Details

Area of Expertise

• The Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) is institute within the Journalism and Media Studies Department of Rhodes University situated in Grahamstown, South Africa. The PSAM strives to enhance the impact of initiatives aimed at improving the provision of basic services through more transparent and accountable governance and public resource management in sub-Saharan Africa.
• The PSAM consists of three programmes: The Monitoring and Advocacy Programme (MAP) conducts monitoring and research into public resource management (PRM) processes and related governance issues of transparency and accountability at local, provincial and national government levels in South Africa. The Regional Learning Programme (RLP) develops the capacity of social accountability initiatives through offering the Fundamentals of Social Accountability course three times per year. This course provides a systematic approach to monitor and analyze PRM processes and targets civic actors, oversight bodies, media practitioners and researchers in sub-Saharan Africa. It also undertakes various in-country activities. The Knowledge Management Programme (KMP) aims to develop the advocacy skills of accountability practitioners through research focused on issues relating to the evaluation of the advocacy impact of accountability and PRM initiatives.

Publications

• When Opportunity Beckons: The Impact of the Public Service Accountability Monitor’s Work on Improving Health Budgets in South Africa, IBP Case Study, August 2013
• South African Legal Resources Centre Successfully Advocates for Adequate Education Facilities, IBP Case Study, November 2012
• Legal issues arising from application of herbicide to Bushmans Estuary salt marsh, including implications for Draft National Environmental Management: Integrated Coastal Management Amendment Bill, 2011
• PSAM Submission of Draft 3 of the Eastern Cape Provincial Fraud Prevention Plan (PFPP)
• Submission by the Public Service Accountabliity Monitor (PSAM) on the Green Paper: National Strategic Planning, October 2009
• Reports on the Centre for Social Accountabliity (CSA)’s Fundamentals of Social Accountabliity Monitoring course can be found here
• Accountabliity and Service Delivery in Tanzania, August 2007
• Submission to the Commission of Inquiry into the Finances of the Eastern Cape Provincial Administration, February 2006
• Input to Finance Standing Committee on 2004/05 Budget Allocations and Strategic Plans for Eastern Cape Departments of Health, Social Development, Education, and Housing, March 2004
• Accountabliity and Social Activism: A new strategy for achieving socio-economic rights in a democratic South Africa, by Colm Allan, November 2003

Major Current Activities

• PSAM's Profile 2011 – Briefly describes the main budget analysis and advocacy activities of the organization and its involvement with the International Budget Partnership's Partnership Initiative.

• Research on government performance to promote the progressive realization of socioeconomic rights and social accountabliity
• Use of the Promotion of Access to Information Act to promote accountability
• Training on social accountability offered three times a year to participants from Southern Africa
• Country consultation visits in Southern African countries to share social accountability monitoring approaches with local citizens and exchange budget and social accountability monitoring tools and experiences
• In-country exposure workshops in response to requests by partner organizations on how to implement the CSA’s social accountability monitoring methodology tools