51469 Social accountability is an approach towards building accountability that relies on civic engagement, in which citizens participate directly or indirectly in demanding accountability from service providers and public officials. Social accountability generally combines information on rights and service delivery with collective action for change. Examples of social accountability tools and mechanisms include participatory budgeting, public expenditure tracking, citizen report cards, community score cards, social audits, citizen charters, and right to information acts. After some years of quite extensive piloting, the World Bank is now taking a scaled up approach to social accountability which has received recognition in major corporate and sectoral strategies and is finding growing use in lending and country programs. Lessons from pilots and inclusion in some World Bank projects suggest that social accountability holds considerable promise for achieving better governance and service delivery. However, the Bank needs to pay additional attention to areas such as linking supply and demand sides, upgrading staff skills, improving monitoring and evaluation, increasing the evidence base, and expanding external partnerships with a view to creating coalitions of change. The development community has recognized that Social accountability has also been recognized as a way to government institutions and service providers in the reduce poverty via empowerment of the poor (World Bank, developing world far too often fail the poor. The failures are 2001) and as a step toward democratic governance (UNDP, many and they are deep: corruption; services of abysmally 2002). Social accountability is often referred to as the demand low quality; no services at all. The consequence is continued side of better governance (demand from citizens) as distinct deprivation of the citizens: dilapidated school buildings, from supply-side governance reforms such as civil service, clinics with no electricity or medications, absent teachers procurement, and judicial reforms. and nurses, no water, and lack of voice in important decisions. While the problem of poor public services is felt This brief note aims to consider the early lessons from by everybody, the poor tend to be more affected by it and piloting social accountability in the World Bank's unable to compensate by switching to better-quality private operational work (often with trust fund support) and how services. Sometimes, the very people that ought to protect those pilots subsequently have been scaled up and citizens become their worst enemy. As a man in Nairobi's mainstreamed in some Bank projects. This note is not an Kibera slum said: "Around here nobody dares carry any cash. evaluation: no attempt is made to establish causality There are far too many policemen". Achieving better services between early trust fund support for social accountability requires improved governance, voice, and accountability. and its later widespread adoption into strategies, policies, and lending. Social accountability has emerged as an important weapon in the fight for better governance and service delivery. The note begins by introducing the concept of social Traditional accountability relationships rely on top-down or accountability and taking stock of trust fund supported external donor-driven monitoring of service providers. They pilots. The note then summarizes lessons learned from often fail. As a complementary strategy, social accountability the pilots and efforts at scaling them up. The main strengthens citizens-clients to monitor and exert finding is that a portfolio of pilot projects across a accountability. Two sets of obstacles must be overcome for range of countries and sectors that have used various this to happen: citizens must have reliable information on tools has given impetus to adopting and scaling up their entitlements and the performance of services, and they social accountability in a growing number of World must be able to take actions based on that information to Bank projects, and the importance of demand-side demand accountability, something which often requires governance has been recognized in the World Bank's collective action. This way, social accountability can improve Governance and Anti-Corruption Strategy. However, service delivery, especially for the poor (World Bank, 2004). to accelerate mainstreaming, the Bank needs to pay 1 more attention to areas such as linking supply and engagement where citizens and civil society organizations demand sides, upgrading staff skills, improving access information about budgets, expenditures, and monitoring and evaluation, increasing the evidence services and extract accountability. Most social base, and expanding external partnerships with a view accountability interventions inform citizens of their rights to creating coalitions of change. and the performance of services and encourage their participation (Bjorkman and Svensson, 2008). Citizens' 1. SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY--WHAT, HOW AND WHY? participation often results in feedback to service providers In democratic societies, there is an implicit social compact (the direct channel) or to governments (the indirect between citizens and their delegated representatives and channel). Social accountability is often referred to as the agents. A fundamental principle of democracy is that demand-side channel for strengthening accountability citizens have the "right" to demand accountability and relationships between communities, local governments, public officials have an "obligation" to be accountable. service providers, and the state (Figure 1). It is often useful Social accountability consists of actions and mechanisms to combine social accountability with supply-side that citizens, communities, independent media, and civil governance reforms such as civil service, procurement, society organizations can use to monitor and hold public and judicial reforms. officials accountable. Social accountability relies on civic Figure 1: A Framework for Accountability Relationships Policymakers Indirect Channel Voice Service Compact Users Providers Direct Channel Client