committees, advisory committees and communication mechanisms respectively
• Two questionnaires for the public (community leaders, community based
organisation representatives, teachers, and religious leaders), one combining
standing and advisory committees and one on communication mechanisms.
In the Northern Province (Jaffna) information was gathered through open interviews with
the administrative heads of the selected local authorities and with members of their
respective advisory committees, community based organisations and citizens. In both the
Northern and Eastern Province studies, citizens were interviewed to corroborate local
authority claims about reform implementation.
Questions for both the structured and more open interviews covered the following topics:
• the existence, type, composition and performance of committees
• public and public service awareness and opinion of committees
• the existence, type and purpose of communication mechanisms
• the form and kind of information transmitted by local authorities
• public awareness of information transmitted and effectiveness of the mechanisms.
Redressal system
In the 20 assessed local authorities, information was collected and cross referenced in the
following ways:
• A questionnaire was used to collect information on how the complaint system was
set up and functioned.
• Joint interviews were conducted with the PRO and the Secretary.
• The complaints ledger and a selection of complaint letters were examined.
• A limited number of follow‐up visits with plaintiffs were conducted, where the local
authority had entered the case as ‘successfully resolved', in order to corroborate if
this was in fact true.
In 12 local authorities in Jaffna, Batticaloa, Ampara and Trincomalee Districts, information
was collected by using more open interviews with local authority representatives and
citizens as respondents. In addition, accompanied by the Secretary and the Public Relations
Officer (PRO), a physical inspection was carried out to verify the existence of complaint
boxes, information counters and complaint registers. See Appendix 3, p.96 for details.
23
4.4
4 Findin
ngs
Sta
anding com
mmittees
The
e role of the
e standing ccommitteess
The concept of standing co
ommittees is specified by the Local Governmentt reform circular
no. 2
2
• The com
mmittee systeem should bee made comp
pulsory in alll Local Autho
orities,
• Every Lo
ocal Authoritty should ha
ave one com
mmittee for finance
f and planning an
nd in
additionn a minimumm of four otheer committeees.
• Subjectss of committtees should be grouped providing fo
or closely rellated subjeccts to
come unnder one com mmittee.
• All mattters presenteed to the council should b
be channelled
d through the committeees.
• n of citizens in the area, and represeentatives of yyouth and w
Inclusion women sectio
ons in
the committees shou uld be made compulsory..
• The commpulsory incclusion of ciitizens in th
hese committtees will fa
acilitate peo
ople’s
participa
ation in locall governmen nt affairs.
• In view of the abo
ove considerrations the committee
c s
system shou
uld be unifo
ormly
operatedd in all typess of Local Autthorities.
Ministry of Local Goveernment and PProvincial Cou
uncil, Local Go
overnment Reeform Circular No.2
c
contained in tthe Local Goveernment Refoorm Circular 1 to13 dated 23 Apr 07, Colo
ombo
Num
mber of standing comm
mittees
Nonne of the asssessed local authoritiess had established all off the required five stan
nding
mmittees, as outlined in tthe local govvernment re
com eform circulaar quoted ab bove. Out of nine
asseessed local au uthorities in the Eastern Province, fivve local auth horities had tthree functio oning
stan
nding committees and an nother threee had two fun nctioning staanding comm mittees. Even n the
Mun nicipal Counccils of Batticcaloa and Kalmunai, with h the highestt need for, aand likelihoo od of,
confforming to th he governmeent circular, had only thrree standing committees.
See Appendix 5, p.161.
Number o
N of LA stand
ding comm
mittees
Actual Required
2 2 2 3 2 3 2 3
5
3 3 3 2 3 2 3 2
0
24
Onlyy elected loccal councils h
have standing committeees. At the tim
me of conducting the survey,
therre were no sttanding com he Northern Province as none of thee local authorities
mmittees in th
were functioningg as elected councils.
Finaance and Plaanning comm
mittees weree found to be
b the most prevalent ‐ eight out off the
ninee assessed lo m. This was probably beecause the M
ocal authoritties had them Municipal Council
Ordiinance and tthe Local Go overnment R Reform Circular 2 explicittly required there to be one.
The second mosst common w were the Envvironment Prrotection com mmittees (6 found), follo owed
by the
t Health and Sanitatio on committeees (4 found). The otherr committeess comprised one
eachh of the follo
owing: Housing and Deveelopment, Plaanning and P Public Utilitiees.
Tyypes of standing co
ommitteess
8
1 1 1
The public were not aware o of the existennce of most local authority standing committees. Out
of 21
2 committees in nine lo
ocal authoritties, the pub ware of the eexistence of only
blic were aw
two. These weree In Ampara UC, where tthe public we ere aware off the Environ nment Protecction
commmittee and in Vavunathevu PS wh here they we ere aware of
o the Finan nce and Plan nning
commmittee. Secrretaries, chairmen and m mayors, on the other han nd were veryy much aware of
ommittees. SSee Appendix 5, p.160.
their standing co
Aware
enes of staanding co
ommitteess
90
0% 86%
10%
S
Secretaries/Co
ommissionerss Chairm
men/Mayors The Public
Onee of the aimss of the baseeline study wwas to find oout how sattisfied the citizens were with
the work of the standing coommittees in n their area. However, 90% of respondents were e not
even % who said they knew something about stan
n aware theey existed. Of the 10% nding
25
com
mmittees, no one of them could desccribe how th
he committeees function
ned or how they
coulld be of use tto the publicc.
Com
mposition o
of standing ccommittees
The 21 standingg committeees assessed comprised
c of 130 comm
mittee membbers. Committtees
rangged from 4 to 15 membeers in size (Trincomalee U UC Finance aand Planningg Committee
e had
15 m
members). Th he average wwas 6.
Representation of women o on standing ccommittees was very lim mited. Only 7 7% (9 out off 130
memmbers) weree women. Inn 5 out of 8 local autho
orities there were no female committee
memmbers at all. The only loccal authority with a gend der balance w was Ampara UC, where 5 5 out
of 12 members w were women n.
Wom
men on standing co
ommitteess Men women
23
19 18 18
15
5
13
7 8
5
2 2
0 0 0 0 0
Ampara UC
UC
Kalmunai MC
Vavunathevu PS
Seruvila PS
Kuchchaveli PS
Batticaloa MC
Kattankudi UC
Trincomalee UC
A
Y
Young people on staanding com
mmittees
20 o
over 35 under 35
19
1 18
5
15
12
1
10 10
8
5
3 2 3 3 2
0 0
Ampara UC
Kalmunai MC
Vavunathevu PS
Seruvila PS
Kuchchaveli PS
Batticaloa MC
Kattankudi UC
Trincomalee UC
p
26
In thhe assessed ssample, 58 oout of 130 standing comm mittee members (45%) w were membe ers of
the public. 55% belonged to o the provinccial councils. However, inn this catego ory too there e was
littlee standardisaation. Two lo
ocal authoritties did not h
have any meembers of th he public on their
stannding commiittees (Batticcaloa MC an
nd Seruvila PS) while in four local aauthorities there
t
were more pub mmittees than council members
blic members in the com m (Kattankudi UC, in
Vavu unathevu PSS, in Ampara UC and in Ku uchchaveli PS).
N
Non counc
cil membe
ers on staanding com
mmittees
c
council memb er non‐ccouncil memb
ber
18
15 14
12 13
10 10
8 7
5 5 5 6
2
0 0
Kuchchaveli PS
Batticaloa MC
Kattankudi UC
Ampara UC
Ampara UC
Kalmunai MC
Trincomalee UC
Vavunathevu PS
Seruvila PS
Baatticaloa Ampara Trincoamalee
Fun
nctions of th
he standingg committee
es
No statutory reesponsibilitiees were found for the
e standing committees, but their real
funcctions can bee summarised as follows..
