Appendix A 445
Design simple and easy-to-use monitoring tools
Implementation of SA mechanisms depends on and benefits from volunteer efforts in various stages of the design and implementation process. Monitoring of results and performance is one critical area that determines the impact and sustainability of SA. Simple and effective monitoring tools that volunteers with varying skill levels and background can easily use promote inclusive and broader involvement of citizens in tracking gaps between promise and performance.
Feedback from Participants’ Response Cards Q: What approaches and techniques have you found most effective in securing buy-in or support of public officials in using social accountability mechanisms? The question may be wrongly posed since, as Harry Blair’s paper showed, there is a very wide range of SA mechanisms most of which don’t require “official” support and some of which may be less effective if they are not seen to be independent, e.g., CRCs. More important is tacit acceptance by public officials; dialogue with public officials and politicians involved in the area of concern; and cooperation in access to information. Civil society does not require the officials’ permission to introduce SA mechanisms! These mechanisms arise out of the failure of governments to do their job. Buy-in will occur when government realizes that large numbers of citizens are dissatisfied with this failure. Buy-in is facilitated when contacts are made with officials who are more sympathetic to reforms. Taking the government on board in the beginning and building confidence/mutual trust; develop a strategy for the dissemination of outcomes of various studies. When should state buy-in be sought (e.g., citizen report cards) and when is it less important or even antithetical to the functioning of the mechanism (e.g., investigative journalism)? How exactly do we want to define “social accountability?” Many different definitions have emerged implicitly here, though not as yet explicitly. Leveraging external audiences—either “influence-makers” in other nongovernmental spheres (emirs, politicians’ spouses, religious leaders, celebrities) or media watchdogs or NGOs—someone to “look over one’s