In recent years, there is an increasingly greater emphasis on civic engagement as a mechanism for improving service delivery in Government. This demand driven approach which relies on civic engagement, in which ordinary citizens and/or civil society organizations participate directly or indirectly to exact accountability, is a process which has been termed as "Social Accountability". Social accountability process involves using certain tools and mechanisms by citizens, communities, media and civil society organizations for improving service delivery and to hold public officials and public servants accountable for their performance. There are three main aspects underlying the importance of social accountability, namely, Accountability in Governance, Increased Development Effectiveness and Community Empowerment. (
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Social accountability is important for enabling citizen-centric and pro-poor governance. This requires continuous coordination and convergence between different program implementing agencies, civil society organizations, local communities and other stakeholders. Those governments implementing these accountability initiatives have felt that there is a need to build the capacities of all the stakeholders involved in implementing and institutionalizing accountability into governance. With a view to create more acceptance and also increase the number of social accountability practitioners in South Asia a curriculum on social accountability has been developed with the help of the World Bank Institute (WBI).
Today, Social Accountability mechanisms are being piloted across the world. In South Asian countries like India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan have also undertaken a number of initiatives to strengthen social accountability mechanisms. Such initiatives are being funded by the National Governments and also by International donor and funding agencies like the World Bank, DFID, and others.
