What is Social Accountability?

Table of Contents
 What is Social Accountability?
 Key Components of Social Accountability:
 Importance of Social Accountability:
 Factors Affecting Social Accountability:
 Different Types of Social Accountability Tools:
 Brief Description of the Social Accountability Tools:
o 1. Tools that can be used to monitor the policy priorities underlying the budget
proposals/allocations; budgetary processes and institutions:
o 2. Tools that can be used to monitor the execution of policies and programs:
o 3. Tools that can be used to monitor the development outcomes
 How Can We Promote Social Accountability?
 Advantages of Social Accountability:
 Limitations/Risk of Social Accountability:
 References and For More Information:

What is Social Accountability?

 Accountability= Responsibility + Answerability
 The term accountability refers to responsibility for the assigned job and answerability to the
result of action or inaction.
 Accountability can be defined as ‘the obligation of powerholders to be held responsible or take
responsibility for their actions’. Powerholders are generally government officials, private
corporations, international financial institutions and civil society organizations.
 Now, social accountability refers to the various actions, tools and mechanisms that can be
used by civil society organizations (CSOs), the media, citizens and communities to hold
elected public officials and non-elected public servants accountable for their actions.
 Social accountability is a fundamental constituent of good authority.
 Social accountability is “an approach toward building accountability that relies on civic
engagement, i.e., in which it is ordinary citizens and/or civil society organizations who
participate directly or indirectly in holding government actors responsible for their actions”.
 Social accountability relates to the empowering environment for residents, public service
handlers and program receivers to claim better approachability and answerability from policy
creators, program implementers, and public service benefactors.
Key Components of Social Accountability:

 Social accountability refers to a form of answerability that arises through activities by people
and civil society organizations directed at holding the Government to account, along with
efforts by the administration and other actors to upkeep and answer back to these actions
 The goal of social accountability is not to change but to highlight and balance existing
(horizontal and vertical) accountability mechanisms.
 Social accountability encourages the essential standard that public officials and service
providers are accountable to rights-holders.
 Social accountability methods can be functional to countrywide level and can aim an array of
authority issues and courses containing: public information-sharing, policy formulation and
planning; the scrutiny and trailing of public finances, procurement processes; and assessment
of public service distribution, in addition to anti-corruption processes and protests
management mechanisms.
Importance of Social Accountability:

 According to the World Bank, social accountability is an indispensable constituent of and

contributes openly to worthy governance.
 Social accountability comprises citizen contribution in public policymaking, participatory
accounting, public disbursement tracking, citizen monitoring of public service provision, citizen
consultative panels, consciousness raising, and sponsorship campaigns.
 It appeals and strengthens transparency, accountability, and approachability by the
government.
 Social accountability encourages progress and richness and reveal the urgencies for better
outcomes.
 Social accountability empowers the societies, particularly the underprivileged and
marginalized sectors of society.
 Social accountability tools can be used to monitor the policy implementation, budget
offers/provisions, budgetary progressions etc.
 It helps to improve governance, develop effectiveness and empowerment.
Factors Affecting Social Accountability:

 Participation in planning and development

 Participatory budget setting
 Participation in expenditure tracking
 Participatory performance monitoring
 Communication between the community and the service benefactor
 Assertiveness and capabilities of citizens
 Attitudes and capabilities of government spokespersons
 An empowering environment.

Different Types of Social Accountability Tools:

There are various tools that are used to promote social accountability. These tools can be
categorized on different basis. Different types of social accountability tools are:

S.N.                Categories                                 Tools

Tools that can be used to monitor the
policy priorities underlying the budget
proposals/allocations; budgetary
1. processes and institutions
 Participatory Budget Formulation
 Formulation of Alternative Budget
 Budget Review and Analysis
 Simplification and Demystification of the Budget
 Civil Society Interventions in the Budget Process:
Stages and Methods

2. Tools that can be used to monitor  Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys

implementation of policies and  Social Audit and Right to Information
programs
 Right to Information
  Monitoring Procurement

 Deploying project monitors

 Citizen’s charter
 Corruption surveys
 Integrity pacts
 Citizen Report Card Surveys
Tools that can be used to monitor the
3. development outcomes  Community Score Cards

 Public Interest Litigation

4. Other tools  Recall of Parliamentarians

Brief Description of the Social Accountability Tools:

