Oxfam has published a new series of papers, drawing together lessons from its programme work on local governance and community action. It includes case studies from:
- Nepal (women’s rights), Malawi (access to medicines),
- Kenya (tracking public spending),
- Vietnam (community participation), and
- Tanzania (the ubiquitous Chukua Hatua project),
These case studies demonstrate how essential it is to work with both citizens and people in authority in order to achieve positive change in local governance. This could involve working with citizens to raise awareness and knowledge about their rights and about how local governance works, so that they can make relevant demands and monitor effectively how resources are used and accounted for, as in Malawi and Kenya. It may require working with officials and elected representatives to increase understanding about how to work accountably and transparently and to understand the benefits of actively involving citizens in planning and monitoring, as in the Tanzania example. Or it might be about working with officials to understand how particular legislation or regulation should work, as in Kenya.