Power Source: World Bank (2004) In practice, social accountability approaches deploy and available services), as well as to improve the tools such as participatory policy-making, participatory effectiveness of accountability mechanisms through budgeting, public expenditure tracking, citizen citizen involvement in public commissions and monitoring and evaluation of services that promote hearings, citizen advisory boards, and oversight transparency and accountability in budgeting and committees. The philosophy behind social service delivery (Figure 2). Social accountability also accountability centers on the role of empowerment and includes efforts to enhance citizen knowledge and use information in enhancing government commitment of conventional mechanisms of accountability (for and service delivery. example, through public education about legal rights 2 Figure 2: Impacts of Social Accountability Tools and Mechanisms Participatory Budgeting Citizen Report Cards (CRC) Community Score Cards (CSC) Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys Right to Information (RTI) Compliance Social Audits Project Websites Community Radio Increasing Enhancing Transparency & Accountability & Access to Citizen Information Oversight Grievance Redress Social accountability changes local dynamics. Social Social accountability complements and enhances accountability tools provide systematic and direct other mechanisms of accountability (Malena, 2004). feedback from the field to policymakers and Elections, for example, are important for citizens to implementers to help them redesign programs and express voice and hold governments accountable but reallocate resources (Figure 3). However, social they are a weak and indirect instrument for accountability is not necessarily a win-win proposition: improving public services. The direct channel from corrupt officials and non-performing service providers citizens to service providers using social stand to lose and sometimes resist. But there is also a accountability tools is a useful complement. potential upside. Politicians may gain credibility and Traditional efforts to hold government accountable recognition for performance improvements, potentially include demonstrations, protests, advocacy changing the nature of political competition toward campaigns, investigative journalism, and public performance rather than patronage; and service providers interest lawsuits. The new generation of social may gain professional prestige from recognized accountability practices emphasizes a solid evidence performance. The process of consensus building and base and direct dialogue. community mobilization can also improve local problem solving and forge community ownership of solutions. Figure 3: Strengthening Downward Accountability though Citizen Feedback Collection National/Sub-National Governments Redesign Programs Local Government Reallocate Resources Accountability Improved Quality of Service Delivery Feedback Service Provider (e.g. Primary Health Center) Feedback Services 3 2. TFESSD AND SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY - feedback mechanism for municipal drinking water WHAT WAS DONE AND WHAT DID IT ACHIEVE? supply services in three cities using citizen advisory The scaling up of social accountability in Bank work boards, public hearings, and citizen reports. The was achieved via country-based experimentation consumer feedback mechanism was linked with financed with trust fund grants. The Norwegian- annual action plans for improving low performing Finnish Trust Fund for Environmentally and Socially services. This mechanism is now being scaled up to Sustainable Development (TFESSD) supports World other cities in Kenya. In Madagascar, community Bank teams in analytical and capacity building work scorecards and participatory budgeting first piloted on social, environmental, and poverty issues. One of with the help of TFESSD have since been used more the focus areas of the trust fund, between 2002 and widely for health and local governance (Box 1). 2006, was governance dimensions of Bank policies and programs. This resulted in approximately $7 Box 1: Community Score Cards and Participatory Budgeting in Madagascar million of funding to 25 social accountability country pilots designed to help stakeholders influence, Since 2006, the World Bank has supported the development of a comprehensive social accountability analyze, or evaluate the impact of policies and strategy in Madagascar. It began with modest pilots programs. These pilots, scattered across a range of (supported by a TFESSD grant) using Community countries and sectors, used a variety of tools. The Scorecards in the health sector, and participatory pilots allowed Bank staff to gain experience with budgeting in local governments. The Community social accountability and helped staff and Scorecards focused initially on eight primary health centers in the Anosy region. According to data collected management recognize its potential. TFESSD-funded during the pilot, the scorecards led to a 10% increase in studies helped inform the influential 2004 World consumer satisfaction with health services (from 39% to Development Report "Making Services Work for the 49%) in 4 months. They also helped improve regularity Poor" which proved an eye-opener to many of salary payments; interactions between users, health development professionals of the dismal state of staff and village administrators; and small health social services and the potential role of client voice infrastructure. In the participatory budgeting exercise, the city of Antananarivo agreed to allocate 20% of its and power in forging progress. These pilots have led investment budget to participatory local budgeting, to the development, testing and piloting of innovative budget monitoring processes, and budget publication. social accountability tools; creation of partnerships and networks; and inclusion of social accountability Pilot activities led to scaling up of social accountability approaches in government programs and Bank to other sectors and integration of a national social accountability program in the Country Assistance projects in some countries. Noteworthy