Social Accountability in The Education Sector

Social Accountability in the Education Sector
SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY SOURCEBOOK

CHAPTER 4

SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR

Social Accountability Sourcebook

1

HOW TO READ THIS DOCUMENT

Welcome to the World Banks Sourcebook on Social Accountability: Strengthening the
Demand Side of Governance and Service Delivery!

There is growing recognition among governments, donors and civil society that citizens and
communities have an important role to play with regard to enhancing accountability of public
officials, reducing corruption and leakage of funds and improving public service delivery. As a
result, Social Accountability has become an attractive approach to both the public sector and
civil society for improving governance processes, service delivery outcomes, and resource
allocation decisions. Over the last decade, numerous examples have emerged that demonstrate
how citizens can make their voice heard and effectively engage in making the public sector more
responsive and accountable.

In an effort to capture the diverse experiences from across the world and make them available in
one single place, the World Bank began developing a Sourcebook in 2005 on these approaches
for reference, familiarization and inspiration. Practitioners and decision makers in the World
Bank and in client countries constitute the primary audience for the Sourcebook.

The Sourcebook was originally developed as an interactive resource for use on-line or via CD-
ROM. In order to cater for readers with limited web/ computer access downloadable file
versions of the main Sourcebook chapters have been made available (http://www-
esd.worldbank.org/sac/ ).

This document is part of the larger Sourcebook on Social Accountability. It constitutes one of the
main chapters of the Sourcebook, originally written as content of web pages and later converted
into a comprehensive text.

The entire Sourcebook is organized in several main chapters:

A Conceptual Chapter (Social Accountability: What Does it Mean for the World
Bank?) providing an analytical framework of social accountability, and an overview of
the main concepts and definitions.
Tools and Methods, that are most frequently used as part of social accountability
approaches such as participatory budgeting, citizens report cards and social audits;
Social Accountability in the Regions provides access to case examples of social
accountability in different regions.
Sectoral and Thematic Applications: Social accountability in Public Expenditure
Management, Decentralization, Education and Health;

2
Social Accountability in Bank Operations provides guidance, case examples and lessons
learned from the implementation of social accountability in Bank operations, including
investment and development policy loans. It also provides guidance on how to conduct
analytical work on social accountability and access to examples of analytical studies on
the topic.

Knowledge and Learning Resources: access to knowledge and learning materials on
social accountability, including case studies, publications, website links, power point
presentations, manuals, etc.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................. 6
1.1 Relevance........................................................................................................................ 7
1.2 Decentralization and the Education Sector ..................................................................... 8
2. ENTRY POINTS AND SOCIAL ACCOUNTIBILITY MECHANISMS..................... 10
2.1 The Components of Social Accountability................................................................... 10
2.2 Policy Level .................................................................................................................. 12
2.3 Strategy Level ............................................................................................................... 15
2.3.1 Formulation and Review of Education Budgets ................................................... 15
2.3.2 Expenditure Tracking in Education ...................................................................... 16
2.4 Operational Level.......................................................................................................... 18
2.4.1 Management of Education Services and Outcomes.............................................. 18
2.4.2 Independent Performance Monitoring, Social Audits and Public Oversight........ 19
3. CRITICAL FACTORS AND ENABLING CONDITIONS............................................ 24
3.1 Supply Side Factors ...................................................................................................... 25
3.1.1 Transparency and Access to Information ............................................................. 25
3.1.2 Decentralization.................................................................................................... 26
3.1.3 Institutional Reform.............................................................................................. 26
3.2 Demand Side Factors .................................................................................................... 27
3.2.1 Effective Use of Information ................................................................................ 27
3.2.2 Client Voice .......................................................................................................... 28
3.2.3 School Autonomy and Client Power..................................................................... 28
4. CHECKLIST: SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR..... 30
5. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES........................................................................................... 32
5.1 Case Studies.................................................................................................................. 32
5.1.1 Kibera Community Schools Enabling Voice for Social Accountability ........... 32
5.1.2 Madhya Pradesh: Education Guarantee Scheme .................................................. 32
5.1.3 Peru: Foro Educativo ............................................................................................ 34
5.1.4 South Africa: Example of Bodies Providing Oversight Measures ....................... 36
5.2 Bibliography ................................................................................................................. 38
5.3 Website Links to Resources and Case Studies ............................................................. 40

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LIST OF ACRONYMS

APPS Association of Private Proprietors of Schools

CNE National Education Council

CRECCOM Creative Center for Community Mobilization

EDUCO Community Schools Program

EGS Education Guarantee Scheme

GABLE Girls Attainment in Basic Literacy and Education

MESA Malawi Education Support Activity

MDG Millennium Development Goal

MOE Ministry of Education

NAMFREL National Citizens Movement for Free Elections

NARC National Rainbow Coalition

NANGO National Association of Non-government Organizations

NGO Non-government Organization

OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

OIC Official Information Commission

PETS Public Expenditure Tracking Survey

PISA Program for International Student Assessment

PTC Parent Teacher Committee

TEN/MET Tanzania Education Network

TI Transparency International

TUM Teachers Union of Malawi

WDR World Development Report


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1. INTRODUCTION

Participation and social accountability in the education sector are becoming increasingly
important. Evidence shows that the majority of children, especially girls, the poor, the disabled
and minorities gain far less from school than they deserve. Many children in developing
countries are leaving school without learning to read, write or do basic arithmetic. This is an
injustice and a waste of human potential. This has prompted the international community to take
action.

The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on education states that universal primary
education and gender parity at all levels of education must be available by 2015. This has
resulted in expansion of access to education and abolition of fees in the hope of achieving the
goal. In many countries, this has initially led to overflowing classrooms, hiring of under-
qualified teachers, lack of equipment and materials, and a general decline in education results.

The challenges ahead are manifold and daunting.
Education systems need to become more inclusive, effective and efficient.
A major strategic thrust should increase the involvement of service users (parents and
students) in decision-making and oversight of school management; enhancing
transparency, accountability and responsiveness of the system, in particular with regard
to resource allocation, utilization and performance measurements; and strengthening the
voice and policy oversight of citizen and representative organizations.

