GENERAL SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY CONCEPTS AND TOOLS

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GENERAL SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY CONCEPTS AND
TOOLS
Karen Sirker World Bank Institute ksirker_at_worldban
k.org October 4, 2006
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WHAT IS ACCOUNTABILITY?

• The obligation of power-holders to account for or
  take responsibility for their actions in both
  their conduct (by obeying the rules and not abuse
  their power) and their performance (by serving
  the public interest in an efficient, effective,
  and fair manner)
• Power-holders are those who hold political,
  financial or other forms of power
• Two Key Areas of Traditional Accountability
• Government Accountability
• Corporate Accountability

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TRADITIONAL MEASURES TO ENFORCE ACCOUNTABILITY

• Rules and Regulations
• administrative procedures, audits
• Bring in Market Principles
• privatization or contracting to private sector
  and NGOs
• Independent Agencies
• ombudsman, vigilance commissions,

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WHAT IS SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY?
An approach towards building accountability that
relies on civic engagement, i.e., in which
ordinary citizens and/or civil society
organizations participate directly or indirectly
in exacting accountability. It can be initiated
by government, the private sector or civil
society actors
Varying degrees of success so far. Most often
success depends on Direct Participation of the
People
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SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS

• Refer to the range of actions, tools and
  mechanisms that
• citizens, communities, civil society
  organizations, government agencies, private
  sector and the independent media can use to hold
  public authorities and other power holders
  accountable for their decisions, conduct,
  performance and actions.
• They include participatory budgeting,
  public expenditure tracking, citizen monitoring
  of public service delivery, citizen advisory
  boards, social audits, lobbying and advocacy
  campaigns
• They are hence demand-driven or bottom up.
• Also sometimes referred to as external or
  vertical mechanisms of accountability.

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WHY IS SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY IMPORTANT
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WHAT HAS GONE WRONG?

• If Good Governance is classified as being
  participatory, transparent, accountable,
  effective, compliant with the rule of law, and
  responsive to the needs of the people, then what
  has gone wrong?
• THE GOVERNANCE CRISIS
• Poor Access to Public Services
• Inefficiency
• Indifference, Collusion with Vested Groups
• Non Responsiveness
• Rampant Corruption, Extortion by Agents
  Middlemen
• Weak Accountability
• Loose Systems Weak Integrity
• Abuse of discretion

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THE SERVICE DELIVERY PROBLEM

• Services do not benefit the poorest
• Resources not delivering results
• Increasing resources is not the only solution

Urgent Need to Improve the Efficiency and
Effectiveness of Public Expenditure
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POSSIBLE ROOTS OF PROBLEM

• Budget Allocation Problem
• Governments spend on the wrong goods and people
• Expenditure Tracking Problem
• Resources fail to reach service providers or
  users
• Problem of Monitoring/Accountability
• Weak incentives for effective service delivery
• Problem of Participation/Awareness
• Demand-side constraints

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HOW TO MAKE A CHANGE?

• From Coping to VOICES by Citizens
• From Shouting to Counting - quantify voice
  and feedback
• From Reaction to Informed Action
• From Episodic to Organized Action
• From Confrontational to Win-Win
• situations

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PARTICIPATORY PUBLIC EXPENDITURE MANAGEMENT

• 4 STAGE PROCESS
• Budget Formulation
• How public resources are allocated
• Budget Review
• Diagnosing the implications of the budget
• when formed
• Expenditure Tracking
• Seeing where the money goes
• Performance Monitoring
• Even after the money is spent, see how the
• output/service is performing

Each of these stages can be (and usually are)
carried out in a non-participatory manner. That
is not PPEM.
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PARTICIPATORY PUBLIC EXPENDITURE MANAGEMENT

Facilitates the institutionalization of social
accountability mechanisms in the decision-making
of public institutions and policy, and leads to
more sustainable poverty reduction outcomes.
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PARTICIPATORY PUBLIC EXPENDITURE MANAGEMENT

• PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES INCLUDE
• Budget consultations
• Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys
• Tax and Expenditure Analysis by CSOs/Think Tanks
• Public Budget Hearings and Social Audit
• Community Performance Monitoring of Public
  Agencies
• Citizen Report Cards and
• Community Scorecards
• Advocacy Campaigns
• Right to Information Movements and Research
• Citizen Juries and Monitoring Communities

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What is Budget Formulation?

