Social monitoring also referred to as participatory/community led/public monitoring is evolving as a powerful tool for the empowerment of local communities in their effort to bring transparency and effectiveness to public institutions. Social monitoring concept & approach deal in engaging communities in continuous monitoring and evaluation of government programs. It is a process aimed at mobilizing communities to participate fully and effectively in identifying and monitoring the quality of delivery of public services. For the purpose of this module, social monitoring can be defined as "the involvement of citizens, users of services, or civil society organizations in the monitoring of the processes and impacts of service delivery and public works".
There are several potential areas of civic engagement through social monitoring. These include Budgeting, Monitoring of public service delivery, Poverty Monitoring, Policy development, Local Government Planning and Development and Public grievances. Mechanisms for social monitoring include:
The benefits to be derived from Social Monitoring appear to depend to a large extent on several factors.
- An active civil society can play an important role in continuing to press for needed reforms to agencies, and also in monitoring the extent to which reforms actually occur
- The responsiveness of government agencies, in ensuring action on the basis of Social Monitoring findings is very important in ascertaining that Social Monitoring initiatives are a success
- Media can clearly play an important role in publicizing poor agency performance, and this in turn can provide a stimulus to civil society, to the agencies themselves, and to other key stakeholders within government
While Social Monitoring through Social Audits, Report cards and Score cards can ideally empower the citizens through their ability to exact social accountability, their success depends on ensuring social inclusion and real participation in terms of caste, class, gender, race and religion. Otherwise it runs the risk of turning into a farce show that is of, by and for a handful of people who are educated, organized and has the required bargaining power. Possible threats to the success of Social monitoring initiatives are as follows:
- Social Exclusion and domination by a section of society
- Routinisation through co-option by the government
- Gradual sidelining due to shift in priorities of civil society organisations
- Lack of ownership among citizens who are the real beneficiaries of public services
There are many best practices and innovative experiments taking place in the field of Social Monitoring by large number of SAc institutions which are taking active interest in disseminating the idea of Social Monitoring though their pioneering work in chosen area. World Bank, a major advocate of Social Accountability has taken active interest in propagating the social monitoring tools and case studies through its Social Accountability Series. Along with World Bank, GSDRC, PAC (Citizen Report Card) etc. has built up commendable literature in the field of Social Monitoring and its various tools. Some interesting case studies in the field of Social Monitoring include the 'Improving Panchayat Service Delivery through Community Score Cards' and 'Public Services Provided by Gram Panchayats in Chhattisgarh, A Citizen Report Card'.
Best Reads
- Social Audit: A tool for Performance Improvement and Outcome Measurement, 2005 Centre for Good Governance Hyderabad
- Holding the State to Account: Citizens Voice through Report Cards in Bangalore, 2004, Public Affairs Centre
- India Citizen's Charter: A Decade of Experience, 2007, Public Affairs Centre
Case Studies
- Improving Panchayat Service Delivery through Community Score Cards
- Public Services Provided by Gram Panchayats in Chhattisgarh, A Citizen Report Card
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