Social accountability approaches operationalize and strengthen direct accountability relationships
between citizens (the users of education services), policy-makers and service providers. They
help overcome significant challenges such as weak citizen voice and oversight, and lead to better
informed policy decisions, responsible management and leadership, and more efficient and
responsive investment decisions. The MDG for education will succeed only if there is a change
from the business as usual strategy and activities aimed at accomplishing the MDGs target
issues such as the right to demand education, and the capacity and willingness to respond to such
demands.

This chapter provides an overview of social accountability mechanisms in the education sector.
The first section presents the rationale and conceptual framework for analyzing social
accountability. With reference to the WDR 2004 framework, this section also addresses
decentralization and how that affects social accountability relationships. Section two illustrates
five main entry points
1
for introducing social accountability mechanisms. It provides examples
of how these entry points have been used. The examples presented are based on a review of the
literature, but as the social accountability agenda is still in its infancy, the chapter only covers
primary education, not higher education or adult continuing education. Section three discusses
supply side (government) and demand side (citizen) factors that facilitate or hinder social
accountability, and looks at pre-conditions in the broader legal and political enabling
environment for these approaches. Section four contains a checklist on how social accountability

1
An entry point is a particular conducive setting for the application of social accountability mechanisms that
respond to the felt needs and demands of stakeholders, and aims at increasing accountability, inclusiveness,
transparency, responsiveness and development effectiveness.

6
mechanisms can be incorporated into the education sector. Finally, section five lists additional
resources including case studies, a bibliography, and website links to training manuals and
resource institutions.
1.1 Relevance
Strengthening the demand side of service delivery, such as increasing the voice of service users,
as well as their ability to access quality education, has been among the most important strategies
for improving education and reducing poverty.
2
However, attaining the second MDG, quality
education for all by 2015, has been slow due to a number of factors including:

elite bias in education policies and planning,
poor targeting of education resources leading to exclusion of marginalized groups,
leakages of funds from the central ministries intended for local schools,
lack of teacher incentives, and
insufficient public oversight and feedback from parents and students.

Participation of citizens and civil society in policy-making and planning is crucial for improving
access to quality education, especially in resource scarce environments.
3
Formal and informal
structures for policy dialogue and participation become increasingly important when pursuing
educational reforms in complex environments. Many long-standing problems are emerging such
as high dropout rates in rural areas, poor learning outcomes, and violence among children and
youth. These problems require cooperation across policy, organizational and social boundaries.
Social accountability can contribute to a more effective policy process, increased transparency
and good governance. Social accountability mechanisms, such as promoting participation in
policy dialogue and planning, have contributed to remedying the slow pace of achieving the
MDGs, for example, by including marginalized groups leading to better learning and higher
completion rates. Other social accountability mechanisms have improved the effectiveness and
efficiency of expenditure management in the education sector, e.g. by tracking the resources
allocated for teacher training or for textbooks, identifying leakages and publicly disseminating
the findings.

2
Atchoarena and Gasperini (2003). For more on the topic, see
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/pdf/EduNotes_Guatemala.pdf
3
UNESCO defines civil society in the context of the education sector as follows:
Learner organizations student groups, activity-based childrens and youth clubs (for example, the formal
scout movement, theatre and drama groups, informal clubs), and ethnic, religious, geographical, or political
groups involving students;
Associations involving parents Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), School Management Committees
(SMCs), and other associations involving parents in school-related activities;
Teachers associations trade unions, professional associations;
Community based organizations involved in education community education committees, community
development groups, HIV/AIDS groups, adult literacy groups, womens associations/groups, churches;
Media;
Traditional community leadership structures;
National and international research networks;
District, national and international NGOs working with education programs or with a stake in the education
sector.


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To analyze accountability relationships in service delivery more systematically, the World
Development Report 2004 offers a widely accepted conceptual framework.
4
Three different sets
of accountability breakdowns are identified between the policy makers, the providers and the
clients of a service. Figure 1 depicts the three mechanisms by which accountability relations
between the actors can be improved: client voice and client power, i.e. the two broad ways in
which citizens can influence patterns of service delivery, and the compact between providers and
policy-makers.

Client Voice is the long route of accountability, through which citizens provide
mandates and/or their preferences to policy-makers (the state) to design services that
respond to citizens needs.
Client Power is the short route of accountability, which denotes forms of direct client
feedback, co-management and/or client choice related to services provided.
Compact is the more or less formalized relationship through which policy makers (the
state) provide policy directives and incentives to the education system and providers.

Figure 1: Client Voice, Client Power, and Compact (centralized system)

Users of
Education
Services
Providers of
Education
Services

Policy Makers

Ministry of
Education

Professional
Associations
-

client power
services

client
voice

compact

Policy

Strategy

Operational
(community)

Accountability Relations

1.2 Decentralization and the Education Sector
In many countries, decentralization in the education sector has been implemented as part of a
broader political, economic and technical reform process.
5
It has been argued that such
decentralization contributes to better outcomes, including better education outcomes.
6
It can

4
Cf. World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for Poor People, World Bank, 2003.
5
Litvack, Ahmad and Bird (1998). Unless stated otherwise, this chapter equates decentralization with devolution.
6
Bossert and Beauvais (2002).

8
also contribute to equity through increased distribution of education resources to traditionally
marginalized regions or groups, and to improved quality, transparency, accountability, and
legitimacy through user oversight and participation in decision making.
7

Decentralization in the education sector has often been fueled by democratization, and has been
accompanied by a push towards increased accountability, higher competition and cost
consciousness. In addition, a new role of the central state has been promoted.
8
From being the
policy making and responsible implementing body of education services, the central state has
taken on the role of setting the broad policy framework and enabling and ensuring quality of
implementation. The degree to which this is successful depends on whether fiscal, administrative
and political authority for educational service delivery is clearly delineated and delegated to the
local level. Success depends equally on the capacity of local level staff to manage such tasks.