• Finance committeess recommended and appproved finanncial transacttions and buudget
preparation.
• Environm ment protecction committees inspe ected buildin
ngs and facttories to en
nsure
environmmental proteection.
• Planningg committeees prepared sshort, mid annd long term m development plans.
• Health aand sanitatioon committeees raised puublic awarenness on denggue, malariaa and
diarrhoeea.
• Public utility
u committees were responsible for maintennance of maarkets and other
o
public utilities.
In addition to the standing committeess there were advisory committees
c (see below) and
varioous technicaal or sub committees which include
ed tender booards, technical committees,
citizen charter committees, library comm mittees, sporrts clubs, and
d purchasingg committeess.
Stan
nding comm
mittee meetings
Acco
ording to thee responden
nts most of the
t committtees met very frequently. 95% said they
met regularly. 220% said theyy met weeklly, 75 % said
d they met at least once in a month,, and
20 %
% said at leasst once in tw
wo months.
27
How
wever, it was not possib
ble to verifyy the accuraacy of this in
nformation from comm
mittee
minutes or other records. Therefore it can be in nferred thatt in some ccases committee
meeetings were less frequennt and that in n most cases accurate m minutes and meeting reccords
were not being kkept.
Frequency of stan
nding com
mmittee meetings
other: 5%
everry 2 months: weeklyy: 20%
20%
bi‐weekly: 5%
m
monthly: 50%
Adv
visory com
mmittees
The
e role of the
e advisory ccommitteess
‘An advisory commmittee on ccommunity a affairs shoulld be appoin
nted in everyy Local Authoority,
conssisting of sen
nior citizens, subject speccialists, ward
d members aand other competent perrsons
in th
he area, who o could contrribute to Loca al Governmeent. This com
mmittee shou uld serve as a
a link
betwween the Loccal Authorityy and the peeople. The co ommittee shoould be non‐‐political andd will
perfform the follo
owing functiions.
• Assist lo
ocal authoritty in decidin
ng developm
ment policiess and distrib
buting resou
urces,
taking innto account the needs off the people.
• Function
n as a commmunication ch
hannel betweeen the Loca
al Authority a
and the peop
ple in
the exch
hange of info
ormation and
d ideas.
• nd advise thee councillors in the discha
Assist an arge of theirr responsibilitties.’
Miniistry of Local G
Government aand Provincial Council, Locaal Governmen
nt Reform Circcular No.10
conttained in the LLocal Governm
ment Reform CCircular 1 to13 dated 23 Ap
pr 07, Colomb
bo
Baseed on this definition, there should be
b one advissory committtee per locaal authority with
the general man ndate to deaal with ‘comm munity affairrs’. Unlike standing comm mittees, advvisory
com
mmittees sho ould comprisse of only citizens
c who are not meembers of tthe council; they
shouuld be non‐p political.
Advvisory comm
mittees in th
he Eastern Province
In the
t Eastern Province, none
n of thee assessed nine local authorities
a had an advisory
h
commmittee as deefined by Lo ocal Governm ment Circularr 10. The asssessment alsso found that the
majo ority of local authority o
officers and eelected memmbers were n not familiar w
with the con
ncept
of advisory com mmittees as sstipulated byy the circularr. However, 13 citizen’s committees that
28
specialized in particular subjects had been established in seven local authorities. With the
exception of Karathevu PS, each local authority had one or two of these citizen’s committees
and Batticaloa MC had four.
Functions of the
Local Authority Committee
committee
Raises awareness on solid
Solid waste management
Amparai UC waste management at
committee
village level
Identifies community needs
Planning Committee and implements village
development plans
Vavunathevu PS
Rural Development
Acts in place of an RDS
Committee
Provides advice to the PS
Kattankudi UC Federation of mosques regarding development
activities
Karathevu PS no advisory committees
Provides advice to the MC
Kalmunai MC Working Group for village level
development
Repairs damaged roads and
Community Service Fund drainage systems
Provides advice on town
Development Committee development
Batticaloa MC
Provides advice for library
Library Committee development
Provides advice to protect
Environment Protection
environment
Committee
Repairs damaged roads and
Community Service fund drainage systems
Trincomalee UC
Informs the public about
Health Committee health related issues
Addresses development
Jana Sabha related issues
Seruvila PS
Addresses water related
Community Development
issues to the PS
Committee
29
11 o
of the 13 assessed adviso
ory committeees fulfilled tthe first two
o functions d
described in LLocal
goveernment refoorm circular 10 (see the Role of the advisory com
mmittees abbove). Excepttions
were the Vavuunathevu PSS Rural Deevelopment Committee and the TTrincomalee e UC
mmunity Servvice Fund.
Com
Nonne of the advvisory commiittees really fulfilled the third functio on ‐ acting ass a check on local
coun ng] and adviis[ing] the councillors in
ncillors and a means off transparency, ‘assist[in n the
discharge of their responsibiilities’.
In principal,
p info
ormal citizen
n’s committeees and asso ociations aree a way of representingg the
speccial needs off the public tto local goveernment and d possibly off providing lo ocal governm ment
withh advice, suppport and public
p controol. They link the local authorities too the publicc and
provvide a platform for advocacy for diffeerent social groups. The interests of citizens and d civil
society can be integrated inn the work of
o the local authorities
a a this has the potentiial to
and
conn nect people of differentt ethnic, religious, and social backggrounds and d build tolerrance
betwween communities. Unfortunately public p aware eness of these citizen’s committees was
poor. Public Serrvice Officerss and Chairm men were three times m more aware o of their existence
thann the public. See Append dix 5, p.162.
Advvisory comm
mittees in th
he Northerrn Province
In th
he Northern Province, six out of sevven assessed d local autho
orities in thee Jaffna areaa had
funcctioning advisory commiittees as deffined by the
e governmennt circular. ((Jaffna Muniicipal
Council did no ot have an
n advisory committee.. Accordingg to the Jaffna Muniicipal
Commmissioner, m members of the advisoryy committee had alreadyy been identified but political
interference was delaying itss establishment.)
Howwever, the co omposition o of committeees was not b based on uniiform criteriaa. In some of the
local authoritiess the membeers were nominated on the basis off one per ward and in other
o
local authoritiess on two mem ward. The seccretary of these local autthorities enjoyed
mbers per w
full d
discretion in nominatingg the membeers. This led tto inadequatte representaation of diffe erent
secttions of sociiety, particu
ularly womenn. The assesssment team
m observed an almost total
abseence of wom o 87 members from 6 local
men on the Jaffna advissory committtees. Out of
authhorities only 2 were women. (Chavaakachcheri Pradeshiya
P Saabha had 2 women out of 9
commmittee mem mbers.)
30
Wome
en members on advvisory com
mmittees in Jaffna
Wo
omen
2%
Men
98%
It waas found thaat advisory co
ommittee meetings were
e
• held reggularly, everyy two or threee months, usually in the local authorrity offices
• conveneed and chaireed by the seccretaries of ttheir respecttive local autthorities
• conducted with meeeting agendaas and minutes which w were circulateed and revie ewed
at the fo
ollowing meeeting
• well atteended (60% aattendance o of committee members).
Acco
ording to th
he minutes,, subjects discussed
d att meetings generally p
pertained to the
nment servicces. These included
improvement off local govern
• garbagee removal
• drainagee maintenance
• road devvelopment
• market d developmen nt
• bus stannd and cycle parking instaallation
• library im
mprovementt.
nt Pedro Urb
Poin ban Council Advisory Committee claimed theyy successfullyy advocated d the
fundding of a pubblic market ffrom the Government Aggent and thaat they had aa sub committee
for cemetery deevelopment and mainteenance. One important aspect
a to no
ote was thatt the
secrretaries of th
he local authorities consuulted the advvisory commmittees before preparing their
annual budgets, a significantt involvemen nt of peoples’ participatiion in the abbsence of eleected
counncils. Advisory committeee members independenttly corroboraated this factt.
