Women representatives drawn from Aldai, Tinderet, and Nandi Hills constituencies have been trained on the community score card process in a bid to enable them to positively influence the quality, efficiency, and accountability of services rendered at different levels.
The training that took place in a hotel in Nandi Hills and was organized by Kafawe Women Group, which is funded by Care Kenya through Uraia Trust, aims at lifting women’s voices through a project dubbed ‘women’s voice and leadership.’
The community score card is a social accountability tool that uses a monitoring and evaluation approach that enables beneficiary community members to assess services provided and rate their performance using a grading system in the form of scores.
Francis Ng’eny, Kafawe Women Group coordinator, noted that the Community Score Card (CSC) is an instrument to exact public accountability, especially at the local facility level, adding that it is used to solicit user perceptions on the quality and satisfaction of facilities as well as to assess the transparency and general performance of the service providers.
According to Ng’eny, to conduct an effective CSC, one has to understand the structure of the government to enable them to understand the level of government responsible for delivering specific services as well as government officials to deliver services at the frontline.
“To effectively implement the score card, it is important to have a good understanding of the local administrative setting, good facilitation and participatory skills, a strong awareness-raising process, and plan ahead of time,” pointed out the group coordinator, noting that the CSC is not about finger pointing or is it designed to settle personal scores, thus it is not supposed to create conflict.
He advised the women that before conducting a CSC, they should ensure that all necessary stakeholders are informed of the process and that they understand the objective along with the process that will be undertaken, noting that when undertaking the score card process for the first time, it is recommended that users focus on issues that can be solved with the available resources to gain the confidence of the community.
The coordinator further said that CSC is the best accountability tool because it is conducted at the micro level and uses the community as the unit of analysis. It generates information through focus group discussions to enable maximum participation of the local community.
It also provides immediate response and joint decision-making as well as allows for mutual dialogue between users and providers, and can be followed by joint monitoring.
“Inclusion is key when conducting CSC. Ensure all stakeholders in charge of the sector in which you are conducting a scorecard are informed. It is advisable to make all notifications in writing,” stated Mr Ng’eny.
The five phases of a CSC process are: planning and preparation, conducting the scorecard with the community, conducting the scorecard with the service providers, joint interface meeting and follow-up, and institutionalization.
By Ruth Mainye