Figure 2 shows the WDR 2004 framework modified to illustrate the accountability mechanisms
in a decentralized setting. This conceptual difference is important as it captures the re-positioning
of actors, mandates and authorities in the decentralized service delivery system. The so-called
intermediate route of accountability refers to client voice and the compact mechanisms relating
clients to public officials and service institutions at the sub-national government level.
9
A
decentralized framework multiplies the entry points for social accountability initiatives.

Figure 2: Client Voice, Client Power, and Compact
(in a decentralized system devolution, delegation or deconcentration)

Users of
Education
Services

Providers of
Education
Services

Central State
(Policy Makers)

Ministry of
Education

Professional
Associations
-

client power

services

client
voice

compact

Policy

Strategy

Operational
(community)

Accountability Relations

Decentralized State
(Policy Makers)
Ministry of Education

7
Catholic Relief Services (2003) p.81.
8
The central state in this context refers to the political leadership of the executive and the legislative branch of
government, including the high level public officials in the Ministry of Education.
9
Assuming devolution.
10
Emanuel and Emanuel (1996)

9
2. ENTRY POINTS AND SOCIAL ACCOUNTIBILITY MECHANISMS

As in other public sector contexts, education systems contain political, financial, administrative,
legal and social accountability relationships. Social accountability is about affirming and
operationalizing direct accountability relationships between citizens, the state and service
providers. Social accountability refers to (i) the broad range of actions and mechanisms (beyond
voting) that citizens can use to hold the public officials to account, as well as, (ii) actions on the
part of government, civil society, media and other societal actors that promote or facilitate these
efforts. Social accountability approaches are not intended to replace, but rather to reinforce and
complement conventional (political, administrative, financial and legal) mechanisms of
accountability.
2.1 The Components of Social Accountability
To help elucidate the concept of social accountability in the education sector, it is useful to
consider the different components of the accountability relationship the who, what, and how
by defining the actors that can be held accountable, the issues for which they can be held
accountable, and the appropriate mechanisms for social accountability.
10

The first question is who is accountable to whom, that is, the locus of accountability. Many
different parties can be held accountable or hold others accountable, such as individual students,
individual teachers, schools, professional associations and so on. To understand the locus of
accountability, it is important to understand power relationships between actors. These
relationships can be unpacked through stakeholder or structural analysis which has proven useful
not only at the operational level but also at the strategy and policy levels.
11

The second question is what a particular actor is accountable for, that is, the objects of
accountability. Different types of accountability focus on different issues (e.g. the handling of
finances, proper conduct or performance). An accountability object can be any issue which an
actor can legitimately be held responsible for and called on to justify or change its action.

The third question is how these actors account for their actions, that is, the procedures for
ensuring accountability. Some of the most common approaches and mechanisms for social
accountability are described in the respective. Beyond answerability, positive and negative
sanctions are an indispensable element of accountability. Social accountability approaches,
which often operate from outside the public sector, mainly work through building up public
pressure or awareness, influencing public opinion, or particular partnerships with the public
sector or other actors. The practical application of social accountability mechanisms are shaped
by in-country factors such the political willingness and capacity of state and civil society
stakeholders; the particular organizational, structural, financial, planning and implementation
systems in place; and broader socio-economic, political and cultural factors.

Entry points for social accountability can usefully be categorized at the policy, strategy or
operational level. The policy level (macro government) formalizes the political priorities of
government, such as equal access to quality services. The sector strategy level (usually the
Ministry of Education) operationalizes overall policies via strategic planning, implementation

11
Veneklasen and Miller (2002)

10
and monitoring of reform packages. The operational level (education providers and management)
implements and monitors government policies and strategies to ensure effective and efficient
coverage of quality services.

Social accountability entry points at each of these three levels include the following concerns.

At the policy level social accountability is usually concerned about the following issues:

Are the public policy priorities the right ones? For example, education for all vs. official
school fees; inclusive education to ensure that marginalized groups, such as children with
disabilities, have adequate access to good quality education vs. a public policy favoring
high quality education for the elite?
Is the vision behind public policy prescriptions understood and widely shared? Are the
underlying values and norms acceptable? Are the preferences of citizen and service users
publicly articulated and discussed?
Do the policy prescriptions achieve the desired outcomes? Are they on the right track?
Is monitoring information on policy goals publicly available and discussed?

At the strategy level social accountability often deals with the following concerns:

Are the policy prescriptions adequately translated into budget allocations, legal and
regulatory mechanisms, institutional reforms, investment programs, and so forth?
Are sectoral policy reforms implemented as planned? Do they achieve their expected
outputs and outcomes?
Is disbursement of public expenditures in line with allocated budgets for education? To
what extent do resources transferred from the central level reach end-users? Do leakages
occur? Are resources mismanaged?

At the operational level social accountability frequently examines:

Educational service delivery: its accessibility, availability, effectiveness, efficiency,
standards, and outcomes.
Monitoring of education performance and oversight of the service delivery chain, both by
civil society and by self-regulatory bodies (e.g. teachers associations).

Table 1 provides an overview of accountability issues in the delivery of education services.


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Table 1: Dimensions of Effective Educational Service Delivery

Dimension Key Questions
Physical
Accessibility
Are educational facilities available and sufficiently accessible for the poor to
make use of them?
Availability of
Human Resources
Are human resources available at schools that target the poor? Are services
geographically accessible or in short supply part of the time?
Availability of
Material Resources
Are material resources, especially teaching and learning materials, accessible
at the prescribed standards?
Organizational
Quality
How are educational services organized, such as hours of operation, quality of
services, gender-balance of teachers, and requirement of unofficial hidden
payments?
Relevance of
Services
Does the sector provide education that is relevant, especially to the poor? Does
education provide the student with life skills necessary to cope?
Technical Quality Are services provided to the poor at lower technical quality compared with
those provided to the better off? Is basic education of reasonable quality
available to all? How are teachers skills and qualifications kept current?
Transparency and
Management of
Financial Resources
How transparent is financial management at school level? Are directors or
administrative staff accountable to citizens and communities? What forms of
co-decision making and public oversight exist?
Students
Attendance
How are factors hindering or refraining students to attend classes being taken
into account? How are the cooperation and understanding of parents regarding
expected attendance ensured?