Com
mmunicattion mechanisms
The
e role of com
mmunicatio
on mechaniisms
Devolution of poower to locaal governmen nt as intendeed by the 13th Amendmeent has not taken
placce and the central go
overnment continues
c too operate at local levvel through the
Government Agent and the Divisional Secretariats. A As a result, tthe role of lo ocal governmment
is undermined and there is very little public awaareness of itts role. Effective system
ms of
commmunication between loccal governmeent and the p public are neeeded to
• change public perceeption of loccal governm
ment so that people beggin to see it as a
channel of good govvernance at local level an nstitution dealing
nd not just aas a sector in
with, forr example, w
waste management;
• inform ccitizens abou
ut their rightss regarding sservice provision;
31
• inform citizens abbout their public responsibilities including local authority
regulatio
ons on hygieene in publicc places, building codes, zzoning, and payment of local
taxes
• receive citizen feedb ervice deliveery, and redreess grievances.
back on locall authority se
Num
mber and tyype of comm
munication
n tools
All 1
15 assessed local authoriries (9 in the East, 7 in the North) ssaid that they communiccated
with hree different ways. Batticaloa MC an
h the public iin at least th nd Seruvila P
PS were the m most
activve. With thee exception oof loudspeakker announccements whiich were onlly popular in n the
Eastt, the North and the Eastt used the saame channels of commu unication. Thhe most com mmon
tools for both were leafletts (used by 14 local au
uthorities), notice
n boardds (13), citizzen’s
charrters (13), annd local med dia (10). A greater varietty of tools w was found in the East, w where
commmunication was more interactive and
a more face to face: meetings, w workshops, sttreet
dramma, mobile sservices ad leetter campaiggns were fou und. See App pendix 5, p.1
163.
Locaal authoritiess preferred tto communiccate through h print materrials, which w were three ttimes
morre popular th
han audio viisual or facee to face too
ols. This can be attributeed to labourr and
but the effecctiveness of so much print media neeeds to be exxamined further.
costt efficiency b
Suchh an investiggation should d include ho ow well printed materials are receivved by the public
and what impact printed maaterials have on the prob blems they taarget.
Tw
wo way
commmunication Style of co
S ommunciaation
14%
One w
way
communcciation
86%%
Details of communication
n tools (in o
order of pop
pularity)
Leafflets
Locaal authority respondentts used leafflets for dissseminating information n on health and
enviironmental issues. Accorrding to them ncreased public participaation in handling
m, leaflets in
enviironmental protection activities, solid
s waste e managemeent activitiees and garbage
colleection. As su
uch they were used as a
a hygiene/he ealth awaren
ness raising tool but did
d not
33
provide the public with information about local government services. Local authorities didn’t
produce the leaflets themselves but distributed printed materials prepared by other
authorities such as the Health Department or the Central Environmental Authority.
In the 2008 integrated local level development model for Kinniya, leaflets were written by
the local authority themselves. They extended the citizen’s charter by providing information
to the public about services and procedures for obtaining permits and approval, for example,
for construction. In addition they provided the public with a monitoring/transparency tool
which bound the local authority to abide by the stated fees, timeframes and regulations
printed in the leaflet. In this baseline study, most local authorities saw the usefulness of
producing their own the information leaflets and would like to do so in future, if assistance
were available as per the Kinniya model.
Notice boards
Notice boards were used as a traditional communication tool and were in operation in 13 of
the 15 local authorities assessed. Local authority respondents stated that mostly health and
environment related information and calls for tender were posted on notice boards. It was
an inexpensive tool but with limited reach. The majority were placed in the office of the local
authority, and addressed only visitors who came there. Notice boards in more prominent
spots in the town were not observed.
Citizens’ charters
The Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs issued a directive instructing all
governmental organisations, ministries, departments, statutory bodies, semi governmental
organisation, provincial councils and local authorities to prepare and display citizen charters
in their offices. The Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Council published a ‘Guide
to Citizens’ Charters for Local Authorities’. As such, the Citizen’s Charter should be a
document that illustrates local authority services, standards, time frames, responsible
officers and mechanisms for grievance redressal. It should be prepared with community
involvement and should state citizens’ rights and responsibilities. It should be publicly
displayed and there should be adequate publicity upon its release.
In the Northern Province, all the assessed local authorities except for Jaffna MC displayed
their citizen’s charters in their offices. Charters were in Tamil and were designed in different
sizes. For example, the Chavakachcheri Urban Council put up a very conspicuous 15’ x 30’
one on their front wall. However, regardless of how well charters are displayed, their impact
on service delivery is not known. Only some of the community based organisations and
citizens interviewed had seen their citizen’s charter. They too were not sure whether
services were delivered promptly as stated or whether the charter exerted pressure on the
local authority to be more efficient. See also the findings from the Community Development
baseline study in section 5 (page 52) where 96% of respondents were not aware of the
citizen’s charter.
Loudspeaker announcements
Loudspeaker announcements were popular communication tools in the Eastern Province
and used by eight out of nine local authorities assessed. Loudspeaker announcements were
used to disseminate information related to health, drinking water, environmental issues,
emergency news and collection of local authority taxes and fees. According to local authority
respondents they increased public participation in environmental issues, disease prevention,
tax collection and road and drainage maintenance. It was an inexpensive and mobile tool
which was used to reach large numbers of people. However, it was used to communicate
34
only simple, short public messages as one way communication which didn’t elicit feedback
from the community.
Information counters
In the Eastern Province, information counters were established in three local authorities:
Kalmunai MC, Batticaloa MC and Seruvila PS and in the Northern Province in Point Pedru UC,
Valvettithurai UC and Nallur PS. Local authorities used this ‘front desk’ service to keep the
public informed about the services they offered and who to go to for what. Information on
health, environment and community development projects were usually available at the
counters. Respondents felt that this tool improved public access to local authority services.
However many of the Public Relations Officers (PRO) who were responsible for the counter
and the ‘front desk’ services only had limited knowledge of how to do things and in many
cases had no printed materials (leaflets, forms) as back up.
Local media
Local media included the use of radio to disseminate information on health, drinking water,
environmental and emergency news in Kattankudi UC, Kalmunai MC and Batticaloa MC.
Trincomalee UC used cable TV and newspaper advertisements as their communication tools.
Respondents stated that communication through local media increased public participation
in paying taxes and improved prevention of diseases. For example Trincomalee UC were able
to warn the public through the local cable TV network about contaminated bakery products
in a recent food poisoning case. Jaffna Municipal Council and other urban councils also
communicated with citizens through local newspaper advertisements, mainly regarding
payments of property rates and fines. Notices announcing market spaces and meat stall
tenders were also published in this way.
Local authorities felt that using local media was innovative for local government. It provided
a wide reach which was not necessarily very costly. It had the potential not only for
information dissemination, but also as a platform for public debates on development issues.
It was suggested that this could be done through interviews with local government
representatives where listeners or viewers contributed.
Public information campaigns
In Jaffna, Nallur Pradeshiya Sabha designed and distributed posters for public awareness
campaigns. Topics included dengue, and herbal gardening. One successful campaign was
against spitting in public places. They were also planning to launch a website for the
Pradeshiya Sabha. Three other local authorities used cultural events, essay competitions and
school seminars for public information campaigns.
