Reimagining accountability as empowerment for duty-bearers

The pre-Professional Research Fellows training in accountability for water commenced on the 22nd of February 2021 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as a prelude to a Research Fellows-led Accountability for Water Action and Research Programme in Ethiopia. The training will run in three modules namely accountability concepts, theories, and methods in general; accountability for water; and research methods. It will also be focusing on  proposal development on jointly selected themes of resilient WaSH, sustainable use of water for agriculture and water pollution.

In attendance are 26 senior and mid-level professionals, academics, and researchers from diverse disciplines from social and natural sciences as well as engineering.  Their organisational affiliations pervade government, NGOs, and academia. 

Holding duty-bearers to account in water service governance and delivery is important, particularly for marginalised communities. Indeed, a global literature review recently published by Water Witness International revealed that in 80 per cent of the studies analysed, looking at accountability in the sector, there was better accomplishment towards results. This is critical when we consider:

•            More than 60 percent of the global WASH interventions have failed to deliver the desired results;

•            In Ethiopia, up to 40 percent of the water facilities in rural parts of the country were nonfunctional;

•            In the same country, up to 60 percent of water used for agricultural use is wasted because of evapotranspiration and mismanagement including overuse; and

•            About 80 percent of industrial effluents are discharged to contaminate rivers and the environment without being treated.

Accountability and empowerment

Up to now there has been comparatively little interest in how accountability systems can empower duty bearers. Right-holders prevail in the accountability literature and seem to have overshadowed the role of accountability systems to empower duty-bearers. The discussion among the training participants has, however, reflected an important idea:

Accountability systems in the WaSH and Water Resources Management sector could empower duty-bearers as well as hold them to account to the people they serve.

Accountability necessarily goes with responsibility and resources to discharge one’s responsibility. In fact, an empowered duty-bearer has less of a chance to be unaccountable and more to be positively sanctioned. In countries where the political cultures and historical experiences are less supportive of accountability systems, a perspective focusing on the benefits of accountability for duty-bearers in the discharge of their roles and responsibilities is beneficial.

Mulugeta Gashaw, National Research Coordinator - Ethiopia