Helpdesk

Question
Mechanisms for Increasing Voice and Accountability: Please identify evaluations of instruments and mechanisms for increasing voice and accountability/ citizen engagement (e.g. citizen's scorecards, public audits, incentive-based payments, community engagement in management committees, budget monitoring, participatory planning, gender budgeting and social auditing). Please highlight what works well, and what kinds of changes are produced by successful programmes.

Helpdesk response
Key findings: Whilst there is a vast literature on the importance of citizen voice and accountability in governance and development, there remain relatively few evaluations of the impact of donor programmes in this area. Several studies conclude there is a need for more evidence of why certain accountability mechanisms work well in certain contexts. There does not appear to be any research available which seeks to compare the results of different mechanisms, or attempts to draw any overall conclusions about which mechanisms are the most effective and why. Rather, the available evidence is mainly in the form of reviews of the outcomes of specific mechanisms, in specific cases. This report includes a selection of such reviews, and is mainly focused on those mechanisms which are more commonly analysed in the literature – namely, access to information, community score cards (CSCs), citizen report cards (CRCs), participatory budgeting/budget monitoring, and social audits. It should be noted that several other mechanisms - including user committees, community radio, citizens’ charters, ombudsmen, social accounting, and citizen’s juries – are also often cited as important instruments of social accountability, but that these appear to feature less prominently in recent reviews and evaluations.

Full response: http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/HD675.pdf

Date query received by the Helpdesk: 14 April 2010

Enquirer's contact details:
DFID Equity and Rights Team