End of Commitment Report – Technical support to organizationally strengthen the Community Action Boards on issues associated with public procurement

Name of Evaluator

Camilo Ignacio Gonzalez Becerra

Email

ci.gonzalezb@uniandes.edu.co

Member Name

Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action...

Technical support to organizationally strengthen the Community Action Boards on issues associated with public procurementTransparency in the procurement process can help combat corruption and waste that plagues a significant portion of public procurement budgets globally. Technical specifications: Commitments that aim t... More.

Action

The commitment deemed “Technical accompaniment to organizationally strengthen the Community Action Boards on issues associated with public procurement” seeks to generate capacities so that these organizations can participate in the public procurement processes of the District Administration with knowledge and tools that ensure their competitiveness and access capacity.

This commitment promotes citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More, transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More, access to public information, local development capacity, open contractingA transparent procurement process, known as open contracting, increases competition, improves public service delivery, and ensures governments better value for their money. Technical specifications: C... More, and accountability.

General Objective: Strengthen community organizations in public procurement issues to generate capacities for their participation in public procurement processes.

Problem

Cartagena currently has 429 Community Action Boards and Community Housing Boards and 3 Associations of Community Action Boards, most of which do not have the knowledge or the administrative and technical capacities to participate in contracting processes with public entities of the highest level, local and regional.

1.1 What was the overall level of progress in the commitment implementation at the time of this assessment?

Complete

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

For the organizational strengthening of the Community Action Boards, the District Mayor’s Office of Cartagena, in agreement with the University of San Buenaventura, implemented the strategy called “Communals to Work”, which consisted of the development of 10 modules in three diploma courses: 1. diploma course in organizational skills, community management and citizen control, 2. diploma in skills in formulation, project management and contracting, and 3. diploma in digital skills.

Within the framework of the project, 831 Community Action Organizations in the city of Cartagena de Indias were trained, of which 209 belonged to the locality (1) of the historic and northern Caribbean, 280 belonged to the locality (2) of La Virgen and tourist, and 342 belonging to the locality (3) industrial and the bay. In this sense, a total of (832) leaders were trained in the different diploma courses.

Provide evidence that supports and justifies your answer:

• Communals to Work – Report

1.2 Describe the main external or internal factors that impacted the implementation of this commitment and how they were addressed (or not).

According to what was stated by the leader of the District Mayor’s Office of Cartagena in the implementation of the open government commitment, the main factors that influenced were the following:

1. The motivation that citizens, in this case, the members of the community action boards, had to train and acquire knowledge that would allow them to formalize their boards.
2. At the national level, citizen participation processes and the contracting of entities with community action boards are being promoted.
3. An exercise like this had not been done before, so people were waiting for several participation spaces to be promoted in which more people participated, and this participation influenced the decision-making, which in this case were the commitments that were signed with OGP.
4. The people who participated have an impact on their communities, which is why they work to improve the quality of life of their neighbors.
5. The economic and human resources were available to implement this commitment.
6. The expectation campaign and in general the entire communications effort promoted everyone’s participation and enthusiasm.

1.3 Was the commitment implemented as originally planned?

Most of the commitment milestones were implemented as planned.

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

In accordance with what is established within the Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen..., the identification of Community Action Boards, the survey of organizational strengthening needs, and the design of the strengthening strategy were carried out between January and March 2023. As a result of this process, the general aspects of the pedagogical content of the diploma course were established, as the list of participating OACs for each diploma course, and the development schedule of each diploma course, including module, duration, start, and end dates, and trainers.

Now, regarding milestones 4 and 5, which consist of implementing and monitoring the organizational strengthening strategy for Community Action Boards on public contracting issues between April and September 2023, although the training and monitoring processes started in May, they were completed in September as planned.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Communals to Work – Report

2.1.1. – Did the government disclose more information; improve the quality of the information (new or existing); improve the value of the information; improve the channels to disclose or request information or improve accessibility to information?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Through the strategy, it was possible to reveal valuable information to the leaders of the Community Action Organizations of the District of Cartagena through training in formulation, project management and contracting, organizational skills, community management and citizen control, and digital skills. In this sense, the digital skills diploma was developed as a key tool for organizing digital skills initiatives. This included the DigComp model, which proposes a set of digital competencies, such as access to information, digital literacy, online communication and collaboration, creation of digital content, and network security and problem solving.

