Building citizen support

Keeping the Taps Running: How Cape Town Averted ‘Day Zero,’ 2017 – 2018

Author
Leon Schreiber
Country of Reform
Internal Notes
originally published 2/21/2019
Abstract

In 2017, Cape Town, South Africa, was on a countdown to disaster. An unprecedented and wholly unforeseen third consecutive year of drought threatened to cut off water to the city’s four million citizens. Faced with the prospect of running dangerously low on potable water, local officials raced against time to avert “Day Zero”—the date on which they would have to shut off drinking water to most businesses and homes in the city. Cape Town’s government responded effectively to the fast-worsening and potentially cataclysmic situation. Key to the effort was a broad, multipronged information campaign that overcame skepticism and enlisted the support of a socially and economically diverse citizenry as well as private companies. Combined with other measures such as improving data management and upgrading technology, the strategy averted disaster. By the time the drought eased in 2018, Capetonians had cut their water usage by nearly 60% from 2015 levels. With each resident using little more than 50 liters per day, Cape Town achieved one of the lowest per capita water consumption rates of any major city in the world. The success set a benchmark for cities around the world that confront the uncertainties of a shifting global climate.

Leon Schreiber drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Cape Town, South Africa, in November 2018. Case published February 2019.

Seizing Opportunities, Strengthening Synergies: Lima Frames a Collective Strategy to Advance Early Childhood Development, 2019–2021

Author
Miguelángel Verde
Focus Area(s)
Country of Reform
Abstract

Jorge Muñoz had long championed efforts to improve the lives of children in his relatively well-off district of Peru’s capital city, Lima. In 2019, he had a chance to take some of his ideas to scale. As newly elected mayor of metropolitan Lima, a city of almost 11 million, he oversaw basic services for about a third of the country’s population. At the time, a fifth of Peru’s population lived in poverty, and one in three people lived in informal settlements, where supporting families to give infants and toddlers a healthy start on life presented many challenges. The mayor directed the metropolitan government’s Social Development Department and a small interdisciplinary team of architects and social scientists (1) to identify lessons learned from pilot projects, (2) to establish new ways of assisting infants and young children, and (3) to coordinate to get the job done. When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the capital city in 2020, the metropolitan government and its team continued this work, using some of their newly created systems to respond to the larger challenge of caring for vulnerable populations during months of emergency lockdown measures. The national government labeled Lima’s program, which engaged residents in project development, as a promising model for helping local governments implement a countrywide strategy for the promotion of early childhood development.

Miguelángel Verde drafted this case study with the help of Tyler McBrien based on interviews conducted in Lima, Peru, during 2020 and 2021. Case published August 2021. The Bernard van Leer Foundation supported this case study to foster early-stage policy learning.

 

 

Bridging the Divide: Coalition Building for Early Childhood Development in Istanbul, 2016 – 2020

Author
Leon Schreiber and Gordon LaForge
Focus Area(s)
Country of Reform
Abstract

By the mid-2010s, Istanbul, the biggest city in Turkey, had developed a reputation as a bustling concrete jungle notoriously unfriendly to the 1.2 million children aged four years and younger who lived there. As part of a decade-long construction boom, multistory skyscrapers increasingly replaced green spaces and parks throughout the city. But such insufficient consideration for the developmental needs of young children was not confined to the design of public and urban spaces: in many Istanbul homes, parents worked hard to put food on the table and had little time to consider how to give their young children the best possible start in life. In February 2016, a coalition of policy research organizations and private enterprises launched an ambitious effort to persuade officials in Istanbul’s 39 districts to begin taking the needs of young children seriously. The group drew on help from a network of prominent Turkish universities and partnered with four district municipalities that agreed to join a program called Istanbul95, supported by the Bernard van Leer Foundation, a Dutch foundation. The group created a digital-mapping tool to help locate vulnerable children, conducted regular home visits to support hundreds of families, and designed new prototypes for child-friendly public spaces. This effort to embed principles of early childhood development into the work of Turkish local governments passed a milestone when, in 2019, the major metropolitan area governments of Istanbul and İzmir also agreed to join, a key step toward reaching many more children.

Leon Schreiber and Gordon LaForge drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Istanbul in June and July 2020. Case published November 2020. The Bernard van Leer Foundation supported this case study to foster early-stage policy learning.