Newsletters
Newsletters were published in only 2 local authorities in Jaffna (Nallur PS and
Chavakachcheri UC) where they were issued in very limited numbers (25 copies) mostly for
the local authority offices and libraries. They were issued for PR purposes and to
commemorate special occasions. They did not disseminate everyday information from the
local authority, as in the 2008 PIP Kinniya model which used newsletters to provide the
public with a range of information about local authority activities, leaders, decision making
processes, budget allocation and news from the area. None of the assessed local authorities
in the Eastern Province produced newsletters. All interviewed representatives in local
authorities expressed their interest in producing newsletters but some were unclear as to
the difference between newsletters and leaflets. They thought of using them to disseminate
35
information to the public about health, local authority activities, taxes, and local authority
services.
Mobile services
Mobile services were used in two local authorities – Ampara UC and Nallur PS Jaffna ‐ to
disseminate information related to health issues, drinking water, licenses, taxes,
environmental issues and tenders. The main purpose was to provide the public with the
opportunity to attend to affairs close to their place of residence. This mechanism provided
access to local authority services in a gender sensitive way because it accommodated
vulnerable groups and women who, because of family or work commitments, could not
afford the time or money to travel to their local authorities. In the case of Nallur PS the
mobile service was jointly arranged with community based organisations in the area. The
mobile service not only improved service delivery but also created opportunities for
community based organisations to work together with the local authority.
Public meetings and workshops
Public meetings provided immediate feedback for local authorities especially when public
participation in important decisions related to the development of the area was needed,
such as development plans, or proposed regulations. The perceived disadvantage by local
authorities was that public meetings were labour intensive and could not cover large groups
of people without becoming very time consuming and costly.
Two local authorities (Kattankudi UC, Vavunathivu PS) said they used public meetings and
workshops as a means of communicating with the public. Meetings were organized as the
need arose. Issues related to health, street cattle, and emergencies were discussed.
However, the citizens interviewed for the purpose of this study were not aware of such
meetings.
Street drama
Batticaloa MC used street drama on a quarterly basis to create public awareness on health
and environmental issues. As a live medium it was seen as a very useful tool to address
social issues in a non literary, motivating way. However, it was fairly labour intensive and
required finding performers (usually young volunteers) and then organizing them to
rehearse and perform.
Local Government Reform Unit
In Jaffna a Local Government Reform Unit was set up in every local authority to assist the
secretary in coordinating and monitoring the implementation of local government reforms.
The unit, staffed by a local government assistant plus either a management or programme
assistant, prepared monthly progress reports on reform implementation, which were sent to
the Regional Assistant Commissioner of Local Government (R/ACLG). Together these units
compiled an Annual Report for 2008 and this speeded up the reform process. In addition, in
a process initiated by the R/ACLG, the secretary met the staff once a week to share
experience on local government reform activities and related them to the local government
circulars they exemplified. As a result local government staff were much more aware of local
government reforms.
36
Innovations in service delivery
To improve service delivery, the R/ACLG Jaffna initiated a programme called ‘one project per
month’ in which local authorities carried out small scale participatory projects each month
which involved the public. These projects were normally on a shiramadana basis and
included
• clearing cemeteries; repairing public buildings,
• cleaning drains and wells; reducing mosquito breeding grounds
• planting trees around community centres, pre schools and along the roadside
• honouring preschool teachers, celebrating Children’s Day, promoting reading habits
with poster campaigns or book exhibitions
Jaffna Municipal Council implemented a new system for maintaining the drinking water
supply at stand pipes in poor areas for families who could not afford individual household
pipe water connections. In the past, Jaffna MC was unable to recover costs from common
water users. Stand pipes were often damaged and common water users quarrelled over
drawing the water. Under the new system nearly 650 water user groups were formed on
the basis of one group per stand pipe. Each group consisted of 10 to 20 families. These
families were assigned to a particular stand pipe close to them and told they could draw
water only from that stand pipe. This reduced quarrelling among the users. Each group was
made responsible for their pipe and immediately reported any damage to the council. The
group also agreed to pay a nominal sum of one rupee per day per family. This meant each
family paid Rs.30 per month and, in a water user group of say fifteen families, Rs. 450/‐ per
month was collected, enabling the council to recover part of the water supply cost. As in
most development contexts around the world, the water user groups were mostly
composed of women. The team met such a group and found the system was working
satisfactorily. Stand pipes were maintained well, quarrels among water users had been
reduced and monthly payments were made promptly. The water user groups were
supervised by community centre officers.
Public redressal system
Situational analysis
The PIP/CAP supported redressal system, set up in 20 local authorities in the Eastern
Province in 2008 consisted of
• an information counter for providing information on local authority services and
navigating citizens to respective departments
• a suggestions box
• a system for registering and dealing with complaints
• a collectively formulated and displayed citizen’s charter
• a trained public relations officer
• the beginning of a monitoring and evaluation system which used complaints to
analyse public needs and improve service delivery.
The system for registering and dealing with complaints had five steps:
• step one: receiving complaints
• step two: registering complaints
• step three: analysing complaints
• step four: acting on complaints
• step five: recording outcomes for the action taken
37
In each of the 20 local authorities visited in the Eastern Province for the baseline study, the
five step process for registering and dealing with complaints was broadly discussed with the
staff, especially with the Public Relations Officer (PRO) and the Secretary. Feedback was then
collated for the situational analysis under these five steps. In the five local authorities where
no PIP supported redressal system had been set up, and in Jaffna, the five step process was
used as a tool for needs analysis.
Receiving complaints
In general, only a few local authorities could demonstrate a transparent and standardised
system for receiving and passing on complaints from the chairman/secretary to the PRO and
thereafter to the respective subject officers. Respondents said that local authorities usually
received formal complaints by letter and that letter was usually handed over to the
chairman or the secretary. If posted, then it was also usually addressed to chairman.
Although a complaints box was established in every local authority, fewer complaints were
received via the box, or by personal visit to the front desk. Informal verbal grievances were
also received by the chairman or secretary, but these were usually unsubstantiated
complaints. As the PROs were not included in the complaints administration in most of the
local authorities visited, the PRO was not aware of the verbal complaints received by the
chairman and this was reflected in their lack of registration and follow up.
Registering complaints
In the PIP/CAP supported model for the redressal system, when citizens lodged a complaint
by personal visit or through a letter, their complaint was recorded in a complaints register.
Out of 25 local authorities visited in the Eastern Province, it was observed that
• 8 local authorities had general complaint registers, usually in the form of a ledger.
• 9 local authorities had separate complaint folders for different types of complaints,
such as building approvals, environmental protection, public utility services, local
infrastructure and land related issues.
• 8 local authorities did not have a recorded complaints register, ledger or folder for
their public redressal system. Instead they filed the complaint letters without
transferring the data into a summarised register and recorded progress or
comments on the letters themselves.
See Appendix 6, p.180.
Registers were usually maintained by the staff responsible for the subject of the complaint.
The main problems arose from improper recording of verbal complaints in the registers, as
described above. All 7 local authorities visited in Jaffna had a complaints ledger in some form
or another but were not maintaining them regularly.
Analysing complaints
None of the local authorities in the study analysed resolved or pending cases or looked at
complaints collectively for patterns, needs analysis or lessons learnt. However, most of them
were interested in how to do this and requested further training. Some officers suggested
having a computer database application, for example in Microsoft Access with which they
could record complaints, and produce analyses and reports on a regular basis.
Acting on complaints
When not referred to other government departments, action was usually taken by the
chairman, secretary, PRO, Technical Officer (TO) or in combination: the chairman with the
38
PRO or the PRO with the TO. Information on how the case was handled and resolved was
usually written directly onto the letter of complaint so whole history of the case was
contained in that letter.
When the case was referred to another government department, it was not usually followed
up any further and the real outcome was not recorded in the local authority. Instead, such
cases were counted as resolved when in fact they were simply passed on to someone else.
