Crosswinds for the Sustainability of Social Accountability Initiatives
Submitted on December 15, 2014 | Author: Andres Falconer
What if a civil society organization could be paid using the savings generated by the social accountability project it conducted? New winds are blowing in the social-purpose arena, pushing civil society organizations to pursue novel funding models. From new financial mechanisms, such as social impact bonds, equity investments and crowdsourcing; to new donors, including venture philanthropists, social stock exchanges and hybrid organizations, a revolution is taking place, expanding a toolbox that once held a single tool: grants.
Social Accountability Works! See the evidence
Submitted on October 8, 2014 | Author: Roby Senderowitsch
When we set up the Global Partnership for Social Accountability and began reaching out to our colleagues in the field – CSOs, donors, academia, international institutions and World Bank colleagues, we started to notice a commonality in our conversations. We detected a strong undercurrent in the discussion: the limited ÔevidenceÕ about the impact of social accountability work on public sector performance. People alluded to the notion of there being Ômixed resultsÕ. Essentially, support to social accountability was considered by some to be an optimistic endeavor, lacking rigorous evidence.
Are We Ready for Strategic Social Accountability? Introduction to GPSA Dissemination Notes series
Submitted on August 1, 2014 | Authors: Maria Poli and Florencia Guerzovich
Here we introduce a six-part series of notes that discuss whether the social accountability field is already primed with the knowledge and capabilities to design, implement, fund, and learn from strategic interventions. This series presents results from systematic analysis of more than 600 applications submitted to the Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA).
To what extent is the social accountability field primed to think politically and strategically? If international development partners created a space for the implementation of strategic social accountability, how would the field respond?
The social accountability field has been growing rapidly for more than a decade. Civil Society Organizations have been experimenting with a range of technical tools (see here and here) from social audits to participatory budgeting.
Going the Last Mile: How to Solve the Trickiest Problems with Government and Civil Society
Submitted on Voices blog | December 20, 2013 | Author: Roby Senderowitsch | Original blog post
IÕve always been intrigued by the challenge of coming up with new solutions for everyday problems Ð kind of like 3D-puzzles for adults. Problems that seem simple from the outside but that are really difficult to crack once one focuses on them, like the development challenges countries face. Whether itÕs access to basic services such as education or health, or building the infrastructure needed to connect producers to markets, or providing drinkable water to all, a broad range of sound and proven technical solutions already exists. But millions of kids continue to suffer from poor quality education, mothers continue to die while giving birth, and poor families spend a good chunk of their day walking just to get drinkable water.
Why is it so difficult to get solutions to reach those who need them the most? Many times, the almost automatic answer is that while the knowledge is there, countries lack the necessary resources to address these problems. But too quickly, more money is thrown at these problems without changing the fundamental issues, resulting in limited success at best. In other cases, we spend millions of dollars to build capacity and share knowledge, but it is hard to see results because the institutional support for a solution is lacking.
