{"id":60511,"date":"2013-09-10T06:45:25","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T06:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=60511"},"modified":"2013-09-10T06:45:25","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T06:45:25","slug":"grievances-as-a-public-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=60511","title":{"rendered":"Grievances as a Public Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summer, I made a project visit to a government clinic in northern Sierra Leone.\u00a0 It is a clinic pretty much in name only, being constructed as 1-bedroom living quarters for a teacher and subsequently converted into a health facility.\u00a0 The nurse took me on a tour, pointing out the problems: a broken scale to weigh infants, no waiting room for early stages of labor, animals grazing and leaving waste by the clinic entrance, missing IV materials and drugs, to name just a few.\u00a0 She then turned to me, visibly frustrated, and asked what I would recommend.\u00a0 I asked her if she had tried complaining.\u00a0 \u201cYou want me to report my boss to human rights?!\u201d she responded, incredulously.\u00a0 Her assistants at the clinic broke out in laughter.\u00a0 How could she possibly complain up the chain of command?<\/p>\n

When I first started working on accountability projects in Sierra Leone in 2011, I jokingly told colleagues that my goal was to contribute to a culture of complaining in the country.\u00a0 My words were in jest, but the spirit behind them was not.\u00a0 Witnessing a range of systemic breakdowns in health delivery, at all levels, I sensed a deep need for citizens and service providers to formulate and direct their grievances.\u00a0 I started to view grievances as a type of public good\u2014a service provided for the benefit and well-being of all members of a community.<\/p>\n

There are a range of reasons for this. \u00a0A single grievance can, if acted upon, lead to dramatic change \u2014 IV supplies may save the life of a woman in labor.\u00a0 Grievances also show the government that citizens expect <\/em>it to deliver services.\u00a0 This has not always been the case in Sierra Leone where citizen-state relations have suffered historic breakdowns, and where NGOs have often filled gaps.\u00a0 And when aggregated, grievances can help government set priorities and revise and improve policy.<\/p>\n

\"Justice<\/a><\/p>\n

As the Justice for the Poor program<\/a> has worked with the government to design and implement interventions to improve accountability for health services, we have charted our progress, in part, by measuring the number of complaints filed, as well as the ways in which they are resolved (or not).\u00a0 I have seen firsthand the barriers to people complaining. \u00a0Entitlements aren\u2019t clear so people don\u2019t even know what they can rightfully complain about.\u00a0 Individuals like the nurse fear that government won\u2019t respond or, even worse, will retaliate by denying promotions or transfers to more accessible urban locations. \u00a0And certain grievances are too complex for individuals or communities to tackle on their own\u2014they need agents to represent their interests.<\/p>\n

If grievances are a public good, then what might be some ways to remove these obstacles?<\/p>\n