The Citizen Participation Programme (CIPP) is one of the three interconnected programmatic interventions identified under the ABEDEV Strategy 2025-2029, ‘Making Institutions in Busia Serve the Common People’. The main aim of the CIPP is to mobilise residents of the County to meaningfully engage in the decisions made by the County Government and its institutions.
The programme is connected to the other two interventions, i.e. Civic Awareness Programme (CAP) and the Citizen-led Accountability Programme (CLAP), by closing the loop between mobilisation, capacity building and follow-up action, in line with our Theory of Change. The CAP will mobilise residents and ignite an awareness of their rights and obligations as citizens. On the other hand, the CLAP will focus on the commitments negotiated between residents and the County Government and its institutions by mobilising residents to monitor progress on the commitments directly.
The CIPP will be the link between the two programmes. It will utilise the civic capacity created by the CAP by facilitating residents whose civic consciousness would have been enhanced under the CAP to meaningfully participate in the decisions of the County Government and its institutions. This will lead to agreed commitments between the County Government and Busia residents. The commitments would then be subject to citizen monitoring under the CLAP.
The table below summarises some of the indicative activities, outputs, and outcomes of the CIPP. The activities are what the CIPP project officer and volunteers are expected to undertake frequently. The Head of Programmes is expected to follow up on the activities by referring to the key outputs and indicators emerging from them.
| Indicative Activities | Key Outputs | Indicators | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Mapping of government decision-making cycle |
• Calendar of public participation events
|
• No. of public participation events identified |
|
2 |
Mapping relevant stakeholders for each public participation event |
• Stakeholder registers various public participation events |
• No. of relevant stakeholders identified/listed and broken down by age and gender
|
|
3 |
Building the capacity of stakeholders for meaningful public participation |
• Public participation training workshops |
• No. of stakeholders trained broken down by age and gender |
|
4 |
Facilitating attendance of public participation events by select stakeholders |
• Public participation preparation events • Stakeholder attendance lists showing who attended the event and what they said |
• No. of preparatory meetings for public participation events • No. of public participation events attended • No. of stakeholders in public participation |
Implementation of the CIPP is expected to lead to increased capacity for citizen participation among Busia residents. With increased capacity, the quality of decision-making in the County Government is likely to improve in favour of citizen priorities. It is also likely to increase the County Government’s commitment to the needs of citizens. This will lead to a better focus on the needs of ordinary citizens, thereby uplifting their lives.