Widgets or Watchdogs?

Joshi, Anuradha; Houtzager, Peter P.

doi:10.1080/14719037.2012.657837

Cited by 183 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…These fields overlap in terms of the ways in which socio-economic power relations have become intertwined with a history of political repression and deference to authority, and the ways in which this shapes state/ society relations and grassroots political agency. These findings reinforce the case in the literature for studies of, and approaches to, citizen empowerment to focus more clearly on politics and power relations rather than technical 'widgets' or formal institutional mechanisms (Hickey, 2009;Joshi and Houtzager, 2012).…”

Section: Conclusion: Social Accountability or Social Transformation?supporting

confidence: 73%

“…Social accountability initiatives can broadly be grouped into either transparency initiatives (such as budget and expenditure monitoring); contentious actions (such as protests and advocacy campaigns); or participation in formal governance spaces (Bukenya et al, 2012;Joshi and Houtzager, 2012). Another important distinction made in studies of such initiatives is between outcomes of 'answerability' (the provision of information and justifications) and of 'enforcement' (the suffering of penalties) (Goetz and Jenkins, 2005).…”

Section: Ngos and Social Accountabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beyond the class composition of NGOs, assessments of social accountability initiatives increasingly cast doubt over technical approaches that fail to address politics and power relations. Recent studies critique the World Bank's emphasis on technical tools or 'widgets' (Joshi and Houtzager, 2012), such as score cards and experimental designs, which disguise the politics of accountability by constructing citizens as beneficiaries and NGOs as representatives of their individualised concerns, rather than as facilitators of popular mobilisation (Gaventa and McGee, 2013). The limited outcomes achieved by donor-funded social accountability initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa have also been linked to a failure to engage with the structure of social and political-economic power relations, and informal incentive structures (Booth, 2012).…”

Section: Ngos and Social Accountabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent assessments find that a complex web of incentives, interests and political-economic power relations frequently undermine institutional and technical mechanisms for monitoring and claims-making by citizens and their representatives (Joshi and Houtzager, 2012;Gaventa and McGee, 2013). Increasingly, development agencies seek to better understand how greater social accountability can be achieved under particular political-economic conditions (DFID, 2011;Bukenya et al, 2012), while scholars interested in 'putting the politics back in' to development have sought out more politicised frameworks for the study of outcomes for disadvantaged groups (Hickey, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Increasing the Power of the Poor? NGO-led Social Accountability Initiatives and Political Capabilities in Rural Uganda

King

2015

Eur J Dev Res

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Social accountability has become an important new buzzword among development actors seeking to understand the forms of state-society synergy that may be supportive of better public services. Advocates suggest demand-side initiatives are key to increasing the power of the poor in service provision, while sceptics question the application of technical fixes to complex political challenges. This article reports findings from qualitative research into the political capabilities outcomes achieved among local health and education stakeholders through the social accountability interventions of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Western Uganda. It argues that NGOs are unlikely to generate substantive advances for social accountability in agrarian contexts characterised by patronage politics without organising marginalised groups themselves to tackle the causes of their disadvantage.La redevabilité sociale est devenue un nouveau mot clé à la mode au sein des acteurs du développement qui cherchent à comprendre les différentes formes de synergie entre état et société qui pourraient favoriser de meilleurs services publics. Les partisans de la redevabilité sociale suggèrent que les initiatives du côté de la demande sont clés pour augmenter le pouvoir des pauvres dans la prestation de services, alors les sceptiques remettent en question l'application de solutions techniques pour régler des problèmes politiques complexes. Cet article relate les conclusions d'une étude qualitative relative à la capacité politique au sein d'acteurs sanitaires et éducatifs locaux, qui a été rendue possible grâce à une intervention sur la redevabilité sociale, mise en oeuvre par une organisation non-gouvernementale (ONG) dans l'Ouest de l'Ouganda. L'étude démontre que les ONG sont peu susceptibles de provoquer des avancées importantes en redevabilité sociale dans les contextes agraires, qui sont caractérisés par un patronage politique, sans appuyer l'organisation des groupes marginalisés eux-mêmes afin qu'ils s'attaquent aux causes de leur désavantage.

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Section: Conclusion: Social Accountability or Social Transformation?supporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Ngos and Social Accountabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ngos and Social Accountabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Increasing the Power of the Poor? NGO-led Social Accountability Initiatives and Political Capabilities in Rural Uganda

King

2015

Eur J Dev Res

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“…Such findings are closely aligned with the growing evidence that citizens may lack the power to alter the incentives which shape the capacity and commitment of governments and elites at both national and local levels (Booth 2005), and support the growing emphasis on identifying ways of promoting different modes of accountability (e.g. Joshi and Houtzager 2012; Deveranjan et al 2011). …”

supporting

confidence: 48%

The Politics of Inclusive Development

Hickey

Sen²,

Bukenya³

2014

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes.You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ www.econstor.eu The Politics of Inclusive DevelopmentIt is now widely accepted that politics plays a signifi cant role in shaping the possibilities for inclusive development. However, the specifi c ways in which this happens across different types and forms of development, and in different contexts, remains poorly understood. This collection provides a stateof-the-art review regarding what is currently known about the politics of inclusive development. Leading academics offer systematic reviews of how politics shapes development across multiple dimensions, including through growth, natural resource governance, poverty reduction, service delivery, social protection, justice systems, the empowerment of marginalised groups, and the role of both traditional and non-traditional donors. The volume not only provides a comprehensive update but also a ground-breaking range of new directions for thinking and acting around these issues. The book's originality thus derives not only from the wide scope of its case-study material, but also from the new conceptual approaches it offers for thinking about the politics of inclusive development, and the innovative and practical suggestions for donors, policy makers, and practitioners that fl ow from this. 1 The Politics of Inclusive DevelopmentInterrogating the Evidence Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. First Edition published 2015 First published in paperback 2016This book is dedicated both to the future of our latest arrivals, Noah Jem, Shawn Michael, and Matthew Francis, and ForewordThe Effective States and Inclusive Development (ESID) Research Centre strives to create knowledge that contributes to making states more effective and committed to achieving social justice. This is a grand goal but our partners...

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Impact of social accountability monitoring on health facility performance: Evidence from Tanzania

2021

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Social accountability programs are increasingly used to improve the performance of public service providers in low‐income settings. Despite their growing popularity, evidence on the effectiveness of social accountability programs remains mixed. In this manuscript, we assess the impact of a social accountability intervention on health facility management exploring quasiexperimental variation in program exposure in Tanzania. We find that the social accountability intervention resulted in a 1.8 SD reduction in drug stockouts relative to the control group, but did not improve facility infrastructure maintenance. The results of this study suggest that social accountability programs may be effective in areas of health service provision that are responsive to changes in provider behavior but may not work in settings where improvements in outcomes are conditional on larger health systems features.

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Widgets or Watchdogs?

Cited by 183 publications

References 23 publications

Increasing the Power of the Poor? NGO-led Social Accountability Initiatives and Political Capabilities in Rural Uganda

Increasing the Power of the Poor? NGO-led Social Accountability Initiatives and Political Capabilities in Rural Uganda

The Politics of Inclusive Development

Impact of social accountability monitoring on health facility performance: Evidence from Tanzania

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