1. Tools that can be used to monitor the policy priorities underlying the budget
proposals/allocations; budgetary processes and institutions:
a) Participatory Budget Formulation
 This social accountability tool demands direct citizen/CSO involvement in the formulation of
various public strategies and financial plan at the domestic and provincial levels.
 In some cases, it comprises direct involvement of citizens and civil society actors in the
creation of public policies.
b) Formulation of Alternative Budget
 This helps in presenting to the government about the main concern and priorities of the
societies.
c) Budget Review and Analysis
 The objective of this tool is to make the budget more inclusive and representative.
 It analyses budgetary allocations for various sectors, giving special attention to the vulnerable
and marginalized communities.
 It focuses on evaluating the budgetary allocations and tracking the expenditures.
d) Simplification and demystification of the Budget
 It involves translating the government budget into a simpler document so that general public
can understand and own it.
 It promotes understanding of budget issues and encourages public participation.
e) Civil Society Interventions in the Budget Process
 Civil society budget groups can get involved in several phases of the budget procedure.
 Civil societies can share their ideas and suggestions through meetings/workshops/seminars
and consultations.
2. Tools that can be used to monitor the execution of policies and programs:
a) Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS)
 Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) are the surveys designed to track the public
expenses.
 This survey assesses whether government spending has or has not addressed the needs and
concern of the people.
 The key steps involved in this survey are:
 Consultation with the key stakeholders and finalizing the scope of study
  Assessment of availability of data at different levels of government and non-government
organizations
 Collection of information or data
 Data entry and verification.
b) Social Audit and Right to Information
 Social audit refers to a participatory review or monitoring of government activities and
expenditures at the community level to hold the government agencies accountable.
 Social audit involves government officials giving overview of their programs and answering to
the queries/concerns raised by the public regarding government program/s.
 Social audit involves a series of steps:
 Identifying the scope of the audit
 Development of a comprehensive understanding of the institutional structure
responsible for the implementation of a specific scheme or program.
 Obtaining information about programs that require auditing.
 Ensuring that the information collected is assembled in reachable and comprehensible
format.
 Disseminating information to the larger community
 Public hearing
c) Right to Information (RTI)
 Right to Information is the right of the citizens to get information regarding public affairs.
 In some countries, RTI is also provisioned as a fundamental right.
d) Monitoring Procurement
 Procurement is the process of procuring goods and services on behalf of the public authority.
 Procurement is an extremely important stage of public expenses.
 Procurement is a time where chances of corruption and misuse of funds are very high.
 Thus, strict monitoring is essential during public procurements.

3. Tools that can be used to monitor the development outcomes

a) Deploying Project Monitors

 Project monitors are the people who monitor/assess the project implementation.
 They look at the quality, quantity, cost, and time taken to complete the project.
 They help to keep the project in track and assess help to rectify the discrepancies
b) Citizens’ Charter
 Citizen charter is a commitment letter provided by the public office to the citizens for public
service delivery.
 Citizen charter includes description of services, process, cost, time, and responsible officials
for the activity.
 It promotes responsiveness and transparency in public service delivery.
c) Corruption Surveys
 These are the surveys conducted to assess the level of corruption in the government offices.
 It determines the number of times a person is compelled to pay bribe to receive a particular
government service.
d) Integrity Pacts
 It is an agreement between the government and the citizen’s groups to maintain integrity and
transparency in all its activities and financial transactions.
 The agreement is focused on designing practical plans and programs to reach to the poor and
vulnerable section of the people.
e) Citizen Report Cards (CRC)
 It is a report card given by the citizens to the public officials.
 It involves study which surveys the perception of the citizen regarding quality, effectiveness
and efficiency of the government programs and services.
f) Community Score Cards
 It is a tool for local level monitoring of various projects and services of the government.
 It includes different techniques like social audit, community report cards and community
monitoring.
 It assesses the satisfaction of the citizens regarding public services used by them.
How Can We Promote Social Accountability?

Apart from using the tools (mentioned above), social accountability can be promoted by:

 Simplifying- rules, regulations, and procedures

 Practicing- decentralization, devolution, and delegation of authority.
 Imparting- moral values, norms, and ethics
 Defining- clear authority and responsibility
 Building- awareness and behavioral education in the citizens
 Changing- norms and values as per the context
 Strengthening- commitment and willpower in the political and administrative leadership.
 Developing- competency in public officials for performing their job
 Provisioning- social audit and public hearing
 Determining- standard of services
 Ensuring- availability of the resources

Advantages of Social Accountability:

 Improves governance and public services
 Creates a climate of trust in the governance system
 Increase in faith, credibility and legitimacy of the administration/institution
 Strengthens good governance via transparency and reduced corruption
 Contributes (indirectly) to the accomplishment of improvement goals
 Enhances citizen voice, public participation and empowers them
 Increases efficiency and correspondingly to claim and impose citizen ‘s privileges
 Social accountability tools are beneficial as an instrument to combat corruption (prevention
and authorizing)
 Helpful in providing facts and capabilities
 Highlights issues and challenges of the society and its bureaucracy

Limitations/Risk of Social Accountability:

 Ensuring social accountability in the community level is a challenging task.
 Supportive contribution from the public may not be always ensured.
 May give rise to conflict
 Lack of political will to ensure accountability on a regular basis
 Exclusion of the people from marginalized groups
 Citizens generally use social accountability forums to brutally attack the public service
providers.
 Chances of personal risk to the participants