Social accountability initiatives can be found in most of the important dimensions for service
delivery provided in Table 1. Many successful or interesting social accountability examples are
presented in the following section, structured according to the different levels in the education
sector introduced above. Despite these promising initiatives, a note of caution has to be
reiterated. Social accountability approaches are not intended to substitute conventional (financial,
administrative, political, etc.) accountability mechanisms, but rather to complement and reinforce
them. They have proven their value where conventional mechanisms were not effective, or
where service users and civil society organizations felt that their direct engagement was needed
to raise an issue, improve the situation or expose inefficiencies or leakages.

2.2 Policy Level
This section provides examples of meaningful citizen engagement in policy making and planning
phases of education service delivery. It can help improve prioritization and allocation of
resources and lead to structural change that is necessary to achieve better education outputs and
outcomes. However, as several examples show, successful social accountability initiatives in the
policy and planning of education services must go beyond the involvement of the primary
beneficiaries, such as students and parents. They must focus on the different interfaces between
providers, policy makers and users of the education system. An important prerequisite for this is
the availability of information on entitlements and obligations.

In El Salvador, the community-managed school program, EDUCO, has demonstrated that
support from all stakeholders in policy dialogue and change is important. The EDUCO program

12
went from a three-year successful experiment to a country-wide initiative, which included a
major policy change through consultation with key stakeholders. New laws promoted public
support for further educational reform. Permanent communication channels were established
between the Ministry of Education and the public, including students, parents, teachers and
NGOs. Among the lessons learned were;

Expanded stakeholder participation did not automatically translate into voice at the
national level. Many of the most serious constraints to education were social, cultural and
institutional. This was overcome only through sustained dialogue and communication.
Informal and formal structures for dialogue were used to pursue reforms across the
education sector.

In Kenya, improved two-way communication strengthened the governments efforts to increase
access to good quality early childhood education, and basic education services for pastoralist,
slum and street children. People participated in building coalitions to lobby the Kenyan
government to enforce its commitments. The Elimu Yetu Coalition (a coalition of teachers) used
demonstrations and direct campaigning to demand policies that would provide sustainable
solutions. Some achievements of this effort were:

changing school admission policies,
giving formal recognition to informal schools in slum areas,
abolishing the need for birth certificates for enrolling students, and,
more flexibility regarding age restrictions and standardized curricula.

In addition, the coalition lobbied against the negative attitudes of officials that prevented children
from marginalized groups from entering school. Changes at the policy level have led to tangible
results in improving access for underserved groups.
12
Some outcomes so far are;

A petition from the Kibera community to the Ministry of Education led to one of the
schools in the program becoming an examination center for the Kenya certificate for
primary education.
Relaxation of regulations by the government Registrar of Persons resulted in street
children obtaining identity cards and admission to schools.
The Ministry of Education established a non-formal education desk and the Office of the
President is hosting a Coalition for Pastoralists Childrens Education. Policies on
pastoralist education have been developed and will be presented to Parliament for
discussion. Stereotypes about pastoralists lack of interest in education for their children
are being debunked through lobbying and campaigning.
Lobbying by the slum-based group Elimu Kwa Wanavijiji (teachers of cities) has
contributed to government collection of information on schools. The Hands Up for Girls
campaign and childrens lobbying of Parliament resulted in the government announcing
an end to compulsory school uniforms.
School enrollment increased 26 percent between 2002 and 2004 in the pastoralist areas
supported by Oxfam. Classrooms have been built or improved, new teachers trained, and

12
For additional details on this case, see section 5.

13
other teachers employed as resource teachers to assist their colleagues. Thirty inspectors
have been trained in new inspection methods.
In Thika town, 511 girls have enrolled in rehabilitation centers for street children in
preparation for attending school, 401 girls who formerly lived on the streets are going to
public schools in Mombasa and Nairobi, and 183 school leavers have graduated and are
now employed. Most of them are supporting their own families.

In India, the Madhya Pradesh Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) significantly increased access
to primary education.
13
Policy-makers quickly addressed gaps in access to education due to a
1996 door-to-door survey jointly undertaken by panchayat
14
leadership, teachers and literacy
activists. The survey identified children not going to school. The EGS created institutional
structures and statutory mechanisms for inclusion of poor rural children who had no access to
primary schools within 1 kilometer. The government provided a unilateral legal guarantee to
provide EGS schools within 90 days and to provide training and academic support for the
teachers identified by the community. The forging of mutually supportive links between the state
government, local self-government institutions, and civil society was a watershed. Making the
system responsive and accountable to the gram sabha
15
effectively reversed the balance of
power. This resulted in:

a reduction in the absolute numbers of out-of-school children from 1.3 million boys and
1.6 million girls in 1996 to 346,000 boys and 428,000 girls in 2002-03;
an increase in the female literacy rate by 21 percent over a decade;
an increase in aggregate enrollment ratios and no discrimination between social groups.

In Peru, Foro Educativo was formed in 1992 as a civil society platform for debate and reflection
about problems in education.
16
The forum is composed of a diverse array of people including
school managers, politicians, academics, and education experts. Under the plan, Education and
Human Development: Basis for a Consensus, the forum focused on eight specific areas: quality
of basic education, financing, valuing the teacher, decentralizing pedagogy and administration,
evaluation and accreditation, reforming the Ministry and the National Education Council, and
media. The new democratic government recruited some of Foro Educativos members as
prominent advisors and officials of the Ministry of Education. This placed Foro Educativo in a
position to influence education policy. For example, the concept of quality basic education as a
right for all has now been accepted as the foundation for current public policy. Conversely, it
also poses the challenge of preserving the Foros autonomy as an independent civil society
organization. Similarly, the creation of the National Council of Education, with the inclusion of
Foro Educativo leaders, underlines the need of the forum to define its future institutional role in
clearer terms.

