What is Social Accountability?

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Table of Contents

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.

Source: Presentation of Jeff Thindwa, Social Accountability Practice, World Bank Institute

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
1.	Tools that can be used to monitor the policy priorities underlying the budget proposals/allocations; budgetary 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 implementation of policies and programs	Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys Social Audit and Right to Information Right to Information Monitoring Procurement
3.	Tools that can be used to monitor the development outcomes	Deploying project monitors Citizen’s charter Corruption surveys Integrity pacts Citizen Report Card Surveys Community Score Cards
4.	Other tools	Public Interest Litigation 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, 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