The World Bank - Working for a world free of poverty

Views menu

Syndicate content
Exploring the interactions among public opinion, governance, and the public sphere

About us

Welcome

This blog is published by the Communication for Governance & Accountability Program (CommGAP).
Learn More>>

Social Accountability

Scaling Up Social Accountability

Submitted by Darshana Patel on Fri, 11/06/2009 - 16:53

Strengthening accountability relationships between policy makers, service providers and citizens is at the core of the public accountability effort. But because traditional, supply-side interventions alone have not been able to deliver expected development outcomes; governance practitioners, civil society and policy-makers are increasingly looking towards citizen-driven, social accountability processes to strengthen governance and service delivery. The two approaches must be integrally linked. If governance and accountability are central to the development agenda, social accountability interventions must be a part of this agenda as well. Most governance practitioners would agree on this point.

Talking with Teeth: Micro-Planning with Community Scorecards

Submitted by Darshana Patel on Mon, 08/03/2009 - 16:13

Village youth decribing the social accountability process before a village elected official.Coming together is a process
Keeping together is progress
Working together is success

This message, written on the wall of a public building in Gureghar village in the district of Satara in Maharashtra, India, implies the significant changes that have taken place at that village.  Since mid-2007, 178 villages including Gureghar have been part of an innovative social accountability process that has redefined relationships between citizens, service providers and local government.  Although micro-planning has been happening for over 2 decades in Maharashtra, the innovation in this pilot project is that micro-planning has been combined with a community scorecard process to strengthen relationships of accountability at the village level. 

No Public Will, No Accountability

Submitted by Anne-Katrin Arnold on Wed, 06/10/2009 - 17:09

Last week and this, the Institute for Democracy in Africa (IDASA) piloted the new World Bank Institute's (WBI) new Core Learning Program "Introduction to Social Accountability" near Johannesburg, South Africa. CommGAP was invited to present a module on "Communication and Strategies for Constructive Engagement" - introducing our core concepts and messages on mobilizing public opinion to create genuine demand for social accountability. Here's a comment from the evaluations of our module: "The mobilization of public opinion is vital for social accountability. I have to admit that I was not aware of the importance of public opinion for social accountability before this course!"

What in the World is 'Rude Accountability'?

Submitted by Sina Odugbemi on Tue, 06/09/2009 - 10:44

I have just read a fascinating paper published by the Institute of Development Studies in the UK and written by Naomi Hossain. It is titled 'Rude Accountability in the Unreformed State: Informal Pressures on Frontline Bureaucrats in Bangladesh' [IDS Working Paper Volume 2009 Number 319]. The paper describes and analyzes what happens when poor peasants in Bangladesh are being poorly served by frontline service providers like doctors and teachers in an environment where the institutional accountability mechanisms do not work. So, what do these poor peasants do? They get angry and they show it. They speak rudely to these doctors and teachers who normally expect deference. They embarrass them. They get local newspapers to name and shame them.They even engage in acts of violence like vandalism. And their reactions often produces results, particularly the media reports. This is what Hossain calls 'rude accountability'.

The Essence of Accountability: Speak for Yourself

Submitted by Antonio Lambino on Thu, 02/07/2008 - 19:22

Last November 2007, CommGAP organized a workshop entitled Generating Genuine Demand with Social Accountability Mechanisms in Paris, France.  Since then, we have been reflecting on the word “accountability” and what it really means in the work of governance.  I recently recalled that Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson defines the term in the context of political campaigns as candidates (and I would add officials and elites in other public settings) speaking in their own voices, thus keeping themselves open to challenge and criticism.  Simply put, the essence of accountability in political discourse is being answerable to others for what one says in public.