Page 39 - OSISA Annual Report 2015-2018

© Cecil Dzwowa | Dreamstime.com
society organisations working on democracy and governance in Zimbabwe ahead of elections, November’s unforeseen events meant that additional resources had to be mobilised to respond accordingly.
It was against this background that we applied to the OSF President Reserve Fund to get extra resources to support active civic engagement in the political transition in Zimbabwe. When the reserve fund application was approved, OSISA put out an emergency targeted call to organisations pushing for constitutional order and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms. The call also looked at further support to engage with state actors on democratic and economic reforms and strengthen civic capacity to monitor, measure, and evaluate government commitments and performance towards democratic and economic reform. There was also a lot of advocacy work to accompany the grants that OSISA gave out from the President’s reserve fund after Zimbabwe’s coup.
Working together with the Africa Regional Office (AfRO), a Zimbabwe Advocacy Coordination Call was set up. This call became a fortnightly coordination call on Zimbabwe to get updates on developments in Zimbabwe, discuss and keep track of the rollout of the Reserve Fund programming. Apart from AfRO, these fortnightly calls also included the Open Society Policy Centre and the Open Society European Policy Institute to track the country’s developments.
A number of products resulted from this process:
à A document with critical demands for advocacy was developed.
à A total of 27 weekly–sometimes fortnightly–briefs were written by the OSISA democracy and govern- ance cluster to provide updates on the country’s sit- uation, what our grantees and partners were doing, where the gaps were and how OSF policy centres could help.
à A focussed advocacy delegation of high-level USA officials was supported to Zimbabwe. The delegation met with senior government officials, Zimbabwe civil society organisations and election officials, and reit- erated calls for a credible, free and fair election. This advocacy delegation helped to ensure that there is ongoing re-engagement that is not only anchored on cosmetic promises aimed at duping the world into unconditionally endorsing the new authority, but informed by genuine and tangible fulfilment of the government’s undertakings.
Transparency and accountability
Malawi National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS)
We supported the Institute for Public Opinion and Research (IPOR) to survey and gather public views and input into the national strategy to fight corruption in Malawi. The project by IPOR comes against the government’s decision to review the NACS to address flaws, which rendered the strategy ineffective.
Although the process was launched ten years ago, its impact has been minimal as corruption cases have continued to rise in Malawi. Observers have attributed some of NACS’s failures to lack of citizen inclusion and participation, both in its formulation and execution. In reviewing the strategy, the government has tasked IPOR to spearhead the work and help address its weaknesses. But while IPOR has been given this task, it has not been granted funds to gather citizens’ views and engender their participation.
One of the critical challenges the review seeks to address is strengthening the anti-corruption strategy. In this light, OSISA decided to support IPOR to survey and gauge citizens’ attitudes towards corruption and seek their views on how the new strategy can lead to eradicating corruption in the country.
OPEN SOCIETY INITIATIVE FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA – 2018 REPORT
37