Recording outcomes
In the PIP/CAP model, after taking action on a case, the outcome was recorded and future
follow up planned if necessary. Local authorities sent a letter to the plaintiff explaining how
the case had been resolved. In general, it was found that steps three to five – analysing and
acting on complaints and recording outcomes ‐ were not carried out consistently. There was
no standardised ‘complaint tracking system’ for local authorities. None of the local
authorities were feeding the analysis of complaints back into the system as a form of
community needs analysis. If complaints were collected and categorised over a period of
time, patterns would emerge that could be dealt with more efficiently by dealing with them
collectively. But local authorities did not have this overview because they were not collating
the data beyond the individual complaint. As a result, the local authorities in this study had
not made the connection that the redressal system could also be used as a planning tool.
Complaints analysis
Analysis of the data collected from 23 local authorities which had the redressal system
focussed on the type and quantity of complaints recorded, complaint resolution, gender
issues, and the role of the Public Relations Officers (PROs).
Complaints by category
The subjects of the complaints fell into six main categories, which were, in order of
frequency,
• utilities (street lamps)
• environmental issues (felling trees, garbage collection, commercial waste, sewage)
• land disputes (accessing and demarking land)
• unauthorised building
• problems with local infrastructure (local roads, irrigation, community buildings).
Frequency of complaints
77% of the complaints ‐ 2116 complaints out of 2194 ‐ were about street lamps, and these
complaints were lodged in four large local authorities in the urban centres (in order of
complaints registered: Sammanthurai PS, Ninthavur PS, Akkaraipattu PS and Kalmunai MC).
2 Environmental issues 310
3 Land issues 166
4 Buildings approval 98
5 Local infrastructure 92
39
Frequencyy of comp
plaints by category (i)
Environmen ntal
issues
Land issues
11%
6%%
Buildings
3%
Locaal
infrastru
ucture
3%%
Public utilitiees
77%
2 Lan
nd issues 16
66
3 Buildings approvval 98
8
4 Loccal infrastructture 92
2
5 Public utilities (eexcluding street lamps) 78
8
Freq
quency off complain
nts by cato
ogory (ii)
Public utillities
(excluding Environmmental
mps)
street lam issu
ues
Local
L
10% 42%%
infrasstructure
12%
1
Buildinggs
13%
Land issu
ues
23%
40
23%
% of complain nts were abo out land issues and this wwas a significcant numberr. Issues inclu uded
acceessing lanes, demarking land, disputting boundarry walls, and
d in urban areas, neighb
bours
build
ding unautho orised structtures and thee problems oof obtaining building app proval in order to
get aa bank loan. See Append dix 6, pp.169‐70.
Prob
blem solverss
Acco 58% were caused by locaal authoritiess neglecting their
ording to thee complaintss analysed, 5
t behaviour of other citizens, and
duties, 38% by the d 4% by other governmeent departm
ments
negllecting their duties.
Therrefore, 96% of all problems reported by the community
c c
could be deealt with at local
authhority level. This is an empoweringg statistic fo
or citizen ad
dvocacy and d for commu unity
deveelopment, esspecially in aan environmeent where lo ocal governm ment in the p past has been n too
willing to pass on the respon nsibility of ad
ddressing grievances to tthe central line authoritie es.
Problem ssolvers
Others
4%
Citiizens
38%
Local
Authorities
58%
Becaause 38% off grievances were causeed by citizens, it follows that 38% o of cases could be
resoolved by citizzens themselves with som me assistancce in arbitrattion from thee local autho ority.
Thesse cases inccluded dispu utes betweeen neighbou urs about bo oundary waalls, dumpingg on
unused land, no oise pollution n, and accesssing lanes. In n many of th hese cases th he local authority
onlyy needed to turn up as a figure of authority in
n order for the
t two disp puting partie
es to
resoolve their diffferences. In certain cases people askked for help ffrom a particcular officer from
the local authorrity and thiss was enouggh to settle the quarrel. It was sugggested that such
interventions at the interperrsonal level ccould be devveloped as a service thatt local authorities
coulld offer the public. This might be qu uite a simple e matter if the local authority could also
link up with the more usual mechanisms for arbitration in the ccommunity ‐ local mosqu ue or
temple or the m mediation boaard.
An analysis
a of these complaaints lodged against neigghbours also
o revealed that people were
w
not really sure wwhat the rolee of their locaal authority w
was or who sshould resolve their case e.
Plaintiffs by ge
ender
66%
% of cases weere recorded d without notting if they w were from wwomen, men or on behalff of a
society. This revealed a faultt in the local authorities’ complaints registration system.
41
Plaintiiffs by cate
egory
Male
M
1
19%
Femaale
10%
%
Not sspecified Society
66%
6 5%
Plain
ntiffs by d
district and
d gender
were women, 45% men and
d 15%
societies.
5% of cases weere from soccieties
and these colleective comp plaints 339
ofteen representted the wishhes of
a laarge group of people. For
exammple more than 50 people
commplained about
a the air Maale
161
polluution from the brick making
m 136 Female
factoory in Kavaththam munai, 65 7
76
Koraalaipattu Weest PS; thosee who 488
lived
d near the brick
b makingg yard
felt it resultedd in respirratory
diso
orders for their
t childreen. It Batticaloaa Trincomaalee Ampaara
was resolved byy the interveention
of the
t public health insp pector
and PS staff of thhe area who o got the facttory owner to o agree to usse water to rreduce the d
dust.
Verification of complaintss
Acco
ording to thee local autho orities, 69% of complain nts were resolved by thee interventio on of
the local authority within a month, while 25% were resolved witthin six months and 6% w were
not resolvable. According to the local authorities’ records theerefore, 94%
% of all casess are
olved. Howeever, according to the plaaintiffs who were visited
reso d door to door as part off this
stud
dy, 73% of th
heir complaints were reesolved not 94%
9 as claim
med by the local authorrities.
(10%
% weren’t su ure either waay, and 17% w were not sattisfied.)
42
Acttion taken
n on casess
Not resolvaable
Resolved 6%
within 6
months
25%
Resolved
witthin a month
69%
Therre was a 21
1% difference in opinion n between what
w the loccal authoritiees thought of
o as
reso
olved and wh hat the plain ntiffs though
ht of as resolved (94% ‐ 73%). 13% o of the differrence
coulld be accounted for as complaints that were referred
r to other deparrtments, succh as
wateer and electricity supplyy and health services issu ues (98 out o of 744 comp plaints). As far as
the local authorrity was conccerned thesee were resolvved becausee they were rreferred to o other
depaartments bu ut as far as the
t plaintiffss were conce
erned, they remained unresolved unless
the other departtment took ccare of them m.
Therre is still a discrepancy
d between wh hat the local authoritiess thought of as resolved
d and
whaat the public thought of aas resolved. But this factt only came to light afterr doing a door to
door follow up w with plaintifffs. Local autthorities wouuld have to carry out a similar surve ey of
their own in order to get a m more realisticc picture of rredressal neeeds and reso olution.
The
e Public Relaations Officcer system
As p
part of the reedressal systtem, 20 Publlic Relations Officers (PROs) from 20 local authorities
were trained. Itt was their responsibility
r y to set up the redressaal system in their respective
local authoritiess and most o of them carrried out the tasks of settting up a complaints boxx, an
information cou unter, and a citizen’s charter. From April 2008 onwards, th he Commissiioner
and Assistant Co ommissionerrs of Local Government (CLG and AC CLGs) and the secretariess put
the PROs in chaarge of lookking after thee redressal systems oncce they weree established. In
Marrch 2009, thee system waas functionin ng without G GTZ PIP supp port in 16 loccal authorities in
the Eastern Provvince and thrree local authorities in th he Northern Province.