 

Critical But Not Urgent: Seattle Prepares for the Big One, 2005 – 2019

Author
Gordon LaForge
Focus Area(s)
Country of Reform
Abstract

In the early 1990s, scientists discovered that the city of Seattle faced far severer seismic hazards than previously known. Their findings showed that a devastating earthquake would occur—perhaps tomorrow, perhaps next year, or maybe not for decades. In any event, the coastal city—the largest in the Pacific Northwest region of North America—was gravely unprepared. The uncertainties surrounding the timing and extent of such a disaster worked against the case for immediate, significant, and unified government action. Beset by more-pressing priorities, elected officials were reluctant to commit significant tax dollars, extensive amounts of time, and substantial political capital to the issue. Municipal emergency managers and community organizers took on much of the responsibility and tried to address important aspects of how to respond to the population’s immediate needs amid the devastation a massive earthquake would cause. They worked especially hard to build networks of organizations and people that would strengthen the city’s preparedness and resilience. Still, organized efforts directed toward two other elements of preparedness—mitigation and recovery—lagged. Seattle’s effort to grapple with those problems spotlighted a bigger question: How should a society prepare for a high-consequence disaster of uncertain timing?

Gordon LaForge drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Seattle, in July and August 2019. Case published October 2019.

Reducing Inequality by Focusing on the Very Young: Boa Vista, Brazil, Deepens Its Investment in Early Childhood Development, 2017 – 2019

Author
Bill Steiden
Focus Area(s)
Country of Reform
Abstract

Narrowing the gap between rich and poor was a top priority for Teresa Surita, five-time mayor of Boa Vista, Brazil. Surita had long viewed early childhood development services as crucial for improving life chances and attaining that goal, and she had partnered with several programs to expand parent coaching and other opportunities. As her fifth term began in 2017, she turned to a program called Urban95, which called for making a top priority the needs of young children and their families in all of the city’s planning and programs. Building on work the city had already done, Surita and her department heads undertook projects that included adapting a neighborhood to the needs of young children and their caregivers and building a cutting-edge data dashboard and alert system designed to ensure citizens would get help when they needed it. The city sought to keep those efforts on track while also extending assistance to families among the refugees fleeing deprivation and violence in neighboring Venezuela. As the term of the initial phase drew to a close in September 2019, municipal officials began to take stock of progress and results. Despite some philosophical disagreements and some uncertainties about the future of vital federal funding, the city was on track to achieve its project goals. 

Bill Steiden drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Boa Vista and Sao Paulo, Brazil, in July and August 2019. Case published October 2019. The Bernard van Leer Foundation supported this case study to foster early-stage policy learning.

 

Reconstructing a City in the Interests of its Children: Tirana, Albania, 2015 – 2019

Author
Gabriel Kuris
Focus Area(s)
Country of Reform
Abstract

When Erion Veliaj became mayor of Tirana, Albania, in 2015, he inherited a fast-growing city with unchecked construction and traffic that threatened the health and well-being of all citizens—especially the youngest and most vulnerable. Overcoming public distrust and budgetary shortfalls, Veliaj’s administration worked with private donors and international experts to quickly construct parks, playgrounds, nurseries, schools, and pedestrian spaces. At the beginning of the mayor’s second term in July 2019, the city was poised to adopt new models for streets and neighborhoods redesigned to serve the interests of infants, toddlers, and their caregivers.

Gabriel Kuris drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Tirana, Albania, in April 2019. Case published July 2019. Format revised January 2020. The Bernard van Leer Foundation supported this case study to foster early-stage policy learning.

Governing from a Child’s Perspective: Recife, Brazil, Works to Become Family Friendly, 2017 – 2019

Author
Bill Steiden and Sam Dearden
Focus Area(s)
Country of Reform
Abstract

In 2017, Geraldo Julio, the mayor of Recife, Brazil, heard scientific evidence that ensuring children from birth to age six years got a better start in life resulted in long-term benefits such as improved health, more-effective learning, less likelihood of criminal involvement, and increased employability. Julio, a technically-oriented leader in his second and final term, saw investment in early childhood development as an innovative strategy for addressing chronic crime and economic inequality in some of the city’s toughest neighborhoods. To enable parents and young children to move more safely and more quickly to locations where they could find efficiently clustered resources would require the city to align efforts in several city departments, including parks, public works, health, and education. Julio set up a management team and a steering committee to guide that work and won passage of legislation that authorized him to devote municipal resources and grant funding from private groups to the new strategy. The city engaged an existing public–private urban planning partnership to launch and manage pilot projects in two poor but contrasting neighborhoods: one where homes clung to steep, slide-prone hillsides and another where many residents lived in stilt houses on flood-prone riverbanks. It collaborated with a community peace center that could reach target neighborhoods effectively. Further, the mayor’s teams helped municipal departments start projects that would support the new agenda. In mid 2019, nearly two years after the program began, the pilot projects yielded key lessons about how to improve access to services for families with young children. 

