Economic Equality in Latin America
The Problem: In the framework of EELA (Economic Equity in Latin America), with TI chapters in 5 countries evaluating the mechanisms of transparency, accountability and citizen participation in social programs, including Conditional Transfer Programs (PTCs), these programs reach millions of families in the region, and unfortunately tend to lack access to systems for effective information as well as mechanisms for effective complaints and grievances.
In addition, PTCs are complex programs in which multiple actors intervene. The EELA program seeks to generate specific recommendations at both national and regional levels, identifying the actors who are involved in key processes and how their work effectiveness could be improved. It should seek to go beyond the recommendations of style.
Context: The EELA project is being developed in five countries, and each country has different social programs and is evaluating different parts of these programs. It would be very helpful to have a generic software tool that would allow visualizing generic Actor 1, generic Actor 2 ... generic Actor n, and the relations between them, and ideally characterize relations according to "x" to define flexible criteria (e.g. criteria: transparency , accountability, and citizen participation. values applicable to each criterion: high, low or medium for example).
Audience: Civil Society Organizations seeking to assess and advocate for social programs, generating useful information to all relevant stakeholders including beneficiaries.
More information and data: In the links below are examples of tables that are generated by the program EELA: specifically the actors involved in each process of the social programs, and the relationships between them. It also allows for an assessment of transparency, accountability, and citizen participation -applicable to the relations between them.
- http://ziglaconsultores.com/eela/peru_tablas_7.html
- http://ziglaconsultores.com/eela/peru_tablas_8.html
If this information could be represented as a map in an easy manner, and it could be self adapting to new information, it could be a very powerful tool to summarize information that can then be shared with representatives of the State, local organizations and beneficiaries. The problem is that to generate a graph with about 25 actors and over 30 relationships between them using PowerPoint, or an illustration program, is time consuming and requires design skills that we often do not have in civil society organizations. It would also be ideal to have flexibility in the map (display) in order to make adjustments and updates.
