Community of Practice on Social Accountability (COPSA)

COPSA is a collaborative initiative that is being facilitated by the Participation and Civic Engagement (P&CE) Group. It is intended to serve as a platform that brings together practitioners in the area of social accountability to exchange lessons and share experiences, and encourage synergy across sectors, departments, regions and organizations.

Objectives:

• To foster and consolidate cross-regional and cross-network sharing of knowledge, experience, tools, and lessons from practice;
  
  
• To mainstream social accountability and integrate it into World Bank Operations by generating systematic approaches across networks and regions;
  
  
• To facilitate networking between the various stakeholders (i.e. practitioners, researchers, universities, NGOs, government actors, the media) interested in the social accountability agenda inside and outside the World Bank and around the world.
  
  
• To provide inputs for the incorporation of ex-ante evaluation mechanisms and creating baseline data for the evaluation of SA processes.
  

Activities:

• COPSA Practitioners' Lunch Series to facilitate information and knowledge sharing of emerging practice, and to foster coordination of on-going and upcoming activities amongst Bank practitioners from different regions and networks. These informal meetings will be organized on a monthly basis, and will comprise of informal presentations, as well as open ended discussions that will allow participants to being their perspectives and experiences to the table.
  
  
• COPSA Updates to share information about ongoing or upcoming social accountability initiatives, best practice cases, concepts and methodologies, and social accountability events and news. The updates will be disseminated every month and contributions will be sought from COPSA members.
  
  
• Brown Bag Lunches (BBLs) to highlight good practice cases and innovative experiences, and clarify conceptual foundations. The BBLs will involve knowledge sharing and learning amongst both Bank staff and external practitioners.
  
  
• Calendar of Events to provide information on proposed events and activities related to Social Accountability. The calendar will be based on contributions from COPSA members, and will be updated on a monthly basis.
  
  
• COPSA Learning Events to deepen understanding of social accountability concepts, building blocks and approaches, as well as to broaden skills in applying social accountability tools and methodologies.

To subscribe to the COPSA mailing list or for more information, please write to the Support Desk at:   copsa@worldbank.org