In some rural areas of Peru, up to 50 percent of women are illiterate. Poorer families often have
many children to help provide for them when they are older, but these children frequently lack

13
For additional details on this case, see section 5.
14
Panchayat refers to a council of elected members making decisions on village social, cultural and economic
issues.
15
The entire village as the basic unit of democratic decentralization.
16
For more details on this case, see section 5.

14
education, adequate health care and good jobs. In 1998, a network of 25 local and community
organizations, government ministries and international agencies, pushed for a basic right to
universal education for girls in Peru.
17
After persistent advocacy by the network, the Peruvian
congress approved a bill to foster girls education, aimed at ensuring universal enrolment for
girls in high quality basic education within five years.

In Brazil, the success story of educational reform involved users in decision-making and
monitoring of services.
18
The primary school enrolment rate increased from 87 to 97 percent.
The Education for All initiative abolished school fees and other charges. In 2000, it initiated a
scholarship program, providing money to mothers who sent their children to school. The
government introduced legislation empowering communities to allocate resources and participate
in basic social services at the local level.
2.3 Strategy Level
2.3.1 Formulation and Review of Education Budgets
Participation of citizens in budget preparation and analysis is an important entry point for social
accountability. Resource allocation based on pressures from elite groups has been problematic
and led to unequal access to quality education. Social accountability mechanisms promoting
transparent and accountable processes for budget planning have included participatory and
independent education budget analysis at the national, sub-national and local levels and have a
considerable impact on government spending for education. These processes have been initiated
by civil society organizations and sometimes by government.

In Zimbabwe, the National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (NANGO) initiated
a child friendly national budget analysis exercise in 2000. It tried to influence policies, laws and
strategies that affect children. The project undertook situation analysis, independent budget
analysis, lobbying, and monitoring and evaluating outcomes. Among the results are:

In the 2004 budget, the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture received a budget
increase of 300 percent that was the largest share of the total budget.
Introduction of a line item on children in difficult circumstances.
Increased participation of children and other stakeholders in the budgeting process.

In Malawi, beginning in 2002, a coalition of 54 civil society organizations participated in the
budget process and monitoring the quality of education as part of the Poverty Reduction
Strategy. This was a follow-up of the work done since 1994 on basic education as part of the
strategy of universal primary education. The motivation to monitor public expenditures came
from the general perception that quality of education had declined. The effort included
monitoring of teacher training and inspection. The results showed an inadequate allocation to the
pro-poor priority area, an uneven distribution of resources due to poor financial procedures, and
leakages in textbook procurement and salary payments.

17
See http://www.careinternational.org.uk/education/index.htm
18
See http://www.unicef.org/specialsession/docs_new/documents/events_financing.pdf

15
The government recognized the priority of education as part of poverty reduction
monitoring and now involves lower levels of the administration in budget formulation.
The poverty reduction team is eager to share information on the budget with civil society
and accountability mechanisms have been developed.

The lessons learned were that:

Communication and the public dissemination of the findings are as important as the data
collection and analysis. The presentation of findings to end-users was found to be
particularly important.
Independent monitoring requires an adequate budget, a conducive legal and policy
framework, and the capacity to monitor and do advocacy work.
Robust data has to be produced, which can be verified to be credible for the government.

In Zambia, the Catholic Center for Justice, Development and Peace in Lusaka began budget
analysis and tracking in 2000 due to a perceived lack of a poverty focus in the governments
budget and spending. The problem was compounded by a lack of public access to budget
information. The centers effort led to some important changes. At the local level, focus group
discussions included problem identification and prioritization. These data were presented to the
provincial and central level for consideration in the next years budget. Post-budget analysis was
shared with parliamentarians, outcomes were disseminated via the media, and a proposal was
submitted to the cabinet. This resulted in:
recognition by the government of civil society input into the budget process, which now
has a more pro-poor focus;
increased allocations to social service sectors, such as education, and adoption of a free
education policy.
In Maharashtra, India, the Samarthan Center for Budget Studies fought for the rights of child and
bonded laborers in their effort to promote the right to education. The Center successfully lobbied
for the increased allocation of resources for vulnerable groups. The Center noted that child
laborers in Maharashtra were excluded from formal education services. In 1997, they organized a
delegation of children to approach the government to request money for mobile schools but were
told that no funds were available. This prompted the Center to check the budget and find out why
the state could not afford to educate its poorest children. They analyzed the budget and found
that the funds earmarked for the children had gone to infrastructure projects and the employment
of 261 policemen to protect a prominent politician (despite the fact that there is only one
policeman per 9,500 people). The budget for education had consistently declined since 1994,
leading to an increase in child labor. The findings were published in a simple, reader-friendly
format. Protests were organized outside the ministers offices and the budget studies were
presented to the legislative council and municipal authorities. A task force looked into the
budget allocation for the education of marginalized children and 1,500 bonded laborers were
released.
2.3.2 Expenditure Tracking in Education
For good education outcomes, it is important to ensure that the management and disbursement of
public funds and goods are transparent and in line with norms. Citizen-based monitoring

16
mechanisms track how government spends public resources. Tools such as public expenditure
tracking, input tracking, and textbook and teacher absenteeism tracking are important
instruments that can be used to ensure social accountability.

