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Helene Grandvoinnet

Governance Global Practice

World Bank

Opening the Black Box, Contextual Drivers of Social Accountability:

Engaging the State

IDS, April 30 2015

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Outline

1. Understanding State Action for Social Accountability

2. A framework to assess contextual drivers for State action

3. Social Accountability in challenging contexts: what role for the State?

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SA as the interplay of 5 constitutive elements: 3 takeaways for state action.

1. Both citizen and state actions matter – yet power imbalance

2. Mobilization must also look at state actors

3. Neither State nor citizens are homogenous or exclusive categories

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Underlying socio-political factors: 4 messages

1. To make accountability claims, there must be an assumption about responsibilities of the state, as well as the entitlements of citizens.

2. Important to look at commitment and capacity of bureaucrats and elected officials separately

3. State structure provides entry points: check and balance institutions, central-decentralized administration, regulatory agencies

4. Individual's layered identities

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Inst

itutio

nal

Inst

rum

enta

l

StateState-society relationships

Social actors

Responsive public officials

Reduced corruption Institutional channels for interaction

Improved provision of public goods

Better policy design

Good governance

State-building

Democratic Deepening

LegitimacyTrust Construction of

Citizenship

Empowered citizens

Inclusive Social Norms

Expectations of SA go beyond instrumental outcomes

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Iterative nature of SA has implications for time horizon and M&E

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Analytical framework to assess context for SA: drivers of State Action

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Guiding tables for State action

Cultural or political norms can shape

the awareness

Capacity, responsibility and authority to act on

the issue

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Sector characteristics

matter

Guiding tables for State action (continued)

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SA in challenging contexts: what role for the State?

1. Social Accountability and State action in states where space for citizen-state engagement is formally constrained

2. Social Accountability in Fragile and Conflict-affected Situations: rebuilding trust in Khyber Pakhtunkwa province, Pakistan.

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Archetypical Institutional Landscape in countries where space for Citizen-State Engagement is formally constrained

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Overcoming constraints to action:To Information:Secrecy and asymmetry of information fundamental attributes of these states, often compounded by heavily regulated, state-owned, or state-controlled media.Identify areas where government seeks information generated by citizens.In the absence of an enabling framework, work with lower level regulations and maximize use of information that is available thus opening up spaces for citizen-state interface.

To Interface:Some representative institutions that provide some form of state-society interface.Important to understand historical and political context of the interface.Space and nature of the interface may differ greatly depending on the sector or between the national and local levels. Evidence seems to suggest that effective state-society interface channels are most often non-confrontational in such contexts.

To Civic Mobilization:Governments might be interested in supporting associations that mobilize citizens to help the state address deficiencies in service delivery.

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Implications for support in countries where space for state-citizen engagement is formally constrained:

5 Entry points

1. appealing to personal or professional integrity of public officials2. appealing to a government’s existing instrumental interest in improving service

delivery and efficiency; 3. linking SA mechanisms to improve effectiveness of the state’s own “horizontal”

accountability framework;4. using existing divisions within state institutions; and5. working within the boundaries of government-endorsed, donor-financed

initiatives. On the whole, the evidence in these polities shows that SA activity may be possible, but its scope and mechanisms are constrained, with its impact often limited to the domains in which it operates.

SA under conditions acceptable to government - efforts run the risk of further strengthening existing power structures.

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Using the framework to support SA to rebuild citizen trust in Government, the case of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,

Pakistan

Case study

Done in partnership with the “Governance Support Project”, World Bank supported project which supports State Government initiative to rebuild citizen trust after 2009 military offensive against Islamist militants.

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State Action

• Awareness of the issue• Ability to resolve the issue• Official attitude towardengaging with civil societydemands or voice• Intrinsic motivationdriving action• Incentives and costs linked to inaction for nonelected officials• Incentives and costs linked to inaction for elected officials

Dichotomy top level politicians (perceiving lack of accountability as threat for stability) vs. lower level bureaucrats (low capacity and mixed incentives -patronage, political interference)

History of repression of civil society

Unclear immediate cost for inaction

“They (government officials) think it is a privilege for citizens to get the service” (Rural Support Manager, Swat)

Bottlenecks and Opportunities for State action

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Citizen action• Awareness of the issue• Salience of the issue• Intrinsic motivation• Efficacy• Capacity for collective action• Costs of inaction

Citizens mostly unaware of their entitlements and do not trust government:

Low sense of efficacy

Capacity for collective action badly eroded by conflict - violence and targeting of mobilizers

“Government is only in the name; they never listen to us.” (Woman participant in an FGD in Swat)“Everyone is concerned with their own business no one cares about the country so who will question the state?” (Male youth Focus Group Discussion: FGD, Haripur).

Bottlenecks and Opportunities for Citizen action

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Citizen-state interfaceLinked to the Interface:• Type of existing interface• Awareness of the interface• Credibility of interface• Accessibility of interfaceLinked to Interlocutionfor Interface:• Existence of interlocutors• Effectiveness of interlocutors in mediating citizens and state officials on the issue

Some interfaces exist, but citizens do not know about them (for instance, Provincial Ombudsman)

Citizens interact through intermediaries: ‘jirga”, “references” – which is costly and negates direct citizen-state relationship

“A common man always needs a well-known person to put forward his case ... There is a lot of discrimination between rich and poor” (FGD with men, urban Peshawar).

Bottlenecks and Opportunities for Citizen State interface

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Civic mobilization • Existence of mobilizers• Capacity of mobilizers(agents and organizations)• Effectiveness in mobilizingcitizens• Effectiveness in mobilizingstate officials

Mobilize state officials for social accountability using top level public pronouncements.

“As a group (we) can be heard” (FGD with men, urban Haripur)“If anyone comes to me [and invites me to participate in a committee] I would not believe them because of security reason.” (FGD with men, Peshawar)

Bottlenecks and Opportunities for Civic Mobilization

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InformationLinked to citizen andstate action:• Accessibility• Framing of the information• TrustworthinessLinked to citizen-stateengagement:• Information on existenceand accessibility of theinterface• Information strengtheningcredibility of interfacewith key stakeholders

Citizens lack information about their own rights, and do not understand the workings of the government.

Yet media has become more independent and more vibrant

Bottlenecks and Opportunities for Information

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Thank you!

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