Man ny of the PR
ROs encounttered probleems in their new role. None
N of them
m were officcially
appo ointed as PROs. They were
w officially employed under oth her designattions – as Chief
C
Man nagement Asssistants, Loccal Governm ment Assistan nts and Proggramme Assiistants. Theyy had
been n made resp ponsible for PR on top o of their norm mal work load. As a resu ult, most of tthem
didnn’t have a prroper job deescription or training forr being a PRO O; they were not clear w what
their PRO resp ponsibilities were. The public werre also not aware of the position or
respponsibilities oof the PRO aand thereforre did not se eek them outt. As a resultt, the PROs w were
under utilised. In addition, tthere was no o proper sup pport systemm for them o or an established
mecchanism for communicaation betweeen them an nd their chairman, mayo or, secretaryy, or
commmissioner. Many com mplaints recceived by the chairm man, mayorr, secretary, or
commmissioner, were
w not reeceived, regiistered, refe
erred, trackeed, resolved or cumulattively
anallysed by the PRO. In retu urn, the PRO O was unable e to prepare an overview w of the ongoing,
difficult or resolvved cases for the chairman or secretary to consid der at the mo onthly meeting.
43
4.5 Recommendations
• In general, local authorities should participate fully in the reform process, take
ownership and responsibility for the change process and sustain reforms in the long
run. To increase such ownership, Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners of Local
Government, Secretaries, Mayors and Chairmen, councillors and local government staff
should be involved to a greater or lesser extent in the research, design, implementation,
and evaluation stages of the reforms.
• Local authorities should explore new ways of providing more accountable, accessible,
effective, participatory, face to face means of communication with the public at village
level.
Standing Committees
• Proceedings of existing standing committees should be examined – the way the minutes
are taken and the meetings are conducted (perhaps using a time and motion study) ‐ to
collect best practices from committees that are functioning well, and to gather data for a
meeting skills needs analysis.
• Local authorities should be advised on which committees they should form, according to
the law and according to the needs of the communities they serve.
• Good examples of standing committees should be disseminated to raise awareness and
motivate local authorities, particularly Chairmen, as to their importance and potential
benefit.
• A balanced membership in standing committees should be encouraged, to include
women, non‐elected members and younger citizens.
• More transparent selection criteria should be introduced for appointing committee
members. Councillors should be trained in how to evaluate the specialist skills needed
for standing committee members.
• Public awareness should be raised and specific groups and individuals (subject experts)
in the community motivated to become members of standing committees.
• The ways committee work is communicated to the public should be improved.
Advisory Committees
• There should be further investigation into how advisory committees should be
established, how they should best function, and the most practical number of members
they should have. Some good national and international examples should be researched
to help with suggestions.
• Decisions on the best way to appoint members to the advisory committees should be
made, and whether or not this should be standardised for all committees.
• Selection of committee members respecting the principles of good governance in terms
of transparency, democracy, inclusiveness and efficiency should be ensured, including
gender and ethnic balance for proper representation of women and ethnic minorities.
The hold of the secretary or the chairman on the membership should be loosened and
membership should be made more non‐political.
44
• Further research should be done on potential synergy between standing committees,
advisory committees and informal citizen’s committees and how the system could be
streamlined to avoid duplication or committee fatigue.
• Advisory committees should be strengthened in the Northern Province until there are
more elected councils while both standing and advisory committees should be
strengthened in the Eastern Province.
Public redressal system
• Citizens should have a better working knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of their
local authorities and by extension, which issues it is the local authority’s responsibility to
redress.
• Citizens should be encouraged to utilise the redressal system more. Local authorities
should actively address their grievances more. Trust should be built between people and
their local authorities.
• More complaint boxes, citizen’s charters and notice boards should be put in public
places. At the same time Citizen’s Charters should become more community oriented, in
the way they are drafted and disseminated to the public, to create greater public
demand for services.
• All local authorities should be encouraged to keep a separate complaints register/system
for street lamp complaints, which should be quicker and easier to operate than the
general complaints register.
• All complaints should be recorded, regardless of who receives them. Prepared forms
(who, when, subject of the complaint) would make it easier.
• Plaintiff’s gender should be recorded in the complaints register/system.
• Some advocacy training for women, especially Muslim women, should be conducted to
encourage more of them to get involved in the development of their community.
• Further research should be carried out on community based / civil society groups as a
bottom‐up means of strengthening channels of communication between the people and
their local authorities. As one complaint from one of these groups can represent up to
fifty people, such complaints should be given priority in the redressal system. They
establish the local authority’s responsiveness and increase its impact.
• Local authorities need to regularly analyse complaints and use the redressal system as a
monitoring/needs analysis tool and a way of improving services. Further analysis of
environmental, land and building issues should be carried out as well as more door‐to‐
door follow up with plaintiffs.
• Public awareness campaigns for the most common grievances should be designed, for
example for the 41% of complaints which are about environmental issues.
• Local authorities should use mediation skills to help sort out the 38% of neighbour‐to‐
neighbour complaints they receive – for example, land disputes. The mediation training
from the Ministry of Justice could be researched, modified and delivered to PROs and
secretaries for this purpose.
• For the successful implementation of the redressal system a proper tracking system for
complaints should be implemented that follows the complaint from receiving it,
recording it, resolving it and analysing it along with other complaints.
45
• An electronic database, for example in Microsoft Access, should be designed and
introduced to register and analyse complaints and produce quarterly reports.
• The redressal system should be updated and standardised to accommodate new
findings. Thereafter redressal training should be revised to incorporate changes in the
system and to include practical examples from the Sri Lankan context and experience.
• PIP‐trained local authorities should undergo consolidation training on public redressal
before the system is expanded to new local authorities. This should include follow‐up
training for PROs on how to analyse the data within the complaints, similar to the way
data has been analysed in this report – including categorising data in tables, presenting
data in diagrams, summarising findings and making recommendations. In fact, this
baseline report could be used as a local authority training resource.
• Once revised and standardised, the redressal system should be expanded to new local
authorities, for example in Eastern Province to the areas where PIP is working with
WRDS ‐ Manmunai West and Poratheevu in Batticaloa – and in Northern Province to
Jaffna and Vauniya.
• The PRO should:
- be officially and formally appointed by chairman, R/ACLG and CLG
- have a specified job description concerning public relation responsibilities and
other duties
- be involved in promoting and administrating the redressal system
- have full access to the complaints register and be informed by other officers of
any complaints they receive.
• The position and responsibilities of the PRO should be announced to the public, for
example on the notice‐board, in the local newspapers etc.
• The Chairman should clearly delegate the receiving of complaints to the PRO. Greater
transparency and effectiveness could then be encouraged in the local authority. The
referral of all complaints to the PRO should be clearly communicated to all concerned
and the chairman should actively support and implement this way of working. In cases
where the chairman would still like to be involved in receiving complaints, the PRO
should at least receive a copy of the complaint and register it.
• Two‐way communication between officers and the PRO should be improved. The PRO
should be able to ask for what action has been taken by other officers on specific cases
and other officers should be instructed to supply such information as a matter of course.
The chairman, mayor, secretary, commissioner and other office staff who receive
complaints should support the PRO by cooperating and coordinating with him/her over
the receiving of complaints.
Other communication mechanisms
• Local government staff should undergo Public Information Dissemination Training (PIDT)
to develop their capacity in addressing specific public needs including analysing needs,
designing appropriate information campaigns, using appropriate communication tools
and evaluating the success of the information transfer. PIDT should provide core training
in the above and have a series of add‐on training days to help staff from local authorities
specialise in specific tools – presentation and facilitation skills for face to face meetings
and open days, poster and leaflet design, etc.
46
• Greater emphasis should be put on two way, participatory, face to face communication
with the public ‐ public meetings, workshops, open days, street theatre followed by
discussion etc – in order to make channels of communication more effective and
democratic.
