Social Accountability Mechanisms in Programmatic and Structural Adjustment Loans

• Horizontal accountability refers to checks and balances among the various agencies and institutions of government, and to institutional oversight.
• Vertical accountability refers to the accountability of government to citizens.

Citizens have important roles to play in reinforcing both the horizontal and vertical accountability of their governments. Social accountability mechanisms include a range of tools that promote greater accounting to citizens.

Social accountability mechanisms have become a feature of recent budget support, adjustment, and public and sectoral reform loans. Recent examples of loans with provisions for social accountability include the Guinea Decentralization Project, the Tanzania Public Sector Reform Project, the Guatemala Financial Management and Judicial Reform projects, the PSRL to Thailand, the PRSC approved for Uganda, the SECALs to the Russian coal sector, the PSALs to Latvia, and the PSRL to Peru.

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See also:

• Organizing Participatory Processes in the PRSP
• Russia Coal Sector Reform
• Russia Coal SECAL

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