Social Accountability

What is Social accountability (SAc)?

Social accountability is an approach towards 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 exacting accountability.

Why is social accountability important?

The World Bank's interest and support related to social accountability initiatives derive from it core goals of promoting poverty reduction and effective and sustainable development. There are three main arguments underlying the importance of SAc – governance, increased development effectiveness, and empowerment. In the WDR 2004, accountability has been analyzed from the perspective of 'making services work for the poor'.

How does Social Accountability work?

Social Accountability mechanisms refer to a broad range of actions (beyond voting) that citizens, communities and civil society organizations can use to hold government officials and bureaucrats accountable. These include citizen participation in public policy making, participatory budgeting, public expenditure tracking, citizen monitoring of public service delivery, citizen advisory boards, lobbying and advocacy campaigns. Mechanisms that involve participation of citizens in the process of managing public resources have proved to be particularly effective, and are the cornerstone of the Participation and Civic Engagement Group's work.