examples Strategy. Moreover, the second Governance and from different regions and service delivery contexts Institutional Development Project funded by the World are discussed below. Bank, contains a social accountability component focused on participatory monitoring of key economic Development and Piloting of Innovative Social sectors such as mining, forestry, and services. Accountability Tools: The TFESSD has been the primary source of funds1 available to Bank teams for Creation of Partnerships and Networks to Promote piloting social accountability tools in the initial years. better Service Delivery through Social TFESSD-funded activities developed, refined, tested, Accountability: TFESSD-funded activities have piloted, and disseminated social accountability tools strengthened networks of social accountability such as citizen report cards, community score cards, practitioners and demonstrated impacts of these and participatory budgeting. The innovative Citizen approaches on improved service delivery. Networks Report Card tool--first developed by Bangalore to of social accountability and local governance improve urban services--was introduced in Ethiopia, practitioners have been created in the Africa, East Mozambique, Senegal, and South Africa by TFESSD- Asia, Latin America and South Asia regions. These supported pilots. In Kenya, a pilot set up a consumer networks have contributed significantly to local capacity development and dissemination through 1 Some support for social accountability has also come from South-South learning. Most of these networks have the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) and the Bank- updated websites and many issue regular electronic Netherlands Partnership Program (BNPP). 4 newsletters, keeping members abreast of current have paved the way for piloting demand-side happenings and good practice. The TFESSD has also accountability in Bank lending and resulted in the supported participatory budgeting in Eastern and creation of a community of practitioners (see Box 2). Southern Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and TFESSD pilots supporting community scorecard Latin America. Mayors and civil society have started exercises in Gambia, Malawi and Tanzania were using participatory budgeting (World Bank, 2008). integrated into the PRSP monitoring framework of For example, in Albania and the Kyrgyz Republic the Gambia, the Malawi Social Action Fund and the mayors from four pilot areas set aside resources to Tanzania Social Action Fund Projects. Other pilots conduct participatory budgeting. In Latin America helped inform design of social accountability and and Africa, the regional participatory budgeting transparency initiatives in the Ethiopia Productive knowledge and action centers have created networks Safety Nets Program; the Senegal Sustainable and coalitions on participatory budgeting2. They have Fisheries Management Project; and the West Africa built linkages with Ministries of Finance, local Regional Fisheries Project. governments, civil society organizations, and donors. Participatory budgeting has also been used to In Latin America and the Caribbean, TFESSD social improve local governance in countries such as accountability work started with pilots in Ecuador Ecuador, Honduras, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. and has since led to the inclusion of social At the World Bank, a Bank-wide community of accountability initiatives in government programs in practitioners, the Demand for Good Governance Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, and Uruguay. In (DFGG) Peer Learning Network, has been created to the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, the TFESSD promote social accountability approaches within supported the passage of Public Access to Bank projects. Information laws. A TFESSD-sponsored pilot in Nicaragua brought together marginalized Afro- Inclusion of Social Accountability Approaches in Nicaraguan communities and helped aggregate their Government and World Bank Operations: TFESSD- voice and articulate their needs to local governments. funded pilots have acted as catalysts to propel social The same pilot also paved the way for inclusion of accountability approaches into World Bank lending social audits through NGOs in the Bank's Social and policy development, and helped to increase Investment Fund Project and in the EU's transport demand for using civic engagement and demand- sector projects. Public access to information and other governance tools from regional operational teams social accountability mechanisms now forms an (World Bank, 2008). Many of these tools have been important part of the Bank's program in Nicaragua. integrated into Bank operations and have had a Seven years of building stakeholder capacity in strong influence on client strategies in Mozambique, Nicaragua and Honduras seem to have paid off with Madagascar, Ethiopia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, social audits and other mechanisms introduced in India, Sri Lanka, and others. For example, the multi- government programs and Bank projects. One lesson donor Ethiopia Protection of Basic Services project has from the eventual adoption of social accountability in a component on social accountability which aims at Nicaragua and Honduras is that implementation strengthening citizen voice and enhancing requires time, money, expertise, patience, and accountability of service providers to citizens. It commitment. Community mobilization and supports capacity building and piloting of a public awareness generation, especially for marginalized budget process at large scale. In South Asia, a cluster people, is a resource intensive process. of TFESSD-sponsored social accountability pilots 2 Participatory Budgeting Centers in Africa and Latin America at http://www.mdpafrica.org.zw/PB%20Facility.htm and http://www.cigu.org/reforzar.htm; 5 Box 2: TFESSD and Social Accountability in South Asia The TFESSD has supported a range of efforts to initiate and mainstream social accountability in South Asia since 2005. Five types of activities were involved: (i) setting up centers of excellence for social accountability; (ii) establishing