• Participatory Budgeting (PB) is an innovative
  mechanism which aims to involve citizens in the
  decision-making process of public budgeting.
• It creates a channel for citizens to give voice
  to their priorities and is instrumental in making
  the allocation of public resources more inclusive
  and equitable.
• By promoting public access to revenue and
  expenditure information, PB effectively increases
  transparency in fiscal policy and public
  expenditure management, reducing scope for
  clientelistic practices, elite capture, and
  corruption, thereby enhancing the government's
  credibility and the citizens' trust.
• PB can also improve service delivery by linking
  needs identification, investment planning, tax
  systems and project management.
• PB goes beyond a simple participatory exercise to
  being an integrated methodology for promoting
  social learning, active citizenship and social
  accountability, opening new ways of direct
  participation which complements traditional forms
  of representative governance.

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Participatory Municipal Budgeting in Porte
Alegre, Brazil

• Creates regional assemblies and participatory
  budget councils that participate in allocating
  resources and monitoring how they are used.
• Each council is composed of delegates elected
  from municipal councils, neighborhood
  associations and local government
• The councils are responsible for organizing
  consultation meetings, representing district
  priorities to the municipal governments and in
  collaboration with government representatives
  formulating and monitoring local budgets.

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Budget Formulation in Porte Alegre The Results

• Between 1889 and 1996
• Number of households with access to water
  services rose from 80 to 98
• Number of children in public schools doubled
• Tax revenue increased by nearly 50 because
  greater transparency encouraged payment of taxes
• Participatory budgeting has helped to balance
  earnings and expenditures
• Over 80 Brazilian cities are now following the
  Porto Alegre model and currently being applied to
  the state level, covering about 500 municipalities

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What is Budget Review and Analysis?

• Conventionally, the budget is wrapped around
  technical jargon and large numbers, is
  inaccessible to common people. Independent budget
  review and analysis is a process where a wide
  range of stakeholders research, unpack, monitor
  and disseminate information about public
  expenditure and investments.
• Why? To assess whether allocations match the
  government's announced social commitments. This
  may involve analyzing the impact and implications
  of budget allocations, demystifying the technical
  content of the budget, raising awareness about
  budget-related issues and undertaking public
  education campaigns to improve budget literacy.
• The Approach
• Although no ready formula exists, in general the
  key phases of this process are
• Demystify Unpacking and making sense of the
  budget allows people to contest official figures
  and policies.
• Advocacy Expressing the budget and any proposed
  alternate budget in lay persons terms allows a
  wide range of stakeholders to get involved in a
  dialogue process around the budget (which is
  usually in the control of a small number of
  technocrats).
• Lobbying Organizing social coalitions and
  alliances harness the energies of various groups
  to support budget review and analysis.

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Participatory Budget Analysis in Gujurat, India
The Case

• Government of India promised to allocate money
  for social program for tribal groups in the
  Gujurat.
• On close inspection of the budget, money was not
  included

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Participatory Budget Analysis in Gujurat, India
The Results

• Allocation and release of funds to priority
  sectors has improved
• Numeric discrepancies and other errors (around
  600 in the first year) are picked up by members
  of the legislature.
• Media has publicized results.
• There is a better flow of information among
  ministries.
• Gujurat model is being replicated in 12 other
  Indian states.
• National budget is now analyzed by the Peoples
  Budget Information and Analysis Service (An NGO
  where budgets of all departments of State as well
  as Federal Government of India are analyzed,
  especially in terms of provisions and commitment
  made towards poor and backward, vis a vis policy
  priorities of the government.)

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What is Participatory Public Expenditure Tracking?

• It involves citizen groups tracking how the
  government actually spends funds, with the aim of
  identifying leakages and/or bottlenecks in the
  flow of financial resources or inputs. Typically,
  these groups employ the actual users or
  beneficiaries of government services (assisted by
  Civil Society Organizations) to collect and
  publicly disseminate data on inputs and
  expenditures.
• The Approach
• This approach often involves the triangulation of
  information received from disbursement records of
  finance ministries, accounts submitted by line
  agencies and information obtained from
  independent enquiry (using, for example, tools
  like expenditure tracking surveys or social
  audits). Information is disseminated through the
  use of media, publications and public meetings.

