11 Social Accountability Reiner Forster, WB Accra/ Ghana May 3-5, 2005 Citizen Engagement for Enhanced Accountability

22 What is Accountability? Accountability can be defined as the obligation of power-holders to account for or take responsibility for their actions. Public officials and civil servants are accountable to citizens for their conduct and performance.

33 How Can Accountability Be Ensured ? 1.Rules and Regulations 1.Rules and Regulations – administrative procedures, audits, code of conduct… 2. Bring in Market Principles 2. Bring in Market Principles – privatization or contracting out to private sector and NGOs 3. Independent Agencies 3. Independent Agencies – ombudsman, vigilance committees … There has been vary- ing success with these. What has been learnt is that suc- cess often depends on direct parti- cipation of the people 4. “Social Accountability”

44 What is Social Accountability? SAc is an approach towards building accoun- tability that relies on civic engagement, – i.e. where ordinary citizens and/or their organizations participate directly or indirectly in exacting accountability SAc mechanisms can be initiated and supported by the state, citizens or both, but very often they are demand-driven and operate from the bottom up. SAc complement and strengthen formal accountability mechanisms

55 Examples of SAc practices NationalLocal Policies/ Plans Participatory PRS formulation Participatory local dev. plans Budgets Independent budget analysis Participatory budgeting Expenditures PETSPublic reporting of expenditures Services Citizen report cards Community scorecards Public Oversight CS-ombudsman intermediation Citizen oversight committees

66 Why is Social Accountability Important ? Social Accountability Good Governance Development Effectiveness Empower- ment

77 WDR 2004: Making Services Work for the Poor Poor peopleProviders Policymakers A framework of accountability relationships Voice Service Compact Client Power Social Accountability Mechanisms

88 Participatory Public Expenditure Management Cycle Budget Formulation Porto Alegre, Brazil Performance Monitoring Citizen Report Cards India, Kampala Budget Review & Analysis IDASA, SA Expenditure Tracking PETS Uganda Civic Engagement

99 SAc Critical Success Factors 1.Political context and culture 2.Access to information 3.The role of the media 4.Civil society capacity 5.State capacity 6.State-society synergy 7.Institutionalization

10 Potential Risks  Raised or unreasonable expectations  Risk of adversarial attitudes or conflict  Elite capture  Citizen engagement may be superficial or bring no concrete results  May involve only “well behaved” NGOs, etc.  May threaten or demoralize civil servants/ service providers