• Local authorities should understand that the onus lies with them to develop and
promote outreach mechanisms to connect effectively with local people. More ‘open
days’ where local authorities build links with local people and disseminate information
about local services should be held. A Pradeshiya Sabha ‘mobile service’ could provide
the necessary outreach facilities to isolated communities.
• A further study on the efficacy of print based PR materials should be conducted,
particularly in rural areas with low literacy rates.
• Localised leaflets providing information about local authority services and procedures
(such as obtaining building permits, leasing market places etc.) should be produced,
particularly if they cover topics that hold the local authority accountable to the general
public.
• Electronic templates for leaflets could be prepared in local languages and local
authorities could be trained in modifying them to match with their particular needs. All
this should be linked to Public Information Dissemination Training (PIDT).
• Local authorities should prepare more pre‐printed application forms for people to obtain
permits and licences more efficiently.
• Local authorities should be encouraged to target not only with the general public as a
set of individuals, but also with community groups, societies, religious groups and NGOs,
in order to make their channels of communication more effective.
• The replication of local government reform units, similar to the one set up by ACLG
Jaffna, should be considered as an effective mechanism for speeding up the reform
process.
• Models of good service delivery that benefit the poor, such as the supply of drinking
water to water user groups by Jaffna Municipal Council, should be documented and
replicated.
47
5 Community development
5.2 Background
Between September 2004 and December 2008 the GTZ supported Food Security and Conflict
Transformation Project (FSCT) worked with 58 women’s groups using a methodology called
Participatory Learning in Action (PLA). PLA focused on the needs of vulnerable women within
conflict and tsunami affected areas, and helped them strengthen their capacity for self help
by improving their self‐confidence as well as their incomes. Initiatives included savings and
loan schemes, livelihood support for small businesses such as mushroom farming and milk
collection, and village development planning. In 2008 the 58 groups were amalgamated into
30 Women’s Rural Development Societies (WRDS) in order to give them sustainability and
legal status from within the government system. When the Performance Improvement
Project took over support of these 30 WRDS in 2009 it was decided to build their capacity to
work with a wider range of development actors at local level, primarily local authorities, but
also other donors and NGOS, and integrate these new links with their existing links to the
divisional secretariats.
In practice this will involve helping the WRDS become aware of the specific services local
government offers so that they can make informed choices about through whom to
implement their small scale development plans. To do this, the WRDS need to build capacity
in
- understanding the roles and responsibilities of their local authorities,
- utilising existing channels of communication (representation on committees and in
community centres, registering complaints through the newly established redressal
system),
- making use of information disseminated by local authorities and front line officers,
- developing, writing and presenting small scale development plans and proposals,
- using advocacy skills to ensure their plans are incorporated in the local development
plans of the local authorities, the DS and the local donor community.
48
5.3 Methodology
Scope of the study
A structured interview was conducted with more than 100 women in 30 WRDS from 32
villages in 7 divisions in Batticaloa district. From each village, one to two existing WRDS
members and a member of the previously supported GTZ Participatory Learning and Action
(PLA) group were interviewed by GTZ PIP Batticaloa field staff. In addition, the PIP Advocacy
Consultant conducted a series of extended but less structured interviews in 12 WRDS with
almost 200 women, 19 public servants and 2 councillors from the local authorities in
Batticaloa District. In total, 331 people expressed their views in this part of the study.
No. WRDS No. WRDS No. respondents
structured advocacy
Date Division / District Community Public LA
baseline consultancy
interview interview members servants councillors
Koralaipattu
5 2 39
North;
Koralaipattu
3 1 26
Central;
Koralaipattu
5 2 40
South;
Jan‐ Eravurpattu 6 2 82
Mar
Manmunai West; 5 2 55 3 2
2009
Poratheevupattu 5 2 49
Koralaipattu 1 1 19
Manmunai South
1
Eruvilpattu
ACLG office and
District
15
Secretariat,
Batticaloa
Total 7 30 12 310 19 2
See Appendix 7, pp. 182‐3 for details.
Measuring instruments
The women respondents were interviewed in small groups. Guided questions on the
following topics were asked:
• the relationship public officers and councilors had with the community
• public access to local authorities
• awareness of roles and services of local authorities
• the public redressal system
• the relationship between the community centre, the WRDS and the community.
See Appendix 7, pp. 184‐92 for details.
49
5.4
4 Finding
gs
Awaareness of llocal autho
orities
WRD DS memberss were more aware of the central autthorities actiing at local leevel – the Grrama
Sevaakas, Division nal Secretariies, Samurdh hi and Rural Developmen nt Officers (RRDOs), than they
were of their lo
ocal authorities. They weere least aw
ware of proviincial counciil public servvants
working in the local authorrities. WRDSS members really did not know theeir Public He ealth
Insp
pectors or Coommunity Development
D t Officers eve
en though these officerss were the Rural
R
Development Officers’
O cou
unterparts inn the local authorities and many of their duties
overrlapped. Giveen that Wom men’s Rural D Developmen nt Societies come under tthe managem ment
of th
he Divisional Secretariatt, it was not surprising th hat they had d greater fam miliarity with h the
centtral line authhorities than the local autthorities.
Pub
blic aware
eness of D
DS and LA officers, aand LA cou
ucillors
98
9
79 72 69
47
1
18 22
7 5 4 2
Rural Development
Others
Development Officer
Secretary
Divisional Secretary
Others
Others
Samurdhi Officer
Public Health Inspector
Grama Niladhari
Chairman
Divisional Secretary
Others
Community
Officer
DS office staaff LA Cou
uncillors LA
A staff
Theyy all knew their Grama Sevaka (GS)), the most prominent
p g
government officer at village
leveel, and the one
o responssible for help ping people obtain important docu
uments like birth
certificates or naational identtity cards.
% of them feelt the DS played
80% p a maajor role in bringing services from the central line
ncies to their villages and they kneew the Rural Developmeent Officers well becausse of
agen
their involvemen nt in the WR RDS’ bank acccounts.
70%% of them saaid they had at least seen
s the chaairman of thheir electedd local authoority.
Howwever, less than 20% weere aware off the presence of secrettaries or other public service
officcers in their llocal authoriities.
Access to locall authorities
The WRDS resp pondents weere asked ho D or local authority offfices
ow they reached their DS
wheen they need here. Nearly 60% of them
ded to meet officers or ccouncillors th m spent betw ween
30 to 60 minutes travelling tto these officces, using their own meaans of transpport – on fooot, by
bicyycle, bus or vvan, or by otther means (tractor, lan
nd master ettc.). The meeans of transsport
50
were similar forr travelling to
o both DS and local authority, with bus and van
n being the m
most
com
mmon means of transportt due to the rather long d distances.
Mean
ns of transport to D
DS and LA
DS LA
55%
46%
28% 2
26%
8%
18 18
8%
9%
0%
51
90.00
80.00
Freque
ency of W
WRDS visitss to
70.00
D
DS and LA
A offices
60.00
50.00
40.00
30.00 DS
20.00 LA
10.00
0.00
whhen
every 2‐3
3 evvery 2‐3 only
weekkly monthly neceessar not yet
weeks months
m once
y
DS 5.00
0 24.00 17.00 20.00 22..00 5.00 8.00
LA 0.00
0 0.00 5.00 3.00 8.0
00 6.00 78.00
Awaareness of rroles and se
ervices of lo
ocal authorrities
Sincce the Easterrn Provincial Council elecctions in Mayy 2008 it wass thought thaat local auth hority
servvices were becoming
b better known n as more people sougght the sup pport of ele
ected
coun ncillors and vvice versa. H
However, eveen though 22 2% had visiteed their locaal authority ooffice
at soome time, 9 96% of respo ondents were not aware e of the citizen’s charterr which is ussually
played quite prominentlyy in the locaal authority office. Likew
disp wise they weere not aware of
the grievance reedressal systeem (see belo ow).
