Social accountability has come to occupy a central position within inclusive liberal discourse focused on the achievement of ‘poverty reduction through good governance’, a policy agenda that has also come to include a central role for social protection. Social accountability is a contested concept but is most usefully defined here as ‘the broad range of actions and mechanisms beyond voting that citizens can use to hold the state to account, as well as actions on the part of government, civil society, media and other societal actors that promote or facilitate these efforts. There is a consensus that accountability involves both answerability, ‘making power holders explain and give reasons for their actions’, and enforcement, ‘ensuring that poor or immoral performance is punished in some way.
In summary social accountability includes two sides, the supply, solution holders, and demand, civics, mutually existing in an ecosystem to ensure the progressive realization of citizens’ rights.
There are many typologies of social accountability interventions, but the most common forms include service delivery, poverty reduction and public resource management approaches. These approaches have the citizen as the primary interest group.
For social accountability interventions to succeed, there are multiple pillars, known as the four pillars of Social Accountability, that need to be met for the citizen driven accountability to thrive and these include Organized and capable citizen groups, Responsive government, Contextual and cultural appropriateness, and Access to information.