ANSA-Africa is a joint initiative between the World Bank and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).

The primary objectives of the ANSA-Africa initiative are to:

1. develop cross-country collaboration on social accountability and demand-side governance initiatives;
2. provide technical assistance to different countries so the quality of social accountability initiatives is greatly enhanced;
3. deliver training programmes on specific social accountability tools and techniques; and
4. share country experiences and lessons from social accountability and demand-side governance initiatives regionally and globally.

The HSRC has laid the foundation for the establishment of the ANSA-Africa Network and made a major contribution to raising awareness of social accountability’s potential in Africa. After two years of hard work, the HSRC still remains a key partner of the ANSA-Africa but unfortunately is no longer the ANSA-Africa Secretariat host. The World Bank Institute searched for various organisations in Africa with a strong expertise in social accountability to continue playing the role of the ANSA-Africa Secretariat. After an assessment process by the ANSA-Executive Committee, the Idasa was selected to be the new Secretariat host.