Bill Steiden drafted this case study with the help of Sam Dearden based on interviews conducted in Recife, Brazil, in March and May 2019. Case published June 2019. The Bernard van Leer Foundation sponsored this case study, which is part of a series, to support learning in the early stages of its Urban95 program. Savvas Verdis and Philipp Rodeof the London School of Economics served as independent reviewers. 

Tackling Open Defecation through Behavioral Change: The Clean India Mission in Punjab State, 2015–2017

Author
Tini Tran
Focus Area(s)
Core Challenge
Country of Reform
Abstract

In October 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India declared a new national campaign to eliminate open defecation within five years. An estimated half of all Indians—mainly those living in rural areas—still defecated in the open, as humankind had done for centuries. Because India’s past programs had focused on building toilets, achieving little success, this time the emphasis was on motivating behavioral change. But exactly how to approach the challenge was left to each state. Ajoy Sharma, a veteran Indian Administrative Service officer, took on the task of implementing Modi’s plan in northern Punjab state in January 2015. To change long-held public acceptance of open defecation, Sharma developed an innovative pilot program that integrated sensitization and social mobilization at the individual, family, and community levels with financial subsidies to support toilet construction. The success of the program and its acceptance in five districts gave Sharma the evidence he needed to apply a similar template across all districts in his state. By September 2017, the project had successfully certified 11 districts—half of the state—as Open Defecation Free, a total of nearly 6,000 villages. This case study offers lessons for governments interested in altering social norms and expectations on a large scale to bring about long-term societal change.

Tini Tran drafted this case study with the help of Asha Brooks and Arpita Tripathi based on interviews conducted from April to October 2017. Case published November 2017.

Willy Mutunga

Ref Batch
M
Focus Area(s)
Ref Batch Number
27
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Maya Gainer
Name
Willy Mutunga
Interviewee's Position
Chief Justice
Language
English
Town/City
Nairobi
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

In this interview, Dr. Willy Mutunga discusses reform efforts in Kenya’s judiciary during his tenure as the Chief Justice of Kenya and President of the Kenyan Supreme Court.  He describes his main objectives for administrative reform under the new Constitution of 2010, including implementation of the Judiciary Transformation Framework, professionalizing the judicial bureaucracy, reducing corruption among personnel, and providing judges with more substantive training in judicial procedure and constitutional interpretation. Mutunga also describes challenges he and his colleagues faced in institutionalizing these reforms, including lingering tribal and ethnic loyalties, difficulties in getting regional courts to submit to oversight from Nairobi through forms and other monitoring programs, and competing interests among different constituencies within the judicial bureaucracy. He concludes by describing goals going forward, and which reforms he thinks are most at risk of being undone by future Chief Justices less interested in sustaining reform.

Profile

At the time of this interview, Dr. Willy Mutunga (b. 1947) was the incumbent Chief Justice of Kenya and President of the Kenyan Supreme Court. He was the first person to serve as Chief Justice since Kenya’s constitution was rewritten in 2010, taking up the post in June 2011, and retired from the judiciary in June 2016. Educated in Kenya, Tanzania, and Canada, he worked extensively in law, civil society, academia, and international development in Kenya and around the world before being named Chief Justice. As head of Kenya’s judiciary, his tenure was marked by numerous reforms, including professionalizing the judicial bureaucracy; reducing corruption, fraud, and absenteeism among judges and other personnel; and providing judges with more training in constitutional interpretation.

Full Audio File Size
60 MB
Full Audio Title
Willy Mutunga Interview

Transforming the Courts: Judicial Sector Reforms in Kenya, 2011-2015

Author
Maya Gainer
Focus Area(s)
Core Challenge
Country of Reform
Abstract

When Willy Mutunga became Kenya’s chief justice in 2011, he made reductions in judicial delay and corruption top priorities. Drawing on previous plans to fix the same issues, Mutunga and his team developed a far-reaching reform program: the Judiciary Transformation Framework. Their goals included addressing administrative problems that had hindered citizens’ access to justice and opening up a historically closed institution to public engagement. Judges, magistrates, and court staff helped court registrars standardize and speed up administrative processes. Early efforts to introduce new technologies that would reduce delays—one of Kenya’s 2012–14 Open Government Partnership commitments—failed to achieve nationwide implementation. But the newly created Performance Management Directorate developed a case-tracking system that facilitated nationwide monitoring of delays and workloads. The newly established Office of the Judiciary Ombudsperson and strengthened Court Users’ Committees opened lines of communication for citizens to register complaints, suggest changes, and receive responses. Although many reforms were in early stages in 2015, Mutunga and his team developed and enacted policies that changed the ways the judiciary served the Kenyan public.

Maya Gainer drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Nairobi, Kenya, in September and October 2015. Case published November 2015.