Social accountability refers to a broad range of actions and mechanisms that citizens, communities, independent media and civil society organizations can use to hold public, officials and public servants accountable. Social accountability is being increasingly recognized by state and non-state institutions as a means of enhancing democratic governance and improving service delivery. There are three main arguments underlying the importance of social accountability – governance, increased development effectiveness and empowerment. Social accountability tools include participatory budgeting, public expenditure tracking, citizen report cards, community score cards, social audit, citizen charters, people’s estimates etc. These social accountability mechanisms can contribute to improved governance, increased development, effectiveness through better service delivery and empowerment. The overall objective of these mechanisms is to promote transparency and accountability in the service delivery process. These mechanisms act as an empowerment tool for the citizens and enhance the level of commitment within government, especially the commitment of the political leadership and the bureaucracy.

It is therefore imperative that there be immediate and wide scale dissemination of knowledge about these mechanisms and also assistance provided to the various service delivery organization and civil society organizations in understanding and applying these tools for improved efficiency in service delivery.

The Centre for Good Governance has emerged as an institution of excellence in the area of governance reforms. It has been actively assisting the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Government of India in designing and implementing cross-cutting and sectoral reforms. A critical area of intervention pertains to strengthening accountability mechanisms by virtue of which effective and efficient service delivery can take place.

Along with the South Asia Agriculture and Rural Development (SASAR) Group of the World Bank, CGG has developed the South Asia Social Accountability Network (SasaNet) that aims to enable networking among different stakeholders and exchange and cross-fertilization of ideas/ best practices. SasaNet acts as a key tool in capacity building and communication efforts of institutions and individuals interested in social accountability. It offers a comprehensive knowledge base which includes conceptual information, set of tools, best practices and case studies for facilitating enhanced social accountability in governance.