Corruption and poor governance are both a cause of poverty and a barrier to overcoming it. Poor governance undermines poverty alleviation efforts and increases the risk that funds intended for social spending are lost, misused, or misallocated. Where transparency and accountability mechanisms are weak or lacking, the needs of the poor are marginalised and development outcomes in basic service sectors such as education, health, and water suffer. Systems of checks and balances, including civil society monitoring, need to be strengthened to reduce such abuses of power and diversion of funds for private interest.

Transparency and Integrity in Service Delivery in Africa (TISDA) is a three-year, seven-country program implemented by Transparency International that started in 2008 and will conclude in 2011. It seeks to support civil society in seven African countries in working with citizens to demand greater transparency, integrity, and accountability in the management of resources for basic services in primary education (Cameroon and South Africa); the health sector (Uganda and Zambia); and the water sector (Kenya, Ghana and Senegal).

The program promotes a highly participatory approach with Transparency International national chapters closely involving partners from civil society, government, and the private sector in its implementation. It is structured around four key components:

• Assessment and surveys: creating sector-specific risk maps identifying potential corruption risks associated with the delivery of the particular service;
• Advocacy and communications: raising awareness through targeted advocacy interventions, building partnerships and promoting dialogue with political decision makers and key stakeholders on priorities for policy reform;
• Regional capacity building: strengthening research and advocacy skills as well as institutional capacity of participating TI national chapters, also through peer learning and regional knowledge exchange;
• Monitoring and evaluation: critically reviewing progress made towards programme objectives, and lessons learned.

The goal is to help all those involved in the delivery of basic services improve their understanding of existing linkages between different actors and their relationships in the sectors concerned. The studies have produced sector-specific risk maps that describe the relationships between governance (defined as transparency, integrity and accountability), corruption, and performance. These will inform targeted advocacy recommendations aimed at policy reform and the reinforcement of existing local accountability mechanisms.

The first two reports from the education sector were ready in July 2011. The applied methodology included:

• "Closed" questionnaires for households, teachers, head teachers, school management committees (SMCs), and district officers
• Interviews with high-level informants
• Focus group guidelines for group interviews with teachers, SMCs and students
• A ‘school information card’ for recording direct observations made at the school level.

The triangulation of data made it possible to identify deficits with regard to accountability, integrity and transparency in the provision of primary education services. These are illustrated through risk maps that are at the basis of an analysis and subsequent formulation of recommendations.

Download the reports:

Mapping transparency, accountability and integrity in primary education in South Africa

Mapping transparency and integrity deficits in primary education in Cameroon (French)

You may also visit the TISDA South Africa blog

The reports for the water sector will be published in August 2011. In the water sector, water service development and service provision in rural and urban areas was analysed based on a series of case studies in the three programme countries (Ghana, Kenya and Senegal). The case studies draw on extensive interviews with key actors including both providers and users of water services. Interviewees were selected from both the local level and from among key stakeholders at the national level (Ministry, Regulator, Donors...). Case studies together with an institutional analysis constitute a National Water supply Integrity Study (NWIS), providing a detailed overview of integrity in the water supply sector. The consolidated work will provide a basis for evidence-based advocacy, and for specific recommendations aimed at improving integrity and performance systems in the country’s water sector.

The health sector reports will be published in August 2011. In the health sector, analysis of institutional performance and accountability used the six building blocks identified in the WHO health systems framework, namely

• health financing
• health leadership and governance
• medical products and technologies
• health information
• health workforce, and
• health service delivery.

The studies used a descriptive cross-sectional study design including both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection, such as facility surveys and exit polls, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. Research was carried out in six districts in each of the two program countries (Uganda and Zambia).