One of the most widely cited examples of public expenditure tracking in the education sector is
the Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) in Uganda. A PETS carried out in 1995 showed
that, on average, less than 30 percent of allocated capitation grants reached the schools. The
government reacted immediately to make allocations more transparent by using newspapers and
radio to describe how financial resources were transferred to districts. It required schools to
display monthly transfers of funds on notice boards. The 1997 Local Government Act contained
provisions for accountability and information dissemination. The government also required
districts to deposit all grants to schools in their own accounts, and delegated authority for
procurement from the center to the schools. By 1999, schools had received more than 90% of
their capitation grants.
19

Similarly, the expenditure tracking work of the Uganda Debt Network helped curb corruption in
the intergovernmental fiscal relations system and generated new information on expenditures in
education. PETS have been done in many other countries such as Tanzania, Ghana, Rwanda,
Mozambique, Zambia, Papua New Guinea, Honduras and Peru, however, often with much less
positive results compared to Uganda.
20
The scope and nature of the surveys have differed but
they all track the flow of resources, either financial or in-kind, from the central to the local level.
This tracking has discovered delays and unpredictability in agreements between the state and the
service providers, such as delays in teacher salaries, discretionary reallocation of resources
leading to favoritism, leakages of financial and material resources (such as textbooks and school
building materials), and teacher absenteeism, resulting in relatively low quality of services
compared to the cost. Among the lessons learned are:

Leakages are sometimes difficult to detect due to unclear entitlements and lack of
publicly available information on budget allocations and disbursement/delivery
schedules.
Budgets can still provide important information on allocations that can be used by the
public to reveal corruption and hold the government and service providers accountable
for their actions.

The Tanzania Education Network (TEN/MET), in collaboration with Oxfam, developed A
Simple Guide to Working with Finances and Education.
21
TEN/MET used the booklet to train
groups on monitoring how budgets are spent. TEN/MET members carried out a study in 14
districts focusing on money allocated for the development of school committees and in-service
training. They found that the funds allocated are inadequate and those that are received are not
always used efficiently. These results were disseminated but no action has yet been taken.

19
Swarnim Wagle and Parmesh Shah. 2002. Participation in Public Expenditure Tracking. Washington, DC: World
Bank.
20
See http://www.publicspending.org , http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/pe/trackingsurveys.htm and
http://www.worldbank.org/participation/sdn/snd74.pdf (link to SDV Note No. 74, March 2003
21
See http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/evaluation/downloads/impact_report_2004

17
In the Philippines, complaints of textbook shortages led the National Citizens Movement for Free
Elections (NAMFREL)
22
to count the number of textbooks delivered to each school. It
discovered that five students had to share one textbook compared to the prescribed norm of one
textbook per student. The textbook tracking process consisted of observing bidding and
negotiations between the supplier and the Ministry of Education, monitoring delivery, and a
post-evaluation workshop. They found about 10,000 faulty textbooks, incorrect numbers of
textbooks delivered, deadlines not met, and the delivered textbooks did not fulfill the
requirements of the curriculum. The results of the monitoring exercise included:

Overpricing decreased significantly and the average price per book fell by more than half.
For the first time, all 37 million textbooks were procured within the allocated 12 months,
instead of the usual 24 months.
The textbook monitoring exercise was institutionalized within the Ministry of Education.
The Ministry of Educations ranking in a corruption survey went from one of the five
most corrupt to one of the five least corrupt government agencies in the Philippines.

Transparency International Bangladesh (TI) undertook a similar exercise.
23
TI responded to a
textbook crisis and found that by the beginning of the school year 25 million students did not
have textbooks for their secondary classes. Follow-up to date is lacking.

A multi-country study in Bangladesh, Ecuador, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Peru and Uganda
documented the extent and patterns of teachers absenteeism and the impact on student
performance.
24
In Bangladesh, this information was published by the media and led to the
attention of the state but still awaits action. This clearly points to critical conditions for success
of social accountability initiatives:
(i) The need for a critical mass of engagement by individuals and organizations using
information to build and sustain public pressure, and,
(ii) The relevance of building partnerships and alliances, e.g. with parliamentary committees,
reformers in public service or other stakeholders.

Even where information is widely disseminated, as in the case of Bangladesh, this may not lead
to corrective actions and the desired changes by public officials.
2.4 Operational Level
2.4.1 Management of Education Services and Outcomes
Parent and childrens direct involvement in school management and demand-side institutions can
help improve school performance and educational quality. This was the case in Malawi where
the Malawi Education Support Activity (MESA) and the Girls Attainment in Basic Literacy and
Education (GABLE) have worked extensively on mobilizing communities for improving Parent

22
See www.tan.org.ph
23
For details, see www.ti-bangladesh.org
24
For details, see
http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/0,,contentMDK:20360798~pagePK:64165401~piP
K:64165026~theSitePK:469372,00.html

18
Teacher Committees (PTC).
25
As a result of GABLE, 98 percent of the schools in the program
have functioning PTCs. The schools are committed to improving education quality and gender
equity of the services provided. The PTCs are supposed to monitor, promote, and protect sexual
and reproductive health rights and report violations.

Other examples of how direct involvement of parents in school management has succeeded come
from Nicaragua and El Salvador. Nicaragua created autonomous public schools guided by a
school directive council comprising the school head, elected teachers, parents and students. The
school generates revenues and the council makes decisions about personnel, finance, and
pedagogy. Self-reported autonomy of these schools was greater than for traditional public
schools (very little), but less than for private schools (almost complete). Autonomy was
positively correlated with student performance on test scores at the primary level.
26
Other
positive examples of community managed schools are reported in El Salvador where test scores
improved and student dropout rates declined. User participation and monitoring of education
service delivery by end-beneficiaries in Kenya and in El Salvador showed that access to reliable
and timely information are important factors for success and strengthened the demand side of
education and learning outcomes.
27

The Association of Private Proprietors of Schools (APPS) in Nigeria is a membership
organization of approved private schools established in 1977.
28
Parents are organized through
parent teacher associations and school boards, which allows them to monitor school operations.
Also, as exam results are published for schools, parents can compare performance of schools.
This can have an important influence on decisions affecting school quality such as the hiring or
firing of teachers. Given that these parents are higher socio-economic status and have a choice of
schools to send their children (and, in some cases, pay relatively high fees), proprietors listen to
them. The APPS reviews policy and legislation on regulation of education and registration of
students and schools. It is involved in self-regulation of private schools and monitoring
government standards. For example, APPS has lobbied the government on multiple taxation
(where schools are expected to pay charges to the Environmental Agency, Ministry of Health,
Fire Brigade, and Water Corporation, as well as the Ministry of Education) and on renewal fees
(with particular concern about higher charges for higher-fee schools). In 2001, APPS took the
government to court over renewal fees, but was asked to withdraw the case. Renewal fees are
still charged.
2.4.2 Independent Performance Monitoring, Social Audits and Public Oversight
Improving the demand side of education services by strengthening public oversight provides
another social accountability entry point. Services can be improved using mechanisms such as
public hearings and oversight, participatory monitoring and evaluation activities, and social
audits to monitor the construction of infrastructure or school finances.
29

