Citizens and service delivery : assessing the use of social accountability approaches in the human development sectors / Dena Rngold ... [and others].

Format:

Book

Government document

Contributor:

Ringold, Dena, 1970-

World Bank.

Series:

Directions in development (Washington, D.C.). Human development

Directions in development. Human development

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social accounting.

Municipal services.

Physical Description:

xvi, 131 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : World Bank, [2012]

Summary:

Failures in the delivery of public services in the human development sectors of education, health, and social protection have substantial negative impacts on the everyday lives of citizens, particularly for people living in low-income and middle-income countries.

The consequences have heightened the need for better governance and accountability. One potential approach to improving the quality of service delivery is by supporting ways for citizens to hold policy makers and service providers accountable.

Citizens and Service Delivery: Assessing the Use of Social Accountability Approaches in Human Development reviews how citizens-individually and collectively - can influence service delivery through access to information and opportunities to use it to hold frontline service providers, program managers, and policy makers accountable. It focuses on measures that support the use of information to increase transparency and service delivery and grievance redress mechanisms.

The authors take stock of what is known from international evidence and from within projects supported by the World Bank to identify knowledge gaps, key questions, and areas for further research. They synthesize experiences to date, identify resources needed to support more effective use of social accountability tools and approaches, and formulate considerations for their use in human development.

The complex relationships among citizens, policy makers; program managers, and service providers are not always director easily altered through a single intervention. The evidence base on social accountability mechanisms in these sectors is under development. A small but growing set of evaluations tests the impact of information interventions on service delivery and outcomes. There is need for future experiments to test how to make social accountability work at the country level. Much will be gained from further investments in the knowledge base of social accountability, including supporting evaluations, documenting, and analyzing social accountability approaches as they are implemented.

This book will be of interest to staff within the World Bank, as well as to practitioners in public services, civil society, research institutes and other donor agencies involved in the design and implementation of social accountability tools in the human development sectors. Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction and Conceptual Framework 1

Rationale: Why Focus on This Topic? 2

Governance and Service Delivery: A Conceptual Framework 4

Social Accountability Terms and Tools 6

Why Should These Instruments Work? 12

Do Providers Respond to Citizen Influence? 16

Notes 18

References 18

Chapter 2 Social Accountability in the World Bank's Human Development Portfolio 23

Implementation Issues in the Shortlist 28

Institutional Arrangements 29

Summary 30

Notes 31

Chapter 3 Informing Citizens 33

Access-to-information Legislation 33

Does Having ATI Matter? 36

Information Campaigns 41

"Active" Information Campaigns: Scorecards and Social Audits 54

The Design and Implementation of Information Campaigns 58

Summary 62

Notes 62

References 64

Chapter 4 Channels for Using Information: Grievance Redress 69

What Are Grievance Redress Mechanisms? 69

Do People Use Grievance Redress? 72

Grievance Mechanisms in the Human Development Sectors 77

Design Issues 84

Summary 87

Notes 88

References 88

Chapter 5 Summary and Looking Forward 93

Influencing Service Delivery through Social Accountability 93

Incorporating Social Accountability into Human Development Projects 96

Implications for Future Work 99

References 101.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780821389805

0821389807

9780821389300

0821389300

OCLC:

761848497