This paper highlights the World Bank’s growing interest and involvement in social accountability initiatives, which derive from its core goals of promoting poverty reduction and effective and sustainable development. It addresses five fundamental questions: (i) what is social accountability; (ii) why is it important; (iii) what are its core features; (iv) what are the key applications; and (v) what are the factors that underpin its success. The paper also explores the linkages between the concept and other key issues such as governance, gender, participation, empowerment and rights.
The paper first surveys the literature on accountability and establishes a categorization of the different ways by which civil society can interact with the state in order to improve accountability. It then explores in detail seven case studies of successful experiences of “state-society synergy for accountability.” The studies draw from a wide range of different contexts (Brazil, India, Mexico, the United States) and from a variety of different areas of government activity (corruption control, environmental regulation, poverty reduction, election monitoring, infrastructure provision, school reform, police reform). The paper concludes with a series of conceptual and practical lessons for World Bank staff on how best to initiate, design, and implement successful pro-accountability mechanisms grounded in state-society synergy.
The World Bank In recent years, civic engagement is being increasingly viewed as a promising approach to improve the performance in the public sector. This paper attempts to clarify one aspect of the growing literature on civic engagement: society’s role in improving government accountability – a process increasingly being termed as “social accountability”. The paper develops a definition of accountability as a pro-active process by which public officials inform about and justify their plans of action, their behavior and results and are sanctioned accordingly. The World Bank can apply social accountability approaches in many areas of its work. The paper highlights two such areas: (a) Public sector reform and (b) Decentralization. The paper discusses several examples as to how SAc approaches have made an impact in these two areas.
Allan,C.; June 2007; ‘Social Accountability, Power, Corruption and Poverty’; South Africa Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD) Conference; Durban, South Africa http://www.icount.org.za/downloadpublication.php?pid=12
In this paper it is argued that continued poverty within African states needs to be situated and explained within the context of weak social accountability systems in these states. The prevalence of corruption in African states is attributed to the weakness of these social accountability systems, rather than being attributable to the influence of irrational cultural or political beliefs, or the position of these states within the international economic order, as asserted by liberal and Marxist development theorists respectively..
Wit, J., Akinyoade, A.; December, 2008; ‘Accountability in Formal and Informal Institutions: A Cross-Country Analysis’; Working Paper Number 464; Institute of Social Studies; Hague http://biblio.iss.nl/opac/uploads/wp/wp464.pdf
This paper is an initial exploration and analysis of accountability mechanisms in a sample of 22 ‘modern’, ‘indigenous/traditional’ or ‘mixed’ institutions - and attempts to identify patterns of mechanisms that seem to be effective, and to assess conditions that may be conducive to effective accountability arrangements.
Sirkar, K., Cosic, S, Public Affairs Foundation; 2007; ‘Empowering the Marginalised: Case Studies of Social Accountability Initiatives in Asia’; World Bank Institute Working Papers; World Bank Institute
Empowering the Marginalizedreveals the power of demand-side approaches in enhancing governance through the concepts of citizens’ voice, accountability, and responsiveness. It seeks to provide lessons on the establishment of social accountability mechanisms, thereby empowering the marginalized, who represent a majority of society not only in Asian countries, but in most developing countries worldwide. Since most of the projects documented in the case studies are fairly recent, the studies offer valuable practical lessons on program design and operation, establishment of partnerships and networks, and project management.
Mumvuma, T., McNeil, M.; 2006; ‘Demanding Good Governance: A Stocktaking of Social Accountability Initiatives by Civil Society in Anglophone Africa’; World Bank Institute.
This report synthesizes a stocktaking of civil society-initiated social accountability practices in the public budgetary process in 10 Anglophone African countries—Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Three clear mechanisms for social accountability in the cycle of public expenditure are included as initiatives in the study: independent budget analysis and advocacy (IBA); participatory public expenditure tracking (PPET); and participatory performance monitoring (PPM). Independent Budget Analysis (IBA) refers to the research, advocacy and dissemination of information on issues related to official budgets by civil society and other actors independent of the government. The paper also presents a conceptual framework for the role of social accountability in good governance and contrasts horizontal accountability and vertical accountability.
Burke, A., Vanna, N.; February, 2004; ‘Options for Increasing Social Accountability in Cambodia’; For DFID and The World Bank.
This report has been prepared for the World Bank and DFID. It focuses on identifying and assessing opportunities in Cambodia to strengthen accountability by enhancing bottom-up or external mechanisms of accountability through civil society groups, the media and the parliament, among others. It summarizes the brief round of interviews and research in Phnom Penh, Pursat, Battambang and Campong Chnang undertaken in late January 2005. The aim was to assess the capacity and interest of Cambodian Civil Society organizations in promoting accountability and transparency; asses the environment- legal and administrative- for such work in Cambodia, as well as government commitment and capacity to respond to citizen demands for greater accountability; and ascertain the operational entry-points for such activities in Cambodia and present donors, particularly DFID and the World Bank with options for possible programming