Additionally, through the “Social Networks” module, it was possible to make leaders aware of the importance of the Internet as a means of communication, how to search for information and how to obtain information from online questionnaires, as well as learn about the main social networks, its most important functionalities and its application to the interests of organizations.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Communals to Work – Report

2.1.2. – Did the government create new opportunities to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation inform or influence decisions; improve existing channels or spaces to seek feedback from citizens/enable participation/ inform or influence decisions; create or improve capabilities in the government or the public aimed to improve how the government seeks feedback from citizens/enables participation/ or allows for the public to inform or influence decisions?

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

Through the strategy, it was possible to improve the capabilities of the leaders of the Community Action Board Organizations with the objective of improving the way in which the government seeks feedback from citizens and allowing leaders to inform or influence decisions. This is to the extent that through the training it was possible to (1) strengthen the competencies that allow the leaders to carry out good administrative and legislative management within their boards, and (2) improve their administrative and operational capacity in the management of office tools.

In this order of ideas, one of the modules that were offered within the study plan was on citizen control, which allowed the leaders to understand that it is a modality of citizen participation in public affairs with contents of surveillance, criticism and monitoring, evaluation, deliberation, and social sanction, conditioned on the autonomy and independence of the social actors.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Communals to Work – Report

2.1.3 Did the government create or improve channels, opportunities or capabilities to hold officials answerable to their actions?

Not Applicable

2.1.4 Other Results

Yes

Degree of result:

Major

Explanation: In narrative form, what has been the impact on people or practice.

The strategy to fulfill the commitment was inclusive, to the extent that it managed to involve leaders of 346 community action organizations of the 432 existing organizations in Cartagena, which represents 80% of the target population of the commitment. About this, it is highlighted that the benefited leaders are part of the different localities of the Cartagena District, of the 832 trained leaders, 209 belong to the historical and northern Caribbean locality (1), 280 belong to the locality (1). 2) from the virgin and tourist area, and 342 belonging to the locality (3) industrial and from the bay.

On the other hand, through the digital skills diploma, it was possible to increase access to new technologies for openness and accountability of the leaders of community action organizations. On the other hand, it was promoted through training in ethics and integrity, practices, and laws against corruption, which guarantees transparency in administrative management and citizen control.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Communals to Work – Report

2.2 Did the commitment address the public policy problem that it intended to address as described in the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment addressed the public policy problem through the generation of technical and administrative capacities in community organizations with the capacity to participate in public procurement processes. Since, through the development of the three diplomas, it was possible to generate skills in formulation, project management and contracting, community management and citizen control, and the use of office and digital tools. The training received allowed the leaders to overcome the barrier of access to public information to contract with the State and the lack of knowledge and management capacity of public contracting platforms, overcome technical and organizational weaknesses to meet objectives and their action plans, and improve the transparency of internal management of organizations. In this sense, the benefited leaders should be monitored in the short and medium term to evaluate how the knowledge and skills learned have been key to achieving organizational strengthening.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Communals to Work – Report

3. Provide at least one lesson or reflection relating to the implementation of this commitment. It can be the identification of key barriers to implementation, an unexpected help/hindrance, recommendations for future commitments, or if the commitment should be taken forward to the next action plan.

The implementation of the commitment was aimed at generating training to (1) strengthen the competencies that allow leaders to carry out good administrative and legislative management within their boards, and (2) improve their administrative and operational capacity in managing of office tools. However, it is necessary to implement a monitoring strategy to evaluate how the leaders of the community action organizations are achieving these objectives, and in this way, determine if the expected results have been fully met. In this sense, it would be advisable to create some result indicators to measure the achievement of the objectives.