Open Doors 2009 is a regional forum on procurement monitoring for social accountability (SAc) in advancing citizen’s engagement with the government. It was held last 9-11 November 2009 in Hong Kong. It was hosted by the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific (ANSA-EAP) as an initial step toward understanding and appreciating advancements in social accountability (SAc) practice. The forum aims to:
- provide a venue for knowledge sharing of various stakeholders;
- assist in understanding and enhancing the tool of procurement monitoring; and
- advance ANSA-EAP’s networking among SAc practitioners and advocates for capacity building and knowledge sharing purposes.
An estimate of 70 participants from citizen groups, civil society organizations (CSOs), governments, media, donor agencies, and members of the ANSA-Africa and ANSA-South Asia were present at the forum.
On the first day, a presentation on participatory procurement monitoring was delivered by Mr. Robert Hunja, Coordinator of Public Procurement Program, World Bank Institute. Thereafter, the participants were divided into groups and were tasked to come up with a Newsbreak and answer the question: What inspires me now to do my procurement monitoring functions?
On the second day, the output for the Newsbreak and an open forum on procurement monitoring initiatives in the EAP region was conducted. Ms. Carole Belisario, Supervising Technical Officer of Procurement Watch, Inc. led the open forum. During the afternoon, panel members from ANSA South Asia, Africa, and Latin America shared the procurement initiatives of their region. Afterwards, a real-time consultation was conducted, where the participants joined their groups and discussed the situations and challenges they face on procurement monitoring, among which is the issue on sustaining the involvement of CSOs in procurement monitoring.
On the third and last day, the participants drew insights by answering the stimulus question: What are your key insights about the use of procurement monitoring as a Social Accountability tool? Later on the day, the participants were grouped per country in order to come up with Concrete Actions Plan in promoting Social Accountability for the next six (6) to twelve (12) months. The Philippine group identified the following activities: coordinated and synergized localization, creation of Philippine Procurement Monitoring Association, and networking.
Overall, the forum served as a learning experience for the participants. The CSOs were able to share the situations and challenges faced by their respective regions in their procurement practices. They were also able to share their ideas and opinions on SAc with regard to procurement. Moreover, the forum provided a venue for the participants to set action plans on how the CSOs will be actively involved in monitoring procurement. |
