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Participatory approaches to improving accountability in public services: conceptual and evidence-based guidelines.

Presentation for the workshop “Relevance of Transparency, Accountability, and Participation since the Arab Spring” organized by the World Bank and Partners in Development.

April 7-9, 2013, Cairo, Egypt.

Dr. Claudia Baez CamargoSenior Researcher Basel Institute on Governance

The starting point

“The idea of citizen participation is a little like eating spinach: no one is against it in principle because it is good for you”(Arnstein 1969, 216)

Participation for Accountability: Defining the issue area.

Social accountability

In the area of defining and implementing accountability mechanisms, what distinguishes social accountability is the direct participation of citizens.

Within the many modes of participation and citizen engagement in the public sphere, we are in the area of actions undertaken with the explicit goal of holding authorities and service providers to account for their performance.

Accountability mechanisms

Citizen participationSocial Accountability

The question is…..

Can social accountability initiatives –through different modalities of citizen participation- have an impact on the quality of or access to basic public services?

Yes, but…….

Citizen participation by itself is not enough

Need to adequately contextualize

Main elements involved in effective social accountability interventions

Effective social accountability involves at the minimum three core elements: voice, enforceability and answerability, which together form part of a cycle.

Definition of basic concepts Voice can be understood as a variety of mechanisms –

formal and informal – through which people express their preferences, opinions and views and demand accountability from power-holders

Enforceability refers to the possibility that an accountability-seeker has to impose sanctions on the service provider or the responsible authorities when their mandate is not appropriately executed.

Answerability refers the obligation to provide an account and the right to get a response. In this discussion, answerability can be understood as voice triggering a response from the service provider or pertinent authority.

Source: (UNDP 2010)

Components and steps involved in effective social accountability initiatives

Citizens/ Users

Service

Providers

Decision makers

OpinionOpinion

OpinionOpinion

Voice

Information on mandate, rights and entitlements

Cap

acity

B

uild

ing

Tran

smiss

ion

Enforcement

Aggregation and articulationAnswerability

Participation

Feedback

Examples of commonly used social accountability tools

Citizen report cards

Community score cards

Community monitoring

Complaints mechanisms

Participatory budgeting

Public expenditure tracking surveys (PETS)

Working with the grain: demand-side elements to optimize impact

Local/indigenous pre-existing participatory mechanisms may be harnessed to maximize effectiveness.

How is community defined? Elements such as solidarity, protection, self help but also possible reprisals within the community can pose challenges to effective participation.

How do citizens understand their relationship vis a vis the state? Who do they trust?

Urban/rural areas. Collective vs individual participatory actions.

Supply-side tools in support of and concomitant to social accountability

approaches

Rights awareness campaigns are indispensable starting point.

Focus on the direct factors that shape the incentives of the provider in question.

Ensuring adequate institutional mechanisms are available to aggregate and transmit voice to the pertinent actors with decision making authority.

Formulating evidence based strategies to improve the providers’ capacity to respond.

Mexico: elements impacting performance of social accountability initiatives

Communitarian view of action and welfare.

Traditional male-dominated hierarchies and organizations.

State is seen as the great benefactor.

History of political clientelism and cooptation

History of corporatism, strong union commanding control health sector workers’ career and remuneration opportunities.

Tanzania: elements impacting performance of social accountability initiatives

Extreme suspicion towards and disengagement from the state.

Active civil society as expressed in highest levels of trust given to NGOs and the existence of multiplicity of self help organizations.

Media has high credibility. Is trusted and actively used to promote accountability activities as a means to disseminate demands and shortcomings.

Budget monitoring activities have been successful.

Institutionalization of social accountability mechanisms still challenging.

Lessons learned

Participation can be best promoted by contextualizing the channels and mechanisms to participate to the greatest extent possible.

Participation and generating voice alone are not enough. Improved accountability outcomes are associated with a supportive public sector.

When public sector accountability mechanisms are unresponsive or weak, positive outcomes are often associated with an active, independent media and the existence of effective access to information provisions.

Concluding remarks: challenges and opportunities for the MENA region

Mobilized citizenry and a sense of empowerment for triggering changes provide fertile ground for participatory approaches.

Can provide democratic state-building opportunities by generating positive synergies.

Contextualization remains essential to achieve sustainability.

References and acknowledgements

References: Arnstein, Sherry R. "A Ladder of Citizen Participation," JAIP, Vol. 35, No. 4, July 1969,

pp. 216-224.

Baez-Camargo, Claudia. 2011. “Accountability for Better Healthcare Provision: a Framework and Guidelines to Define, Understand and Assess Accountability in Health Systems.” Basel Institute on Governance Working Paper Series No. 10 http://www.baselgovernance.org/publications/working-papers/

UNDP. 2010. “Fostering Social Accountability: From Principle to Practice. Guidance Note.”

World Bank. 2004. “World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for Poor People.”

Acknowledgements:

The work presented here has been undertaken as part of the participation of the Basel Institute on Governance in the ANTICORRP research consortium (anticorrp.eu), which is financed by the European Union’s FP7 program.