Community Scorecards in Sudan

Every Voice Counts (EVC) is a five year Governance Program CARE is implementing in six countries including Sudan with support from the Government of the Netherlands. The EVC’s vision that CARE is striving to achieve to support poor youth and women from pastoral and agricultural communities in East and South Darfur to participate and influence public decision-making processes resulting in public policies and planning that better responds to their needs for recovery and development. One of the effective social accountability tools the project is using is the Community Scorecards (CSC).

The use of Community Scorecards is not very common in Sudan the way it is in other countries like Rwanda. It was introduced by CARE in South Darfur for the first time in 2015 as part of another project that was also supported by the Government of the Netherlands. Currently, CARE in Sudan is supporting 17 Scorecards processes in East and South Darfur between 2017 and early 2018.

In October 2017, with support from CARE’s national partner, Great Family Organization, 920 people in South Darfur have been introduced to the Community Scorecards. Community members in Dar-Alsalam and Elkhitwa took part in the process evaluating the quality of the health services provided by the two local Basic Health Units.

CSC awareness raising campaign-in Khirwa village, South Darfur

Interface Meeting: It was the first time for Khirwa community to meet with this number of officials at the same time. Key Officials representing Health authorities and Kass locality attended the meeting. The Executive director and the Locality Humanitarian Aid Commissioner were also present. 100 Traditional Leaders, Religious leaders and women also took part in the meeting. Key highlights of the meeting:

• Performance assessments and observations of each focus group were methodically discussed.
• Problems inhibiting quality performance in both rural clinics were compiled.
• Recommendations and feedback to service providers were proposed.
• Action plans were mutually developed.   

Advocacy and dissemination: Regular forums and coordination meetings between service users and providers were agreed by both CSC sides for discussing the progress and achievements against mutual action plans as was agreed in the interface meeting. Furthermore, a monitoring and evaluation plan was formulated too. GFO was tasked to reflect on monthly basis on the implementation and achievements of the action plan as agreed as per the M&E plan attached with this report.

Interface meeting Daraslam (Taba-fato) and Alkhirwa villages -Oct, 18, 2017 Kass locality, South Darfur State

The CSC Process has provided an opportunity for the maximum participation of a wide range of stakeholders from target villages. Despite the huge acceptance the Community Scorecard received, there was clear hesitance from some of the actors to participate in the process. The most difficult part being the interface meeting. CARE works closely with the Community Based Trainers (CBTs) who are trained Village agents with the responsibility to facilitate the process and orient the community. The process requires close follow u by CARE to ensure that both the community and the service providers implement what was agreed upon. Lessons learned from the process are continuously documented and used to improve the process as we go.

For more information, please get in touch with Sudan (Sara.Azhari@care.org)