Blessing Nduku
In a bid to promote citizen participation and social accountability, the Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) recently trained ten members in Gweru on the Local Authorities Citizen Engagement (LACE) community scorecard aimed at incapacitating them with skills to effectively participate in council processes.
During the workshop, participants were taken through the LACE community scorecard methodology which enables citizens to access and monitor the performance of their local authorities.
Speaking during the training session, Edward Kapodogo the Monitoring and Evaluation Lead (MEL) for VISET emphasized the crucial role of residents and informal traders in Public Finance Management (PFM).
“You are not just beneficiaries of public services but rather stakeholders in how resources are managed. Your voices matter in ensuring transparency and accountability in local governance.”
“These scorecards will empower you to access service delivery, provide evidence-based feedback and demand better health and education services from local authorities.”
Kapodogo urged participants to actively engage in budget consultants and expenditure tracking.
“Citizenship is not a privilege but it is a right that strengthens democracy and improves livelihoods, therefore I encourage you all and those that are not present to actively engage in budget meetings and be able to track expenditure by the council.”
Speaking to this reporter Jabulani Chikomwe, VISET Programs Manager explained the importance of the scorecard tool.
“LACE scorecard tool is important because it will be able to gauge or rather measure the responsibleness of authorities as well as access to information.
It also gives sustainability to residents as well as informal traders to be able to continue to hold their authorities accountable in terms of their commitments to health and education priorities.”
One trainee gratefully thanked VISET for organizing the training workshop.
“I would like to thank VISET for organizing the LACE community scorecard training workshop. For me, I feel like I am no longer just a vendor but rather an advocate for change in our community.”
During the training, vendors were equipped with skills to collect and analyze data on local authority performance, facilitate community discussions and forums, engage with local authorities and advocate for improved service delivery.
The Local Authorities Citizen Engagement (LACE) community scorecard is a public service monitoring tool that is used to assess health and education services.
It helps communities identify problems, score services and demand improvements from local authorities.
