Accountability & Ethical Governance

Social accountability is defined as an approach toward building accountability that relies on civic engagement, i.e., mechanisms in which the ordinary citizens and/or civil society organizations participate directly or indirectly in exacting accountability.
It covers a broad range of actions to hold public servants accountable, for example – participatory budgeting, public expenditure tracking, social audit, citizen advisory boards etc. These citizen- driven accountability measures complement and reinforce conventional mechanisms of accountability.
Significance of social accountability:

• Improved governance: Social accountability mechanisms allow ordinary citizens to access information, voice their needs, and demand accountability, thus allowing them to engage with government and increase the chances of effecting positive change.
• Increased development effectiveness: Social accountability mechanisms promote dialogue and consultation between the policy makers, service providers and citizens, and create incentives for improved performance. Hence it can help in effective service delivery and more transparent public decision-making.
• Empowerment: Social accountability mechanisms help provide voice to disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. This empowers the poor and increases the chance of greater responsiveness on the part of the State to their needs.

The success of any social accountability mechanism is heavily dependent on following factors:

• Political context and culture: The feasibility and likelihood of success of social accountability initiatives are highly dependent upon whether the political regime is democratic, basic political and civil rights are guaranteed and whether there is a culture of political transparency and probity.
• Access to information: Access to public documents is essential to hold the government accountable and thus its availability and reliability is a key determinant of the success of social accountability mechanisms.
• The role of the media: Independent media is a leading force in informing/educating citizens, monitoring government performance and exposing misdeeds.
• Civil society capacity: The working of Civil Society Organizations, the breadth of their membership, their capacity to effectively use media, their legitimacy etc. are all central to the success of social accountability activities.
• State-civil society synergy: Effective interaction between civil society and the State is another critical factor as meaningful results are achieved only when citizens, politicians and civil servants all have an incentive to act in cohesion.
• Institutionalization: While ad hoc or one-off social accountability initiatives can make a difference, experience shows that impact is greatest and most sustainable when social accountability mechanisms are “institutionalized”.

The Government has already introduced the concept of social audits in multiple welfare schemes. It can further consider introducing the social accountability law to institutionalize the social accountability mechanism in India.