Page 158 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

156 A Project of the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF) Step 6: Oversight The oversight and operation of a deliberative process is often undertaken by an independent body. Sometimes this is distinct from the facilitation team to act as a truly independent source of scrutiny (contracted facilitators or community engagement practitioners can be seen to be delivering results because of the way they are paid to complete a task – while this generally isn’t the case, it is the perception and the way it undermines trust that matters). This is dependent on the scale of the project. Large public decisions will be subject to heavier scrutiny, sometimes necessitating independent oversight. Whoever is undertaking operational control of the process is responsible for the delivery of the project from start to finish. This is ownership of everything within this handbook, cover to cover. 1This requires the organisation to play two roles: To act as an intermediary between the participants and government to maintain the integrity of the process and the trust of the participants. 2To manage the government’s expectations between desired results and the outcome of the process. The oversight role is ultimately about: a. Neutrality b. Citizens’ owning the process This can be performed by a university, a judge or an independent organisation. The role should place a primary focus on transparency and seek to build trust in the integrity of the process for any outside observer.