the SASANET community of practice; (iii) financial and technical assistance to social accountability initiatives by governments and NGOs; (iv) supporting pilots in Bank projects; and (v) disseminating knowledge about social accountability initiatives through case studies, workshops, training of trainers, curriculum development, a website (www.sasanet.org), and a monthly newsletter (Vox Populi). Some of the outcomes of the pilots include: · Sri Lanka ­ The Community Assessment Process in the Gemidiriya Project helped communities evaluate quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of local service providers (e.g. water supply, anti-poverty programs) in hundreds of villages. · Andhra Pradesh, India ­ Community monitoring of health activities using scorecards in 48 health mandals (sub- districts) facilitated the introduction of community-managed health interventions such as nutrition centers, fixed health and nutrition days, health risk fund, community-managed ambulance services, and drug depots. A rapid impact assessment showed that 100% of pregnant women underwent health checkups in intervention mandals as compared to 50% in the control mandals; 85% of mothers delivered in hospitals in intervention mandals as compared to 54% in control mandals; 87% of deliveries in intervention mandals were normal compared to 61% in the control mandals; and the percentage of low birth weight babies (below 2.5 kilograms) declined to 4% in intervention mandals against 24% in the control mandals. · Maharashtra, India ­ local governments used scorecards of health services for micro-planning and community monitoring in 121 villages. This created awareness of parents and village communities and helped mobilize community resources. Preliminary data indicates a marked reduction of child and maternal mortality rates and malnutrition. · Rajasthan, India ­ A public expenditure tracking survey was carried out of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. Dissemination of the findings resulted in better implementation of the scheme, including more timely transfer of funds, improvements in the quality of food grains and basic infrastructure, and increased involvement of teachers and parents in the program. · Social accountability pilots in South Asia also helped inform the Social Investment Program in Bangladesh; Maharashtra Rural Water Supply and Sanitation; and Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project. The government of India has taken the step of institutionalizing social audits by mandating them in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The onus is now on the state to ensure that its own performance is monitored and evaluated by the people. An independent evaluation of the impact of these social audits shows that social audits increase awareness and information about the program across caste groups and genders. 3. SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY PILOTS - WHAT Identify supporters and build coalitions - In most HAVE WE LEARNED? developing societies, citizens have no say in delivery The pilots generated a number of lessons on how to of public services. Social accountability tools attempt design and implement social accountability (World Bank to break this status quo which often triggers 2007c): resistance. Building partnerships and coalitions Social accountability is more than just the tools - between stakeholders can help reach the tipping Social accountability is 80% political and 20% technical. point where change becomes inevitable. Methods and tools are important but success depends on the context in which the tools are used, the Use both sanctions and incentives - Combining principles and values that guide their use, and who is incentives and sanctions is often effective. This is involved. Social accountability is as much about done by offering rewards for accountable behavior changing mentalities, building relationships, and (e.g. public recognition, positive feedback, bonuses, developing capacities as it is about technical tools. or promotion) based on client assessment, as well as by sanctioning unaccountable behavior (e.g. public Know your stakeholders - When designing social shaming, legal actions, demotion). accountability, stakeholder analysis can help identify all the relevant players; it can also be helpful to assess Use access to information and media - The quality accountability and power relations between those and accessibility of public information and data is a players. key determinant of the success of social accountability. Initially, social accountability may be strategically used to promote freedom of information 6 by addressing the lack of political will to disclose, as a special effort. It is helpful to have explicit strategies well as by strengthening the technical capacity of with dedicated resources for inclusion of women, public institutions to record, manage, and disclose youth, poor, and other marginalized groups in social information. Independent media--often including accountability. community radio--also helps inform citizens and monitor government performance. Social accountability approaches require time, money, and expertise to implement and be accepted - Put the weakest first - Monitoring of service It can be useful to ensure long-term funding and providers is subject to elite capture. Reaching out to the marginalized and empowering the weak requires Box 3: Impact evaluations of Social Accountability in Uganda and India Uganda has been a forerunner in social accountability and has generated much positive evidence of its impacts. Starting in the mid-1990s a Public Expenditure Tracking Survey of school funds was undertaken which illustrated how collection and dissemination of quantitative data on public spending and services can mobilize voice (Reinikka and Svensson, 2004). In another Uganda study, citizen report cards--followed up by discussion with service providers--led to significant improvements in health services and health outcomes. The Uganda findings contrast with a study of community monitoring of schools in India which had no discernible impact even as a private initiative outside the public school system improved