25
See http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/cross-cutting_programs/wid/pubs/ss_malawi.pdf
26
World Bank, 2003, p. 121.
27
World Bank, 2003, p. 131.
28
See http://www.idd.bham.ac.uk/research/Projects/service-providers/NSP%20Nigeria%20Report.pdf
29
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001292/129290e.pdf#xml=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-
bin/ulis.pl?database=ged&set=42B56D99_2_82&hits_rec=7&hits_lng=eng

19
Monitoring access to, and quality of, education in schools is a central concern for most education
systems. While there are a number of conventional accountability mechanisms, citizens have
begun to address inadequacies in education by attempting to monitor agreed standards and norms
at the national, sub-national or local level. Some of these mechanisms help set standards such as
citizens charters and codes of conduct. Others produce immediate results, such as improvements
in attitudes or practices of service providers or changing institutional incentives after the use of
client feedback mechanisms, such as citizen report cards and community scorecards.

Internal accountability systems have proven insufficient for achieving effective education
coverage and improved education outputs and outcomes. Proper incentive systems have proven
to be very important, especially where the education sector is characterized by a lack of
competition among providers (monopoly power by state authority). To curb malpractices,
various countries have developed professional codes of conduct with the objective of enhancing
the commitment, dedication and efficiency of services among members of the profession. These
professional associations have formulated a set of recognized ethical standards to which all
members of the profession must adhere. These codes of conduct ensure that the users of services
have confidence in the profession by emphasizing the social responsibility of the profession
towards the users. A comparative study undertaken by the International Institute of Education
Planning in Bangladesh, India and Nepal reveals that all actors in the education sector perceive
codes of conduct as a useful instrument for improving services. The study suggests that the codes
of conduct have a positive and significant impact on improving the commitment, professional
behavior and performance of teachers and staff, and contribute to the reduction of teacher
absenteeism.
30

One way for citizens, government and service providers to agree on standards of service is by
jointly creating a citizens charter. These charters may include a code of conduct and a list of
rights and obligations for service users (parents and students), school staff (teachers and other
employees at the school), and the government (from the national to the local level). One example
was in Mauritius where Transparency International (TI) helped design a citizens charter to fight
corruption including in the education sector. By first agreeing on standardssuch as what
behavior to expect, accept and toleratethe charter established the ground rules for identifying
corrupt behavior.

In Malawi, a new code of conduct is being drafted, but the revision process, institutional
responsibility and completion date remain unclear.
31
Stakeholders involved in the process
include the Ministry of Education, the Teaching Service Commission, CARE Malawi, the
Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM), and Civil Society for Quality Basic Education. CARE
Malawis role is to ensure that stakeholders are consulted. TUM is responsible for holding
teacher consultations on revising the code of conduct and has produced a draft that fails to
include procedures for reporting violations. The challenge will be implementing the policy at the
district, school and community levels once the new code of conduct is approved by Parliament.

Another example from Malawi is the work by the Creative Center for Community Mobilization
(CRECCOM) targeting the interface between education providers and users. CRECCOM

30
Hallak and Poisson (2005)
31
For details, see http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/cross-cutting_programs/wid/pubs/ss_malawi.pdf

20
provides training to school committees which in turn work with parents to ensure that sexual
abuse in schools is reported. CRECCOM has used theater for reflecting back to the community
the sensitive issues of what constitutes abuse, the types of abuse occurring in their community,
and the impact that sex abuse has on the lives of children. Outcomes have been positive so far,
but there are constraints as well. The Ministry of Education (MOE) appears to lack the
institutional capacity to enforce the existing code of conduct and the political will to take action.
When a violation occurs, the process of interdiction is lengthy and often ineffective. Violations
are referred to the central level for investigation. Lack of coordination and institutional linkages
between the schools, the District Education Office, and the central MOE create limited
accountability, and reported violations often never reach the central MOE.

Citizen report cards have been used to make public agencies listen and respond to citizen
concerns. Beyond anecdotal evidence on public agency performance, quantification of
perceptions produces credible indicators that measure the extent of dissatisfaction and allows
inter-agency or longitudinal comparisons that can trigger internal reforms. Media coverage of
report card findings has significantly increased public awareness of the quality of education.

In Bangalore, India, citizen report cards were used to assess performance of nine agencies
including the education sector.
32
A study showed that:

A third of the households surveyed had children in school.
About 40 percent noted some improvement in education services over the last year.
About 30 percent noted an improvement in school infrastructure.
Citizen satisfaction increased significantly over a four year period.
About 50 percent felt that school facilities such as blackboards, benches, textbooks,
and drinking water had not changed.

The Filipino Citizen Report Card collected, analyzed and disseminated data on school enrollment
rates, drop-out rates, perceived quality of education, tuition fees, class size, textbook availability,
and parent-teacher associations.
33
The pilot model of the report card has been revised and is
currently being institutionalized with a focus on three key areas: outputs, processes and citizen
feedback. The government has expressed strong interest in using these methods on a regular
basis to obtain user feedback on education.

In Uganda, citizen report cards have been used in Kampala for seven major public service
delivery areas including education. Issues covered included access (number of children in school,
distance to nearest school, school fees), reliability (staff absenteeism), and user satisfaction with
services (if children are making progress). The report card was launched by the mayor of
Kampala and has attracted significant media coverage and attention by the government.