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Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys in Uganda

• 1996 public expenditure tracking survey of local
  governments and primary schools revealed that on
  13 of per-student capitation grants made to
  schools in 1991-95.
• In 1995, for every dollar spent on nonwage
  education items by the central government, only
  about 20 cents reached the schools with local
  government capturing most of the funds. Poor
  schools received nothing.
• Parents and students had no idea about their
  entitlements to the grants.
• Disbursements were rarely monitored.

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Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys in Uganda -
The Results

• Primary school enrollment in Uganda rose from 3.6
  million students to 6.9 students between 1996 and
  2001.
• Share of funds reaching schools increased from
  20 in 1995 to 80 in 2001.
• Based on survey findings, central government
  launched a mass information campaign requiring
  newspapers and radio to publish data on monthly
  transfers of grants to districts.
• Primary school and district authorities are
  required to post notices on all inflows of funds.
• Schools and parents now have access to
  information needed to understand and monitor the
  grant program.

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What is Performance Monitoring?

• This entails citizen groups or communities
  monitoring and evaluating the implementation and
  performance of public services or projects,
  according to indicators they themselves have
  selected. Performance monitoring also involves
  elements of public advocacy.
• The Approach
• This is achieved through the use of participatory
  monitoring and evaluation tools (e.g. community
  scorecards) and, at a more macro-level, though
  the use of public opinion surveys, citizens'
  juries or citizens' report cards. The findings of
  participatory monitoring and evaluation exercises
  are presented at interface meetings (where users
  and service providers come together to discuss
  the evidence and seek solutions) or, as in the
  case of citizen report cards, are publicly
  disseminated and presented to government
  officials to demand accountability and lobby for
  change.

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Performance Monitoring- Citizen Report Cards
(CRC) in Bangalore, India

• Motivation for CRC poor provision of public
  services (transportation, telephone, electricity,
  water and waste disposal) in the city and need
  for consumer feedback.
• Why poor services, esp. to the poor?
• Lack of incentive most are monopolies, outdated
  legal and regulatory system
• Methodology questionnaire design, sampling,
  execution of survey, data analysis,
  dissemination, and institutionalization

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Performance Monitoring with Citizen Report Cards
The Results

• Formerly apathetic public agencies now listen and
  react to citizen concerns, improved customer
  relations
• Worst-rated agency help public forums, reviewed
  internal systems for service delivery and
  introduced reforms to resolve high-priority
  problems
• Some public agencies formalized periodic
  dialogues with household consumer association to
  redress grievances
• Public awareness on issues of service quality has
  substantially increased
• Report cards have stimulated civil society
  activism in Bangalore with many more groups
  engaged in citizen monitoring
• Report cards have been replicated in other Indian
  cities and internationally (i.e. Philippines, the
  Ukraine, Kenya)

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Assessing Dimensions

• Each of these is important for planning and
  assessing how feasible and sustainable a
  particular SA mechanism may be for a particular
  country and institutional context.

• Incentive Structure Punishment (too heavy on
  sanctions) or rewards (may not correct bad
  behavior) or combination of the two.
• Accountability rule- or performance based
• Institutionalization high or low (ad-hoc or
  inscribe in law, projects)
• Involvement external or internal (participatory
  beyond consultation)
• Inclusiveness elitist or inclusive
• Branches of government executive, judicial or
  legislative

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Success Factors

• Political context and culture
• Access to information
• Role of the media
• Civil society capacity
• State capacity
• State-society synergy
• Institutionalization

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Risks of Social Accountability

• Lack of enabling environment such as an enabling
  policy, legal and regulatory framework, a
  permissive political environment, accessible
  government,
• Conducive socio-cultural and economic factors
• Not be effective remedy if a fiscal
  straightjacket is the main cause of
  inefficiency, corruption, poor service quality,
  and professional apathy.
• Not be effective when governments do not have the
  capacity or financial means to sustain
  improvements in services, although they are
  responsive.
• Lead to elite capture local authorities are
  particularly prone to capture by local elites and
  interests.
• Increase the social power of those civil society
  organizations and interests that are better able
  to participate
• Can create tensions between citizens and
  authorities and trigger reprisals by elected
  officials.
• Increase the costs of participation

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Thank you!!!