How do you call others to be accountable when you yourself are not accountable? To whom are Civil Society Organisations accountable too if we other stakeholders are accountable to you? These were some of the questions that were reiterated by some of the over 350 participants who attended the 2 days 2017 CSO Accountability Forum meeting that held on the 12th and 13th of November 2017 at Rockview Hotel, Abuja. The meeting was organized by Civil Society for HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (CiSHAN), Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN), New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society (NHVMAS) and Treatment Action Movement (TAM).
CISHAN took these questions serious. CISHAN is the umbrella body of Civil Society Organisations working on HIV and AIDS response in Nigeria. The credibility of the organization took a serious bash some years back when it was held unaccountable for management of the GFATM funds it received. Prior to that, it also faced credibility problems resulting from leadership tussles that also had to do with financial misappropriation. A number of Civil Society Organisations have also not done well in terms of been financially accountable for grants received.
At this meeting, CISHAN and its partners spent the first day discussing in-house on how to address its accountability to the HIV response. Two types of CSO were identified – those who work for the community as their advocate and voice who can serve as watchdogs, and those who were contractors and implementers of the resources. Forum participants acknowledged the need to make distinctions between these groups of CSO, and explore how to hold either of these two CSO accountable.
In an attempt to regulate itself, CISHAN developed and presented the first draft of the CSO Accountability Framework at the meeting. The draft framework is a short 5 chapter document (13 pages) with a section that highlights the seven guiding principles, a chapter describing the standards to which CSO under the aegis of CISHAN shall be held accountable too, the last three chapters describing the one HIV and AIDS action framework. An appendix will include the monitoring tool to assess the level of stakeholder investment in the HIV response in Nigeria and their efforts at meeting the 2020 and 2030 global targets to which the country is a signatory. Annual reports on findings on the field shall be compiled and released every World AIDS Day by CISHAN.
Participants present at the meeting were happy with this development. The document is to be shared widely among stakeholders for their comments and inputs. A final document will be produced by March 2018. CSO monitoring of the HIV response in Nigeria shall commence in June 2018.
At the last plenary session of the meeting, CISHAN committed to finalizing and deploying the Accountability Framework to the various states for utilization. The supports of the partners were solicited to ensure that the utilization was hitch free. FHI360 responded on behalf of the partners in the affirmative. The draft document can be accessed at: http://nhvmas-ng.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/CSO-Accountability-Framework.pdf. Comments to be sent to the CISHAN secretariat.