student reading skills. In Uganda, community monitoring led to improved quality of health delivery. In 25 randomly selected rural communities, local NGOs organized meetings of residents and health service providers on the quality of care in public clinics. Quality of care at the community's dispensary and health outcomes in its catchment area had been measured previously through user surveys. The information had been compiled into citizen report cards which compared user satisfaction and health outcomes to neighboring areas using easy-to-understand graphic tools to display complex statistical information. The report cards provided the basis for an informed dialogue with community members, and between community members and health workers. In another 25 randomly selected control communities no such discussion took place. In the communities where the meetings were held, absenteeism by providers decreased and the quality of service (measured by wait time, quality of care, and cleanliness of facilities) improved. Ultimately, immunization rates rose and child mortality rates fell by 33%. This corresponds to averting 20 child deaths per dispensary per year and is a highly cost-effective way to do so. In India community monitoring did not lead to improved quality in public education. A leading education NGO mobilized communities about learning in schools in 195 randomly selected villages in the state of Uttar Pradesh. It facilitated information-sharing about the quality of schools and how to improve them, for example through Village Education Committees. Village volunteers prepared report cards on children's reading abilities which were shared with teachers, local government representatives, and residents in village-wide meetings. An evaluation found no difference in community participation, teacher effort, or learning outcomes in public schools between intervention and control villages where no meetings were held. However, in 65 villages (among the 195) where a local NGO held additional classes to improve reading skills outside the public school system, reading scores increased. A large number of local youths volunteered for training in the use of the new reading tool, and they held more than 400 reading classes across 55 villages involving 7500 children. The contrasting experience suggests that community monitoring does not guarantee better public services. While the Uganda and the India interventions used relatively similar citizen report card tools to inform villagers of service performance and outcomes, they differed in their use of NGO activism. It seems that the NGO facilitators in Uganda were more active in pressuring service providers and in hand-picking vocal villagers to become involved. In India, communities were more on their own when it came to use the report card's information to extract accountability from teachers. Source: Khemani (2008); Bjorkman and Svensson (2008). commitment to social accountability and to pay Manage expectations: Integrated approaches that attention to the availability of quality facilitators, lack mainstream social accountability at all levels are of which limits the speed of scale-up. complex and difficult to execute - There are only few cases where an integrated approach--encompassing local, sector, and national level demand-side 7 governance in both state and non-state institutions-- the Bank, including external pressure for the Bank to be has been adopted. Expectations for the scale of social more inclusive, transparent, and participatory, and accountability need to be reasonable. internal pressure to fight corruption harder. Many things have changed over the years. It has become common Pay more attention to M&E - While there are now practice, for example, to use participatory processes many examples of incorporating social during project design to identify investment priorities accountability into projects and programs, far too and consult with stakeholders. In addition, the Bank has few rigorous impact evaluations have been recently approved a major Governance and Anti- undertaken and those that exist find mixed results Corruption (GAC) Strategy which recognizes the (see Box 3). Anecdotal evidence cannot substitute importance of social accountability and has created for robust impact evaluation; its absence means it opportunities for scaling up this work. The GAC could potentially stand in the way of more Strategy aims to strengthen constituencies outside the widespread acceptance of social accountability. state executive ­ civil society, media, parliament, local communities, and the private sector ­ to create citizen 4. HOW IS THE WORLD BANK USING SOCIAL pressures for better governance, form coalitions for ACCOUNTABILITY TODAY? reform, and catalyze change, particularly in challenging governance environments. In all likelihood, the GAC In addition to the early pilot experiences and the 2004 strategy would not have included social accountability World Development Report, several other factors helped in the absence of extensive prior pilot experiences by the accelerate the use of social accountability approaches at Bank (many of which had received TFESSD support). Box 4: Accountability for Social Reform in Peru Peru's RECURSO project is a remarkable example of improving the quality of health, nutrition, and education via social accountability and access to information. Citizens were provided with standards and instruments -- videos on education and nutrition, radio theater, and brochures and posters in local languages. The education video depicts children struggling to read and not being able to explain what bad quality of education is. The nutrition video highlights the importance of good village nutrition programs for lowering child malnutrition, explaining what parents should know about the growth of their child. In his inauguration speech in 2006, President Alan Garcia announced universal testing for second-grade students (a central recommendation of RECURSO and a break with the past); in several speeches President Garcia later advised mothers to become aware of how many words per minute their children were able to read. Universal testing of students began in 2006 and is now