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Figuring Out Accountability: Selected uses of official statistics by civil society to improve public sector performance
June 2007
Q-squared, Centre For International Studies, University Of Toronto
The aim of this paper is to explore selectively how official statistics have been used by civil society organizations to hold public agencies accountable for service delivery and/or for the effective use of public resources. The analysis draws on case studies that illustrate (i) different ways in which official statistics have been used for evidence-based advocacy by civil society organizations; and (ii) different sets of circumstances under which data were collected and made accessible to civil society.
The report has three features. Firstly, the focus is on recent initiatives and what can be learnt from them. Secondly, in order to provide a framework for presenting the case-studies, an accountability matrix is constructed which summarises and integrates the main analytical elements used in the report. Thirdly, six of the case-studies were selected as three pairs, each with a common theme. This allows the experiences of each member of the pair to be compared and contrasted.
Section 2 outlines a simple analytical framework which identifies three attributes of accountability and distinguishes between vertical and horizontal accountability. Civil society organisations (CSOs) are extremely diverse, so it is useful to group them by their respective target audiences which demand different depths of statistical analysis in their assessment of public sector performance. Furthermore, certain types of official data are designed to be used, and can only be used, at certain levels of aggregation. Other types of official information are not so restricted. Such differences need to be incorporated into the framework which is summarised in an accountability matrix.
Section 3 examines the use of social audits and whistle blowing to combat corruption in Uganda, India and South Africa. Section 4 compares the use of pupils’ test scores to hold schools to account in two contrasting institutional environments: the Brazilian state of Parana from 1999 to 2002, and Chile since 1987. Section 5 compares the use by CSOs of local authority statistics held on computerised data bases in two countries: Colombia since 1998 and Turkey since 2002. Section 6 examines two cases where CSOs have combined official statistics with their own data to produce novel indices that promote accountability of governments and public sector organisations. WaterAid has introduced the Equity in Distribution Indicator, while the Colombian chapter of Transparency International has developed a Public Institutions Integrity Index. Section 7 reviews Tanzania’s experience with client service charters since 2000. Section 8 concludes by drawing some lessons from the case-studies.
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