Dozens of social accountability tools have been developed around the world with the aim of enhancing accountability in government bodies which provide services to the citizens; some of these tools are, for example, citizen’s charter, public hearing, public audit, citizen’s report card, participatory planning and budgeting, and integrity pact - there are many more. Governments have been endeavouring to institutionalise such tools by enacting relevant acts, rules and procedures.
Nepal, working along the same lines, has developed accountability related laws and institutional mechanisms for making more effective the delivery of services by government bodies. There are legal mechanisms on good governance and the right to information in the form of the Good Governance Act of 2064 BS and the Right to Information Act of 2064 BS. Similarly, there are institutional mechanisms in place such as the National Vigilance Centre (NVC), the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), and the Office of the Auditor General (OAG). At the same time, with the mobilisation of civil society organisations, civic mechanisms exist which emphasise people's participation and the enhancement of social accountability.
Despite the existence of these legal, institutional and civic mechanisms, there is a lack of information in one place to tell us 'which tool is working/being practised where and how?' Further, we do not have a uniform understanding of these mechanisms or tools. It was, therefore felt necessary to bring together the scattered information related to social accountability in one place. Against this backdrop, and with the key objective of making effective the services that government bodies deliver to Nepali citizens, the Program for Accountability in Nepal (PRAN), an initiative of the World Bank, has identified 21 relevant social accountability mechanisms and come up with this Sourcebook.