an annual policy with feedback provided to all schools and parents. Teachers' pay is becoming linked to test results. And the Ministry of Health approved a new technical norm that includes nutrition standards as an important factor of the health communication package. The World Bank has followed suit. The Country Partnership Strategy includes a range of social accountability activities that follow up on RECURSO. The Bank has also launched a series of Results and Accountability Development Policy Lending operations that emphasize targets, testing, and management of parental expectations in education, nutrition, and health. Many civil society organizations have also adopted RECURSO's framework. For example, some youth NGOs are making agreements with mayors to measure and improve the fluency of reading. The education video has been used to motivate discussion in Mexico, Honduras, Bolivia, South Africa and India; while the nutrition video has been used as a tool to improve the visibility of chronic malnutrition and to create discussion in Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico. Source: Cotlear, 2008. The Bank has three types of entry points: national dialogue and country strategies. This includes advice to strategies and analytical work; lending operations; client governments on creating transparency and and direct support for civil society and media accountability; linking demand-side efforts to public (Anjum, 2008). sector reform, anti-corruption, and service delivery; and promoting participatory policy-making and public Strategies and analytical work ­ The Bank sometimes information disclosure. Country Assistance Strategies promotes demand-side governance issues in policy increasingly include analysis and recommendations 8 related to social accountability (World Bank 2007c). The · India's Orissa Rural Livelihoods Project Country Governance and Anti-Corruption (CGAC) promotes implementation of India's Right to process--a country-level process that identifies and seeks Information Act (2005). to unblock governance impediments to country · The Indonesia Local Governance Reform Project development goals--contains demand-side governance has led each district to issue regulations on access efforts in many countries. In Cambodia, for example, the to information. CGAC strengthens domestic accountability by engaging Box 5: The Cambodia Demand for civil society and the private sector to monitor the Good Governance Project implementation of the government's five-year The Cambodia Demand for Good Governance project is the development strategy. In Paraguay, the CGAC supports Bank's first self-standing project devoted completely to government capacity to engage civil society through the demand side approaches to better governance. The DFGG Community and Rural Development initiative. And in Project is designed to enhance the capacity of Cambodian Peru, social accountability is an important part of the citizens to demand good governance in selected public policy areas by strengthening promising state and non-state government's and the Bank's approach to the social institutions that are working towards: (i) increasing public sectors (Box 4). access to accurate, relevant and timely information; (ii) improving communications between them and Government Lending Operations - The World Bank sometimes lends agencies; (iii) facilitating a constructive response from Government agencies; and (iv) monitoring Government for demand-side governance. This can be done via performance. The initiatives supported will be those that stand-alone projects as in Cambodia (see Box 5) but is promote, mediate, respond to, or monitor for DFGG in the more commonly done via integration into larger projects four priority reform areas: private sector development, that also have other objectives (World Bank, 2008a). For natural resource management, public financial example: management, and decentralization and citizens' partnerships for better governance. · Argentina's State Modernization II Loan also Over a four-year period (2009-2013), the Project will finance supports access to public information through three components. For the first component, support to state strengthening public administration information institutions, four ongoing Government programs have been management systems and institutionalization of selected for further expansion under the Project. These include the programs of Radio National Kampuchea; law procedures and monitoring programs for the dissemination and complaints handling activities of implementation of the Access to Information Decree. Ministry of National Assembly-Senate Relations and · The Bangladesh Local Government Support Project Inspection; One Window Service Offices started as a pilot promotes communities' access to local government under an European Communities program in two provinces information via better records management, capacity and sponsored by the Ministry of Interior; and labor dispute arbitration carried out by the Arbitration Council under the building, and better legal and organizational Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training. These state infrastructure for access to information. institutions were selected as they have demonstrated success · The Honduras Education Quality, Governance, and and/or have committed leadership willing to support Institutional Strengthening Project includes civil DFGG activities and are working in sectors directly linked to the World Bank Country Assistance Strategy for Cambodia. society monitoring of education service delivery by strengthening a community-based school In addition to these state sponsored activities, the Project has a window for non-state actors that will be implemented by management program. The project aims to expand the Asia Foundation. This will involve several competitive pre-school coverage in disadvantaged communities, mechanisms to make grants to non-state institutions that improve completion rates, and improve teacher and will develop DFGG proposals working directly with or school accountability. The project supports policies around the themes of the above state institutions. and norms for community participation, social The third component will be implemented by the management, school planning, and school Ministry of Interior as the executing agency. It will support overall project coordination and learning to information, monitoring and evaluation systems, catalyze synergies between the different components and seeks to empower existing entities such as and knit them together for broader governance impact. parents' associations, teaching staff committees, and This component will also showcase the effectiveness of the student government. the DFGG supported institutions to create a `ripple effect' for other state and non-state institutions to adopt better governance practices. 