Document Library

Key Text Accountability and Voice for Service Delivery at the Local Level

Author: The IDL Group
Date: 2008
Size: 27 pages (320 KB)

Access full text: available online

Summary

How can service providers and governments become more accountable to citizens? This background paper, published by UNDP and the IDL Group, examines the crucial role of accountability and voice (A&V) and methods for implementing A&V mechanisms. The issue is two-fold: bolstering the responsiveness of service providers and local government, while also enabling poor people to demand promised poverty reduction results. Capacity development should not proceed in an overly technocratic fashion, but should take account of the environment's complex political realities.

A framework for understanding A&V highlights the complex and interlocking relationships between government, service providers and citizens. An “ideal” scenario is sketched in which power and accountability characterise these ties in a balanced, mutually reinforcing pattern. A basic precondition is open access to and broad dissemination of information. Key mechanisms for tying together government and relevant service providers are public expenditure tracking and organisational performance management. Service providers may be linked to citizens through service oversight, management committees and report cards. State accountability to citizens may involve participatory budgeting and various public oversight initiatives.

The proposed A&V framework is used to evaluate a successful case of A&V mechanism implementation in the Ukraine, a DFID-sponsored project in aid of democratisation. Findings from this case, and a broader view of the European and CIS context, include the following:

A major challenge to A&V in Europe and the CIS countries comes from an enabling environment in which public officials do not see themselves as service providers.
With appropriate legislation and newly established institutions to promote accountability, the primary barrier to reform has been implementation.
A lack of both organisational and individual capacity has held back A&V. Government bodies and personnel often fail to deliver on promises and respond to citizen needs because of capacity gaps. Both functional capacities - accounting, M&E, managerial ability, policy review and implementation - and technical capacities, such as elections, may be lacking.
Civil society continues to be weak and fragmented, often operating under capacity, in a number of European and CIS countries. Many organisations face the same gaps in functional and technical capacity as the government. Relevant civil society organisations often have a short history and over-reliance on external funding.

A certain degree of opportunism and responsiveness will help the implementers to change strategy when necessary and build coalitions around topics of greatest immediacy. Further implications are that:

Providing the kinds of capacities and “quick wins” that are particularly popular among governments will build crucial political support for A&V capacity development.
UNDP should wield its comparative advantage in bridging the gap between the supply and demand sides of accountability. Collaborative government-civil society efforts have a role to play in this.
The hope of joining the EU provides a strong incentive for numerous European and CIS countries to undertake these capacity reforms. This impetus should be encouraged.

Access full text: available online

Source: The IDL Group, 2008, 'Accountability and Voice for Service Delivery at the Local Level', A background paper for the UNDP regional training event: Developing Capacities for Accountability and Voice, Sofia, Bulgaria, October 1-2, 2008, United Nations Development Program and the IDL Group.
Organisation: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), http://www.undp.org/