Billions of dollars have been allocated to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, but how can we ensure that the funds are used in the most effective way, with the necessary accountability?
This was one of the questions that emerged from a 14 May webinar hosted on by the African Union's Economic, Social and Cultural Council (AU-ECOSOCC) and the African Development Bank's Civil Society and Community Engagement Division.
The session was one of a series of talks on the role of civil society in ensuring accountability amid the pandemic.
Thomas Ouedraogo, Executive Director, Centre pour la Gouvernance Démocratique in Burkina Faso, said his organization started discussions around COVID-19 funding after certain sectors received bigger allocations than healthcare.
"Decisions were removed from authorities to the streets. This was the first initiative, organizing something in terms of response. We had to agree on a roadmap, so funds are directly sent to the proper target - treatment and healing," he said.
Mthandazo Ndlovu Hlahla, member of the Budget Justice Coalition and Governance Coordination at Oxfam South Africa, said the role of civil society organizations was to cooperate with governments and state actors.
"We are pushing more for governance and accountability... we have also been quite visible in highlighting different impacts on the most vulnerable members of society like non-nationals, migrants... Most of them are not documented, so we ensure that they also access humanitarian assistance, food parcels and more. We ask governments to be non-discriminatory."
Amira El Fadil Mohammed, Commissioner of Social Affairs, African Union Commission, said a joint continental strategy on COVID-19 was adopted by the Commission's Assembly on 26 March. The heads of states had formed committees on health, finance and transport to follow through with implementation. "Our policy framework now, what we are currently implementing, is: we agreed to act together as one continent, seeing as 55 member states will do this fight together in full coordination and collaboration, with enhanced communication."
Alan Bacarese, Director, Office of Integrity and Anti-Corruption at the African Development Bank, pointed out that two-thirds of the Bank's funding would be in the form of direct support to countries' budgets, which makes it harder to monitor accountability and transparency.
He noted, however, that the Bank continues to work with governments to improve internal and external auditing.
"They should also publish procurement processes being used and some ideas around beneficial ownerships," said Bacarese.
The Bank has created a $10 billion COVID-19 Response Facility to assist its regional member countries and the private sector.
Bacarese cited Nigeria as an example of a country that had taken steps to enhance accountability.
"The deferral audit authority there has a portal and they produce stats daily on funding. Weekly and monthly audits are made publicly available," he said.
Zéneb Touré, a Bank division manager for Civil Society and Community Engagement as well as the webinar's moderator, said past webinars had shared good practices and innovative solutions that participants had deployed in the field in addition to state response mechanisms to the crisis.
Future webinars will assess life beyond the pandemic, specifically recovery initiatives and opportunities for civil society organizations to remain at the forefront of the reconstruction agenda.
