S
A
S
E
F
AFRICA
Methodology Type
PPM
Name of Intervention
Establishing Local Integrity Systems through
Satisfaction Service Delivery Surveys
Primary Agency Running
Intervention
Location
Sector or Level of Focus
Type of Engagement
Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa – Harare Office.
Regional Initiative with Municipalities of Kwekwe and Marondera in Zimbabwe as Pilot Projects
Housing
Pilot was run for 9 months during the period
1998-1999 with a view to mainstreaming local integrity systems in council operations
What is the driving force behind the SA initiative?
At a time when concepts of decentralisation, good governance, honest and just government, accountability and responsive government were gaining momentum in Sub-Saharan Africa, the issue of corruption was taking a centre stage.
Defined as “the abuse of entrusted power for personal gain” corruption became a serious concern to governments, donor community, and citizens. Both public and private sector people as well as politicians were improperly amassing wealth and enriching those close to them.
Newspapers carried stories of corrupt officials being tried for defrauding their government, tendering procedures not being followed, election processes being rigged, questionable criteria being used to appoint people in senior positions, contracts being awarded on condition that commission is paid, etc.
The consequences of corruption were pervasive and far-reaching. It was engendering wrong decisions and choices. It was encouraging competition in bribes rather than in quality and price of goods and services. It was interfering with the market place, and it overall; it was poised to distort economic and social development.
1

What are the main objectives and what key accountability problems does it seek to address?
Who is the target audience or demographic focus?
What is the political culture or environment?
What specific SA tools and methodologies are being used? i) soliciting the residents’ opinions on the state of service delivery in their local authorities; ii) ascertain public perception on existence of corruption and where it is most likely to occur; iii) introduce a service delivery system as a management tool intended to improve efficiency and responsiveness in service delivery; iv) introduce local integrity systems to enhance accountability, transparency and guard against corruption; v) Provide an occasion to test the applicability of the concept of local integrity systems and assess its potential for implementation in local authorities
Municipal governments, mayors and councillors members of the community, service providers including the private sector
Democratically elected councils with an active civil society
A regional training of trainers workshop on developing local integrity systems in Africa.
Development of a charter for building integrity in local government administration
Identification of volunteer municipalities
Identification of a nucleus team and development of a work plan.
Gaining consensus and support of full council and key stakeholders
Contracting of an independent local consultancy firm SYMACON
Preparation of questionnaires
Recruitment and training of research assistants
Undertaking a pilot survey to test the instruments
Field work
Focus group discussions
Presentation of the findings to full council
2

Briefly describe the methodology(/ies) or tools used.
What advocacy and media activities support the initiative?
How inclusive was the intervention?
The household surveys were conceived as a means by which local authorities could initiate a dialogue with local residents about the extent and nature of malpractice in service delivery and possible methods of dealing with the problem
Surveys were proceeded by public meetings, chaired by the Mayor and Regional Director of
MDP, to inform people of the purpose and nature of the survey and encourage them to support the idea of constructive reforms
Preparation of questionnaires focusing on: i) Satisfaction with council performance in general ii) Attitude of council official toward the public iii) Corruption tendencies in housing allocation iv) Actions that needed to be taken to prevent corruption
Household surveys were supplemented by focus group discussions and individual case studies.
Following the completion of the surveys and internal local consultation, a national workshop was held attended by mayors and town clerks to share the survey findings and necessary action
The surveys were not conducted directly by the local authorities but by a private consultancy company, Systems Management Consultancy
(SYMACON), assisted by teams of research assistants, who were recruited from the local community and given special training.
However, the local authorities were fully involved in all aspects of the design and management of the surveys and the overall exercise was co-ordinated by a project team, led by MDP and including representatives from the two local authorities,
SYMACON
Following the national workshop, a regional workshop attended by participants from Eastern and Southern Africa was organised in Durban,
South Africa to share regional experiences.
Funding for the initiative came from the
Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)
Councils issue monthly bulletin on the level of service provision
Councillor were tasked to mobilise their residents to provided the information required by the numerators
3

Participation
Other Important Information or
Comments
Research assistants were selected from within their communities
What (if any) has been the impact of the initiative? What have been the incentives?
Is the methodology or initiative institutionalized? Are there any institutional linkages and partnerships been established with the government, parliaments, media, NGOs, communities etc.?
Describe.
(If applicable) Has the initiative been scaled up? Repeated?
What were the main outcomes of the SA initiative
The mood of the initiative was well captured by the
Mayor of Marondera, Mr. Luke Mukungatu when he said “The benefit of the satisfaction service delivery survey extend even further in that an honest, transparent, effective and efficient local government administration is more likely to enjoy the confidence of its citizens and stakeholders
Following the study both mayors agreed as a mater of priority to do the following: i) Undertaking Institutional reviews with an aim of setting performance benchmarks and devoting more resources towards service provision rather than recurrent expenditure. ii) Incorporating satisfaction service delivery surveys in the budget cycle. iii) Establishing a mechanism for involving residents directly in the preparation of the budget. iv) Ruling that the Housing Waiting List becomes an auditable record. v) Commissioning preparation of handbooks for guiding residents on procedures and rules i) Regular satisfaction service delivery surveys have been Institutionalised in many councils ii) Participatory budgeting has been acknowledged as a good practice iii) In a number of councils civic participation in local government is no longer questioned by councillors
Many local authorities with and without Zimbabwe have incorporated Satisfaction Service Delivery
Surveys in their annual budgets, Windhoek in
Namibia being a good example. i) Councils began to change the way decisions were being made by undertaking wider consultation with key stakeholders; ii) Satisfaction Service Delivery Surveys became mainstreamed in councils’ operations; iii) Councils have become community-centred and mechanisms were put in place to facilitate community – council dialogue iv) Marondera, Kwekwe, Gweru councils became resource municipalities to other councils in the region who were interested in effecting positive changes for the benefit of their citizens.
4

Bottlenecks/Problems What difficulties did the agency or NGO face, and how did they resolve them. (COMMENT: This section will yield rich insights on innovations that can be shared.)
Web sources
Documents and Reports
Resource Persons/Contacts
Lack of adequate resources to implement
Satisfaction Service Delivery Surveys. The solutions were: i) to encourage knowledgeable municipalities to help those who were in need of help ii) to mainstream the initiative in council operations iii) integrate SDS in MDP training programme on intergovernmental fiscal relations and local government finance www.mdpafrica.org.zw
D. Conyers and G. Matovu, Service Delivery
Surveys : A Means of increasing Accountability,
Transparency and Integrity in Local Government
2001.
Mr. George Matovu, MDP Regional Director gmatovu@mdpafrica.org.zw
5