Whaat these statistics poinnt to is the ineffectiveness of thhe local auuthorities’ public
i terms of long and, at times, off‐‐putting usee of bureauccratic
information disssemination in
langguage (the Citizen’s
C Charters) and the local authorities
a s
somewhat insular approach
(puttting the charter or the complaints bo ox inside an office that th
he majority n never visit).
Pub
blic grievancce redressaal system
The PIP supported public red
dressal systeem is describ
bed in detail in section 4,, pp. 37 – 43 3 and
pp. 455‐6, where it is
through the through through thee analys ed from the
WRDS others RDS perspeective of maaking
president 5% president local aauthorities better
3% 17% servicee providerss. In
through a the ccommunity de‐
v
village velopm ment baseline
leeader study, grievance re‐
11% dressaal was also
analysed but this time
from a commu unity
perspeective to seee if it
through the through
the Gramma should d be extende ed to
Police
30% Sevekaa the loccal authorities in
34% the WWRDS areas. See
Proble em solvers at local level Appen ndix 7, pp.193 3‐4.
52
Respondents were asked how grievances were resolved at local level, to see if they were
using the local authority redressal system – if one existed – or if they were using other ways
of resolving grievances. Four of the six local authorities which the WRDS respondents had
access to, had set up PIP supported grievance redressal systems – Koralaipattu, Koralaipattu
West, Koralaipattu North and Eravurpattu – but the WRDS were not using them. Instead,
about one third of respondents used the Grama Sevaka (34%), one third used the police
(30%) and one third used the president of the RDS, WRDS or other village leader (36%).
Those who used the Grama Sevaka said they did so because they felt it was the most
effective way of solving problems: the Grama Sevaka always worked at village level and was
usually available. Moreover, because the focus of WRDS activities was primarily on savings
and loans activities, WRDS members saw redress on access to local resources as the work of
the Grama Sevaka, or the traditional village headman (oor thalaivar) still functioning in some
villages. Those who used the police tended to come from recently resettled villages. Those
who sought help from the RDS or WRDS president or other village leader did so because they
were part of the same community based organisation.
Those women who did know about the local authority redressal system lacked confidence or
incentive to approach local authority officials. Individuals and families did not believe that
they had an entitlement to local authority services and were thus reluctant to ask for them.
WRDS access to local services
From the interviews conducted it was clear that the previous GTZ Food Security and Conflict
Transformation (FSCT) project had, through the Participatory Learning in Action (PLA)
programme, empowered a small number of women in the WRDS structure. But many WRDS
members remained fatalistic about official promises of help with a ‘We will believe it when
we see it’ attitude. Channels of communication were known to be bureaucratically
overburdened and villagers often waited hours to see officials who were ‘unavailable’. The
distribution of local authority services was seen to be manipulated by those elected to office
for the purposes of political patronage to consolidate continuing political control of the area.
As a result, there was a strong need to build confidence and motivation for most women if
they were to establish a working relationship with Pradeshiya Sabha Chairmen, Community
Development Officers, and other relevant officers in the local government structure. It was
clear that these vulnerable communities required active accompaniment to meet such
officials and some measure of affirmation from those officials in order for the women to
adopt a more ‘Can do’ mentality.
WRDS interaction with community centres
To coordinate more effectively, the PIP approach is, as much as possible, to integrate
mechanisms that are controlled separately by the central line authorities or by the local
authorities but where duplication or competition exists. To this end, the community
development baseline study was used to investigate potential for getting WRDS, linked to
the central line authorities, to utilise the redressal system and the community centres, linked
to the provincial line authorities.
Local authority run community centres are mandated to operate both as community based
organisations and actual buildings or sets of land and buildings for pre‐schools, reading
rooms, meeting halls and play parks. However, the study showed that if the community
centres were used at all by the WRDS, they were used for their facilities alone because the
community based organisation aspect of the community centres was not in operation.
53
About 30% of the villages assessed in six divisions of Batticaloa District (Koralaipattu North,
Koralaipattu, Koralaipattu Central, Koralaipattu South, Eravurpattu, Manmunai West and
Poratheevupattu) made use of their community centre facilities. The centres were located in
Illupadichchenai; Thikiliveddai; Mayilanthanai; Jeyanthiyaya; Hijranagar; Rithithenna;
Vilavadduvan; Ganthinagar, Palaiyadiveddai. Karadiyanaru.
In addition, the set up at local level was not conducive to establishing stronger links between
the WRDS and the community centres. Rural Development Officers (RDOs) attached to the
DS office supported the WRDS while Community Development Officers (CDOs) attached to
the local authorities supported the community centres. Both RDOs and CDOs had a
responsibility to visit an allocated number of villages regularly to provide development
assistance, but in many cases they failed to meet these obligations effectively. In addition, it
was found that the RDOs did not encourage the WRDS to utilise the local authority services,
such as the community centres or the redressal system, and the CDOs did not have regular
contact with the WRDS so they could not publicise these services.
Despite the fact that 70% of the WRDS surveyed did not utilise their community centres at
village level, the WRDS respondents expressed interest in integrating WRDS and community
centre activities. They felt that if they worked together, their village would benefit. They felt
the community centre buildings had a lot of potential that could be used to support the
WRDS, by providing space for preschools, reading rooms, mother and child clinics and
community meetings.
5.5 Recommendations
• Many more people should be made aware of the functions and services of local
government and the roles and responsibilities of the public servants and elected
councillors who work there.
• WRDS and other community groups need to be convinced there is a valid reason for
them to visit their local authority. Only then will they use their local authority in the
same way they use the DS.
• Women from vulnerable communities should have their confidence and motivation
built in order to meet public officials. This should include advocacy training to empower
them to approach their local authorities for support or services and active
accompaniment on initial visits.
• Better public relations should be set up between local authorities and the communities
they serve. Local authorities need training in promoting their services and in analysing
and responding to the needs of the public. Initially, a series of meetings and open days
should be carried out at village and pradeshaya sabha level in order to establish good
working relations between the two groups.
• Local authorities should seek cooperation from all CBOs, not just the WRDS, to carry out
activities such as open days, and arrange them in collaboration with the DS office.
• Local authorities should do more outreach by using local authority sub‐offices,
providing mobile‐services, conducting open‐days, and sending officers (e.g. Community
Development Officers, Revenue Supervisors, Technical Officers and Public Relation
54
Officers) on bi‐weekly visits, especially in the 2 divisions of Koralaipattu South and
Koralaipattu Central.
• WRDS and community centres should be encouraged to work together since they are all
from the same village. This would provide more harmony among the villagers, and
make better use of facilities and skills.
• Further study should be carried out as to whether the PIP supported redressal system
should be promoted in areas where women already have adequate means of grievance
redressal through their Grama Sevaka, RDS or WRDS president.
• Grama Sevekas should also receive local authority and redressal system awareness
training so that they can effectively refer people to the local authority when
appropriate, given the fact that 34% of women in the WRDS go to them for redressal.
• WRDS and other community groups could be introduced to the redressal system and
encouraged to use it in the following cases:
- where communities rely too heavily on the police for grievance redressal
- where local authorities and chairmen are amenable to setting up a redressal system,
for example Manmunai West PS
- where WRDS have a specific need for service improvement, for example for the
provision of safe drinking water.
• The roles of DS and local authority field officers working at village level should be
coordinated more. Where the activities and needs of the WRDS and the community
centres ‘meet’ is a good entry point for this coordination to begin – for example RDO
work with the WRDS development and CDOs with the community centre development.
Joint training with RDOs, Samurdhi Officers, PHIs and CDOs should be organised.
55
56
6 Appendices
57