9 Direct Support for Civil Society, Media, Parliaments, and stakeholders to social accountability resulted in a Learning Networks - For decades, civil society favorable enabling environment and the integration organizations have led the way to improving of various social accountability mechanisms in transparency measures and advocacy campaigns for various government programs and Bank projects. access to information. The Bank supports civil society and This example demonstrates that their parliaments through research, training, and capacity implementation requires time, money, expertise, building. For example, the World Bank Institute has patience and commitment. helped create regional networks of practitioners via the 2. Institutionalization of social accountability Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA) initiatives is complex and difficult. The successful which builds capacity of civil society groups that strive for integration of social accountability in projects can be open and transparent governance. ANSA networks now achieved but requires concentrated efforts at all levels exist in Africa, South Asia, and East Asia and Pacific, each - national, sectoral and project/local levels, as supported by a Development Grant Facility from the evidenced from the cases of Honduras and Bank. ANSA-Africa, for example, has 1,600 member Nicaragua. This requires strong political will, active organizations and works to improve civil society civil society and donor commitment, dedicated organizations' technical rigor in social accountability. resources, competent local facilitators, and There are also several other network initiatives supporting coordination. The Bank is only just beginning to civil society in demand-side governance: the Partnership adopt an integrated approach encompassing all for Transparency Fund; the South Asia Social levels to promote demand-side governance Accountability Network; The Cambodian Program to initiatives, with state and non-state institutions, in a Enhance Capacity in Social Accountability (PECSA); and few CGAC countries. the Communication for Governance and Accountability Program (CommGAP). 5. MAINSTREAMING SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN BANK OPERATIONS: WHAT ARE THE KEY CHALLENGES? Most social accountability initiatives to date have been dispersed, small scale, and somewhat resource constrained. Looking ahead, a principal challenge is to cultivate demand-side approaches into the development mainstream on a larger scale while continuing to monitor and improve their effectiveness. Although the recent emphasis on GAC at the Bank has seen progress in mainstreaming demand- side approaches in operations, many challenges remain as 3. Linking supply and demand of governance. Ideal discussed below. accountability and governance reforms would rely 1. Social accountability approaches require time, on both supply-side and demand-side initiatives. money, and expertise to implement and be accepted. Existing operations suffer from a demand-side Community mobilization and awareness governance deficit. Given the fact that non- generation, especially those that are at the margins traditional demand-side approaches require time, of development, is a resource intensive process money, and expertise to implement, more resources requiring extensive capacity building. Further, the are needed for strengthening social accountability in current project-based development approach which operations. This will facilitate customization of heavily leans towards monitoring annual project social accountability approaches to the country and disbursements, is not conducive to time-consuming, project context, and weaving of different non- consensus generating approaches such as traditional demand-side approaches with participation, consultation, feedback collection and traditional supply-side approaches. The Bank may transparency promotion. In Nicaragua and need to reconsider some of its policies, processes, Honduras, seven years of concentrated efforts in and internal organizational mechanisms to facilitate exposing and building capacity of multiple this. 10 4. Demand-side constituencies and partnerships both substitute for robust, scientific impact evaluation inside and outside the Bank are fledgling and weak. studies. To date, there are few rigorous impact Social accountability approaches have been most evaluations that isolate and quantify the successful when multi-stakeholder coalitions and development impacts of social accountability partnerships have been built. While the Bank has approaches (Box 3). Bank projects also lack output been successful in creating and supporting several indicators of demand-side interventions. regional social accountability networks such as the Consequently, the impact of these approaches is not Affiliated Network of Social Accountability as well-documented as it should have been. practitioners (ANSA) in Africa, East Asia and South Asia and the DFGG Peer Learning Network, more could be done to link these networks and deploy their skill sets in Bank operations. 