Rary (Participation and Poverty)

July 1996 - February 2000

Please note that this is a closed, archived program.

Madagascar's democratic transition over the past six years has resulted in a significant expansion of free expression along with marked political and market liberalization. However, Madagascar has yet to create an environment that sufficiently encourages private action and initiative. Political stalemate, lack of media credibility, associations without clear roles or resources, ineffective economic policies based on unreliable data and lacking rigorous analysis, and a deepening of poverty all provide the context within which Rary, which means "to weave" in Malagasy, operates. Civil society, an essential counterweight to government and business in a democratic, market-based economy, is particularly weak.

Concentrating on urgent public policy issues that represent an immediate and direct interest to citizens, the USAID-funded Rary focused not only on the ability of local government to manage public policy issues through open and participatory practices, but also on the capacity of civil society to develop and defend carefully thought-through positions and proposals. Both elements are essential to constructive exchange between informed citizens and government. Project activities encouraged the development of vertical and horizontal groupings of civil society organizations to increase their weight in the formulation of policies affecting the poor.

Program Achievements

• Achieved adoption of sweeping policy reform by the Fianarantsoa city council, who unanimously adopted policy on public participation in local government decision making and citizen access to information. The policy stresses, among other things, the essential nature of written, debated municipal programs as a basis of good city management. All executive proposals will be made public when they are submitted to the city council and announced through the city's new communications service. Citizens will have ten days to intervene before council votes. All administrative acts and council decisions, as well as urban development plans and plot-specific information on land tenure, will be accessible to the public through an "administrative closet mechanism." Citizens also will be able to know who was present during council sessions and how each councilor voted. The policy was developed with technical support from Pact by the Permanent Committee for Communal Communications (CPCC), composed of executive staff and council members, as well as representatives from civil society and the media. Mahajanga has created a similar committee, the OOCC.
• Facilitated cross-fertilization between program sites in Fianarantsoa and Mahajanga municipalities at the NGO and government level to exchange experiences and discuss management of community relations.
• Supported development of a strong and legitimate citizens leadership base within Mahajanga with establishment of Herimiray, a federation of 30 local associations. The federation, working in collaboration with the municipal government, helped to create an equitable policy on privatization of water distribution and is planning next to tackle the complex issue of municipal land tenure. Pact is providing training and mentoring to the federation to create a database for management of local land tenure issues.
• Through improved cross-hierarchical, cross-departmental team management, information sharing and citizen outreach, Fianarantsoa increased its property tax recovery rate from 43% to 76%, while Mahajanga saw a ten-fold increase in daily cash intake. Officials in both cities have pledged publicly to provide better services in return for increased citizen participation rates, and state institutions responsible for certain taxation functions have declared themselves open to a more constructive relationship with the cities.
• Decisions made by both Mahajanga and Fianarantsoa to apply the more transparent and legible national budget nomenclature. In the past budgets had been systematically rejected by the city council in part due to lack of legibility. Understanding what's in the budget will promote more dialog and less posturing.
• Supported journalists in creating press associations in Mahajanga and Fianarantsoa; each are planning to open press centers that will serve as training centers and space for public debate. The centers will be linked to information sources, based on the recently adopted public access policies requiring compliance by all institutions managing public funds.
• Supported collaboration in Fianarantsoa between the association of transport operators and city officials to address overcrowding of busses and illegal bus routes. Both problems were brought under control.