What interventions have had an impact (positive or negative) in promoting community accountability and influencing inclusive service delivery? Community accountability is a process by which a community works together to create and affirm values and practices, and provide safety and support. The review was interested in interventions designed to increase citizen participation and support good governance. The remit for the review was broad and included interventions across a wide range of settings, including education, employment and health. The review focused on six groups in Africa: women, children, people living in rural areas, people with a disability, older people and tribal groups.
The studies selected for inclusion all contained at least two types of accountability mechanisms, and all seven studies included interventions directed at improving processes. Three of the seven studies included all three interventions – community accountability, enhanced processes and fiscal mechanisms. Four themes emerged as being central to community accountability and inclusive service delivery. They were capacity development, empowerment, corruption and health.
Capacity development was a defining feature of interventions directed at community accountability and inclusive service delivery. It was characterised as education and training, improved access to information, financial security and the creation of a supporting environment.
Empowerment was also common to all interventions and was depicted as being integral to capacity development. Three types of empowerment were identified: individual, community and economic. The importance of economic security in supporting community participation is emphasised.
Education, training and access to information were identified as being crucial in improving transparency and reducing corruption. These interventions work by increasing people’s knowledge and confidence and changing their expectations.
The definition of health used includes improvements in a health-supporting environment and health-promoting behaviour as well as a reduction in the incidence and prevalence of health conditions.
Interventions were effective because they adopted approaches that recognised the number of factors, such as culture, that impacted on citizenship. The review highlights the importance of trying innovative and using new approaches. It also reveals that effective interventions do not always need to be complicated and expensive.
What are the implications?
- Interventions aimed at promoting community accountability need to invest in capacity development and the empowerment of vulnerable communities. Interventions are most effective when they are grounded in grassroots communities that adopt cross-cutting approaches.
- There is an urgent need for studies to evaluate the impact of interventions on older people and people with disabilities. Africa has experienced rapid growth in the number and percentage of older people; there is, however, a major gap in the evidence for interventions aimed at this group.
- Funders need to give careful consideration to the risks of using microfinance to enhance community accountability.
- The literature evaluating the impact of interventions is dominated by non-African researchers. There is therefore a need to invest in practitioners and researchers in Africa to spread the knowledge gained from interventions, and to ensure that the African ‘voice’ is strengthened, in practice, policy and research.
