Identification of Objectives, Scope, Actors. In consultation with social accountability stakeholders, the objectives, scope and actors to be involved in PETS are agreed. This is to get their inputs, to understand what they want to find out, and to develop ownership. The following questions need to be answered, so that the PETS questionnaires can be designed: Which facilities and level? What facility type and which source of fund? What category of spending or resource flow? What program or policy? What is the geographic scope? What are the key actors to survey?
Identification of Objectives, Scope, Actors. Through the use of the CSC or CRC tools, specific issues for PETS can be identified by the stakeholders. The empowerment of citizens and engagement of service providers will already have started, a productive relationship between service users and service providers has then been created, and service improvement results will already have been achieved. This will facilitate openness of officials towards PETS implementation. XXXX and PDN/OSD started with PETS and it was more challenging to get support from officials. We therefore find that PETS works better in combination with other tools. Although the PETS-implementing SAIPs were relatively clear about what they hoped to find out (see table 1 – reasons for using PETS), it was not easy to develop a sense of ownership among service providers. The SAIPs did not have previous experience with PETS and might not have been able to imagine what the process and its results could be. It proved helpful to collaborate with FTA, as these officials know all the ins and outs of the government’s financial and procurement systems, and know where bottlenecks may occur. XXXX took an interesting approach to PETS process facilitation. Together with the Social Accountability Committee (SAC)12 and Xxxxxx Officials an Advocacy Team was formed. This team had 7 members from local communities, Woreda Rural Roads Office (WRRO) and Financial Transparency and Accountability (FTA), and the Advocacy Team worked to organize the PETS process and community participation in it, to obtain access to information, analyse the findings, and present them at the interface meeting for dialogue and the formulation of actions. This approach worked well as it showed citizens the political commitment to investigate rural roads expenditures. Through the Advocacy Team, there was a sense of involvement of all stakeholders in PETS process. 12 The SAC is established at the start of a social accountability process, and brings the three local governance actors together in one body to improve accountability and governance relationships. Citizens are in the majority, and typically represented by CBOs, including those representing vulnerable groups. Table 6: Example of resource flow mapping for the water sector Flow Relevant documents PETS questions Woreda sector planning and budgeting with inputs from Kebele Administration and Kebele Council Feasibility study Records of kebele consultation meetings How did the community request for the water point? BoFED allocates...