6. CONCLUSIONS 5. Skills to implement social accountability In summing up, this note finds that social accountability interventions are limited within the Bank. Skills is a powerful instrument for civic engagement, required to guide operations and analytical work on empowerment, and better services. Tools such as demand side approaches are currently very limited Community Score Cards, Citizen Report Cards, Public in the Bank, and vary significantly from region to Expenditure Tracking Surveys, and Right to Information region. There are very few political economists in the allow for direct community monitoring of services. Bank. Experts who have had actual experience Information on entitlements and service status must be working with (and in) check-and-balance institutions combined with social action to engage with service such as media, parliaments, trade unions, and civil providers and demand accountability. society organizations are limited and stretched. To scale up the demand-side governance agenda within Social accountability pilots supported by the TFESSD Bank operations, these skills have to be developed and others have demonstrated that informed and and reinforced in staff through a combination of empowered citizens are able to influence development structured learning/training events; field based outcomes and that social accountability tools can help development assignments in leading demand-side improve governance. The tools are not ends in institutions; and selective recruitment of demand- themselves but a means to improve services and side specialists. development outcomes. As a long-term process, social accountability needs to be implemented with patience, commitment, and resources. The ultimate success of social accountability depends on the context in which it is used, the principles and values that guide its use, and who is involved. For the World Bank, early support from the TFESSD to a range of pilots in all regions and in a variety of sectors helped gather experience and generate staff and management support for social accountability which, in all likelihood, paved the way for the subsequent increasing adoption of social accountability tools into Bank operations. Most early social accountability pilots were small-scale, localized, sectoral, and executed on 6. Existing evidence on impacts of social limited budgets by a cadre of highly motivated staff. accountability approaches is thin: The past decade High level support for social accountability now exists has generated many good practice examples on thanks to a combination of positive pilot experiences and how demand-side of governance, especially social the ascendancy of the governance and anti-corruption accountability approaches, can be incorporated into agenda. development but anecdotal evidence cannot 11 Nevertheless, several challenges remain. Social Cotlear, Daniel. 2008. Peru - Making Accountability accountability approaches require time, money, and Work: Lessons from RECURSO, Peru. September 2008, November 135, En Breve. World Bank. expertise to implement and be accepted. The current Washington DC project-based development approach with its emphasis Khemani, Stuti. 2008. Does Community Monitoring on maintaining project disbursements on track is not Improve Public Services? Diverging Evidence conducive to time-consuming, consensus-generating from Uganda and India. Research Brief, approaches such as participation, consultation, feedback September 16, 2008. Human Development and collection, and transparency promotion. The Bank is Public Services Research, World Bank. Washington DC. only beginning to adopt an integrated approach Malena, Carmen, Reiner Forster, and Janmejay Singh. encompassing all levels to promote demand-side 2004. Social Accountability: An Introduction to governance initiatives, with state and non-state the Concept and Emerging Practice. Social institutions, in a few CGAC countries. Existing Development Papers 76. Washington, DC: World operations suffer from a demand-side governance deficit Bank, Participation and Civic Engagement and more efforts will need to be made to link supply and Group. Reinikka, Ritva and Jakob Svensson, Local Capture: demand sides of governance both within the Bank and Evidence From a Central Government Transfer outside the Bank. More could also be done to exploit Program in Uganda, The Quarterly Journal of links with civil society organizations implementing Economics 119(2): 678-704, May, 2004. social accountability interventions. UNDP, 2002. Human Development Report 2002: Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World. Further, the number of experienced staff with skills and United Nations Development Program. New York. specific experience in guiding operations and analytical World Bank. 2001. World Development Report 2001: Attacking Poverty. World Bank. Washington DC. work on social accountability is rather limited and World Bank. 2004. World Development Report 2004: unevenly distributed across Bank regions. Monitoring and Making Services Work for Poor People. evaluation needs to be stronger. While the pilot evidence Washington, DC. is mostly positive, only few rigorous impact evaluations World Bank. 2007a. Strengthening World Bank Group convincingly link social accountability interventions with Engagement on Governance and Anticorruption. better quality of services and improved development World Bank. Washington DC. World Bank. 2007c. Social Accountability Sourcebook. outcomes. Additional resources for conducting impact World Bank. Washington DC. evaluations will go a long way in compiling a body of World Bank. 2008a. Strengthening World Bank Group evidence to assess how and why social accountability Engagement on Governance and Anticorruption - achieves results. One Year Progress Report. World Bank. Washington DC. This note was prepared by Sanjay Agarwal, Rasmus Heltberg, 7. REFERENCES and Myrtle Diachok of the Social Development Department at the World Bank as a knowledge management activity related to Abakerli, Stefania. 2007. Strengthening Relationships operations supported under the Norwegian-Finnish Trust Fund of Accountability between Government and for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Citizens: Lessons from a TFESSD-financed (TFESSD). The authors are grateful to Alejandro Cedeno, Andre Initiative in Ecuador. World Bank. Washington Herzog, Bhuvan Bhatnagar, Carolyn Winter, Colleen Littlejohn, DC. Eri Watanabe, Janmejay Singh, Jeff Thindwa, Karen Sirker, Anjum, Anushay and Robert S. Chase. 2008. Demand Mary McNeil, Parmesh Shah, Robert S. 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