Table of Contents

1. Social Accountability in Africa: An Introduction
   Carmen Malena and Mary McNeil
2. Participatory Budgeting in Fissel, Senegal
   Bara Guèye
3. Civic Participation in Policy and Budgetary Processes in Ilala Municipal Council, Tanzania
   Renatus Kihongo and John Lubuva
4. Tracking the Ghana District Assemblies Common Fund
   Charles Abbey, Vitus A Azeem, and Cuthbert Baba Kuupiel
5. Enhancing Civil Society Capacity for Advocacy and Monitoring: Malawi’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Budget
   Dalitso Kingsley Kubalasa and Limbani Bartholomew Elia Nsapato
6. Gender-Sensitive and Child-Friendly Budgeting in Zimbabwe
   Joy Chidavaenzi and Bob Libert Muchabaiwa
7. The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and Publish What You Pay Nigeria
   Dauda S. Garuba and John G. Ikubaje
8. Citizen Control of Public Action: The Social Watch Network in Benin
   Cyrille Chabi Eteka and Anne Floquet
9. An Analysis of Social Accountability in Africa
   Mary McNeil and Carmen Malena

Foreword

This is a challenging time for Africa. The combined effects of the global economic crisis, the need for equitable allocation of natural resource assets, and the ever-changing balance of influence and power between the developed and developing worlds are requiring African countries to re-evaluate their governance structures. These challenges are accompanied by new opportunities. For example, the proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) - such as cell phones and SMS text messaging, among others - is opening up government processes to a larger public and empowering ordinary citizens to demand accountability from their leaders. Although in many countries these trends are still nascent, they have the potential to radically change democratic processes.

“Social accountability,” as defined in this book, is an approach to enhancing government accountability and transparency. It refers to the wide range of citizen actions to hold the state to account, as well as actions on the part of government, media, and other actors that promote or facilitate these efforts. Social accountability strategies and tools help empower ordinary citizens to exercise their inherent rights and to hold governments accountable for its use of public funds and how it exercises authority. Global experience has shown that such initiatives can be catalytic and that they increasingly play a critical role in securing and sustaining governance reforms that strengthen transparency and accountability.

The case studies presented in this book represent a cross-section of African countries, drawing on initiatives launched and implemented both by civil society groups and by local and national governments in countries with different political contexts and cultures. They demonstrate that although social accountability approaches are strongly influenced by many underlying legal, social, cultural, and economic factors, they can still be implemented in difficult political environments (Zimbabwe). They point to the overriding problem of access to information (Ghana, Malawi, and Zimbabwe), and the low readability of information when it is available (Benin).

They demonstrate what can happen when governments and civil society work together to institute accountability measures (Nigeria), and the implementation challenges they face in environments ranging from decentralized (Tanzania) to more centralized (Senegal). In the introductory and concluding chapters, the editors explain what social accountability means in the African context and distill some common success factors and lessons that can help other practitioners and innovators in the field.

I am especially pleased that this volume emphasizes the “how to” of reform, as described by those who have implemented such approaches on the ground. The World Bank Institute plans to draw on and integrate this kind of knowledge into its global learning programs, relying increasingly on South-South exchanges of experience.

The credit for this volume belongs to the authors of the case studies, who have shared many astute and personal insights into the challenges they faced. Despite such challenges, each has succeeded in helping citizens make their voices heard and shape the way they are governed.

Sanjay Pradhan
Vice President
World Bank Institute

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