Understanding Social Accountability: Politics, Power and Building New Social Contracts

Abstract

Calls to deepen levels of social accountability within social protection interventions need to be informed by the now extensive experience of promoting social accountability in developing countries. Drawing on a systematic review of over 90 social accountability interventions, including some involving social protection, this paper shows that politics and context are critical to shaping their success. We argue that the politics of social protection and of social accountability resonate strongly with the broader project of transforming statesociety relations in developing countries. This requires a reconceptualisation of social accountability and social protection in terms of the broader development of 'social contracts', and that the current emphasis on promoting bottom-up forms of accountability needs to be balanced by efforts to strengthen and legitimise public authority in developing countries.

The relevance of institutions and people’s preferences in the PSNP and IN‐SCT programmes in Ethiopia

“…Easterly (), for example, argues that good quality institutions should be able to deliver effective public services. In addition, people’s preferences may influence the delivery of social protection interventions, as the provision of specific interventions may respond to citizens’ demands (Hickey and King, ).…”

Voice and power: Feminist governance as transnational justice in the globalized value chain

“…Based on the investigation of these unequal power linkages, my framework of feminist governance comprises three interlinked principles of feminist governance: first, voice to the subordinate strata at every level of the GVC; second, transversal dialogue (Collins, ; Yuval‐Davis, ) with national and transnational actors, and third, accountability (Hickey & King, ) of those in the dominant strata. Feminist governance builds on conceptions of the gendered economy (Çağatay et al, ), which highlights child care, elder care, and housework as women's unpaid reproductive work.…”

Critical perspectives of HRD and social transformation in sub-Saharan Africa

“…In recent years, global trade and governance relationships have been tested and constrained due to current reconfigurations of political capital, marked by President Trump's abrasive position, the related worsening of diplomatic relations in Europe, disharmony in G8 and OECD summits, and ongoing international conflicts and postconflict and peace interventions strategies. Global governance relates to the myriad collective or individual entities emerging from various societal and professional orientations, which form networks that address issues that threaten local and global communities (see UNDP 2015UNDP , 2017Taylor 2014;Hickey and King 2016). The proliferation of global markets, and rapid advances in information technology and processing, have expanded the exchange of knowledge and brought peoples, cultures and communities closer together, due to the fact global issues require greater 'international collaboration'.…”

“…A key policy area in SSA is the formation of a specialized government department to manage human development activities (see Hickey and King 2016;Mureithi and Wasikama 2012). Within the developing world governance systems for National HRD units have been established since the 1990s and many followed the human development economic organization associated with the Asian Tiger states, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea.…”