Social Accountability tools can be applied to and influence policy and outcomes in number of different contexts, such as infrastructure, rural development and human development. The event “Social Accountability in Practice: From Tools to Outcomes”, held at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington D.C. on October 24th, presented various experiences from Social Accountability initiatives in South Asia.
Steen Jorgensen, Sector Director for the Social Development sector of the World Bank, gave the introductory comments. He stated that while there are many examples of social accountability initiatives, it is now that there are real results to showcase the work. This is a result of focusing initiatives on the demand side. For any initiative to work, Jorgensen said, there must be tangible benefits for the local population. He then told the audience members that a short documentary would precede the main presentation and the discussion panel.
Parmesh Shah, Lead Rural Development Specialist of the South Asia Sustainable Development Department at the World Bank delivered the main presentation. He stated that there are many governance and anti-corruption strategies being executed in the South Asia region, and that the instruments being used in these strategies were not necessarily developed by the Bank. Rather, most of them were developed organically in a variety of civil society contexts. The issue, Shah said, is how to scale up these instruments to where governments use them systematically. Shah pointed out that the short documentary presented covered the activities undertaken in these initiatives over the last two years—namely, action research, documenting the results, developing a community of practice within the region and knowledge projects. Shah said their approach for social accountability programs is one which primarily relies on civic engagement. Accountability, he stressed, is about achieving outcomes as much as it is a social empowerment tool. To this end, it is very important to use feedback and information which is collected to consistently re-design programs and re-allocate resources. Shah cited the dramatic example of a project which was able to reduce malnutrition in 2 primary heath centers in the Satara District of Maharashtra in India by 15%, exclusively through the use of accountability tools. By creating a dynamic process of charting each child’s progress, and communicating with teachers and parents, they were able to achieve these impressive results. The approach, which consists of a transparent interface process with many stakeholders, has been expanded to other services provided by the Local Government, Shah stated.
Next, Christine Wallich, Senior Advisor, Governance and Accountability at the World Bank, opened the panel of discussants. She stated that there is a wide range of approaches to keep officials accountable—these are not new tools. What is new, she said, is the understanding of them as part of the demand side tool kit to enhance performance and deliver results. Wallich pointed out that traditional work on governance is based on institutional strengthening and building capacity. This functions on the assumption that building capacity will strengthen the institution’s ability to deliver, and that this will be enough for services to be delivered properly. She stressed that what was missing thus far was an understanding that institutions only deliver if there is demand for them to do so. A very large issue at hand, Wallich said, is to understand the applicability and relevance of this toolkit to other sectors, beyond the community level.
Constance Bernard, Sector Director in Sustainable Development for South Asia at the World Bank was the next speaker on the panel. She agreed about the applicability of outcome based accountability in areas other than community based projects. Bernard also pointed out the lessons from these experiences. This includes the growing and major importance of proactive communication between institutions and the users of services they provide, the importance of monitoring and reporting, including real time feedback, and marketing these ideas locally.
Adolfo Brizzi, Sector Manager in Sustainable Development for South Asia at the World Bank was the final speaker. He chose to address one element of the agenda from the perspective of the Rural Livelihood Project which they are supporting mostly in India. He pointed out the extremely exciting fact that people from village level organizations are being elected at higher levels of government, and that this is a positive example of building governments with increased accountability, from the bottom up.
The speakers were followed by a question and answer session in which audience members provided interesting questions and comments.
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