Stakeholders from the demand side have long been working to improve accountability of service providers and policy makers towards efficient and effective service delivery. In recent years there has been an increasing interest in achieving this through social accountability, and related mechanisms, which involve the direct participation of users and their interaction with providers. The discussion will describe the framework for analysing relationships between policy-makers, providers and citizens as the “short route” to accountability involving citizens directly influencing, participating in, and supervising service delivery by providers1 .
The paper will analyse the legal framework in Zimbabwe which provides a conducive environment for the implementation of the SAM approach; for example, the new Constitution has progressive provisions that support social accountability (Sections 13, 119, 141, 194, 298, 299, 300 and 309 – 314). Different stakeholders in Zimbabwe including Government, NGOs and donors have experimented with various social accountability tools. The different tools (community scorecard, leadership performance score cards etc.) vary and some aim to inform citizens and communities about their rights, the standards of service delivery they should expect, and the actual performance of their providers. Others seek to facilitate access to formal redress mechanisms to address service delivery failures.