Report cards have been used by the Solomon Islands Development Trust due to peoples
perception that the quality of services, including education, was declining.
34
Citizen report cards
were applied during a three week period. The report cards showed that public satisfaction had

32
See http://www.worldbank.org/participation/web/webfiles/reportcard.htm
33
See http://www.worldbank.org/participation/web/webfiles/philipreport.htm
34
See www.fspi.org.fj/affiliates/solomon.htlm

21
dropped by 20 percent which was mainly attributed to the unrest taking place during the last five
years. The report cards showed the worst results in fifteen years. The government was informed
of this decline but no action has yet been taken.

A recent World Bank-supported initiative in Eastern Europe used a report card system to
strengthen citizen-government relationships. In Ukraine, this approach paid off and the
government has begun to see the benefits of citizen participation. The Peoples Voice Project
aims to strengthen the capacity of citizens and local government officials. They interact via
service delivery surveys, policy development training for public officials, public hearings, and
media participation. A 2002 final evaluation of the initial four city pilots found that continuing
active relationships between NGO coalition members, initiative working groups and municipal
officials had improved. Municipal officials seek citizen feedback and input through public
hearings and consultations, and plan on further surveys. An increase in the transparency of local
government decision-making is evidenced by public budget hearings in education.

In the US, many states are producing accountability reports, a version of citizen report cards, to
inform the public about how schools perform. The ratings lists inform both the public and
education agencies about the requirements of different states as well as their performance.
35

A second tool used widely in education for monitoring service is community scorecards. These
have been used in several countries and several examples illustrate their potential.

In Gambia, community scorecards were used in monitoring the poverty reduction strategy.
Approximately 3,500 teachers, pupils and community members participated in the process. The
score cards measured availability of teachers, school furniture, learning materials and access to
water and sanitation facilities. Teachers received more than 70 percent approval ratings in all
regions, school facilities received 40 percent approval ratings, and water and sanitation facilities
were non-existent. The process created awareness of the situation in schools as perceived by
providers and users. This promoted better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of
education service providers such as teachers and administrators. Meetings between parents,
teachers, and school administrators resulted in action plans which are currently being
implemented and will be monitored by all parties.

In Armenia, community scorecards were implemented as a tool to strengthen participatory
approaches and social accountability mechanisms in the education sector. Students, parents,
teachers and school board evaluated the performance of their school. During the subsequent
interface meeting, the results of the different groups are presented and discussed. This increased
awareness of perceptions about school performance, mobilized parents, students and teachers to
develop action plans and to recognize the need for improved feedback mechanisms in their
schools. It also changed the working style of teachers and reduced absenteeism of students.

In Zimbabwe, the Center for Total Transformation used baseline surveys and community
scorecards to monitor education services. The center conducted focus group discussions and
structured interviews with school heads. The impact was reduced corruption within the rural
schools of Mazowe District. This resulted in improved education and service delivery. School

35
See www.worldbank.org/education/globaleducationreform

22
authorities are now aware that all members of the community are monitoring their performance.
Through this initiative, a greater sense of ownership has developed and created a true partnership
between the schools, their management, parents and the community at large. The center
organizes a Best Managed School Competition where the winner, including school
management and staff, are publicly honored and the school receives a prize.
36

Table 2 aligns the five social accountability entry points discussed in this section with the role
and functions promoted by the education sector, and the information building blocks, at the
policy, strategy, and operational levels.

Table 2: Social Accountability Entry Points in the Education Sector

Level

Principal Roles and Functions
Information
Building Blocks
and Mechanisms
Social
Accountability
Entry Points

Policy Level

(Macro
Government
Level)

Develop overall policy framework and
strategic plans for the education sector.

Propose, set and review existing policy
goals and strategies.

Review equity impacts of the education
sector policy and strategy.
Information on
public needs and
preferences

Information on the
sector profile,
policies and
activities
Education policy
and planning
Assess the revenues and resources for
investment in the education sector.

Prepare education sector plan and budget at
the national and sub-national level.

Identify implementation systems and
priorities, targets and standards.
Information on the
resource envelope
for education
compared to
planned activities
and priorities
Education budget
formulation and
review

Strategy
Level

(Education
System or
Ministry
Level)
Allocate resources for education according
to agreed plans and programs.
Information on
resources disbursed
compared to
resources allocated
Education
expenditure
tracking
Implementation of education sector
strategic plans
Information on
quality and access
to education
services
Management of
education service
delivery, outputs
and outcomes

Operational
Level

(User or
Community
Level)
Monitoring and evaluation of
education budget and quality of education
service delivery
Information on
accessibility,
relevance, timing,
quality, and equity
of education
service delivery
Education
performance audit
and oversight

36
Mumvuma (2004)

23
3. CRITICAL FACTORS AND ENABLING CONDITIONS

Social accountability initiatives that improve education service delivery rely on a broad range of
political, institutional, cultural and historical pre-conditions such as:

political space for citizens or civil society organizations to freely associate and advocate
their position
institutional arrangements and incentives that favor public debates of policy directions,
reform initiatives, budgets and performance in the education sector
cultural norms that permit citizens to publicly criticize authorities or service providers
about perceived irregularities and shortcomings, e.g. teachers conduct or absenteeism,
secretive management of school funds, and low quality construction work
Information is accessible to services users regarding their entitlements, national standards
in the education sector, and the budget and other resources in their school.

Changing accountability relationships to improve educational outcomes is not easy, and does not
occur through applying simple technical tools or formulas. The following four elements have
proven critical to the success of social accountability initiatives, in general and in the education
sector.

The introduction or strengthening of citizen-state bridging mechanisms, i.e. mechanisms
for information exchange, dialogue and negotiation between citizens and the state. This
can involve the introduction of new tools for citizen-state interaction or the reform of
existing mechanisms. Many examples for these bridging mechanisms have already been
described in the preceding sections of this chapter.

The willingness and ability of citizen and civil society actors to actively seek government
accountability. Capacity development for CSOs is often required, both in technical areas
and in mobilization, coalition-building, negotiation and advocacy.

The willingness and ability of service providers and policy makers to account to the
public. Transparency and information disclosure, attitudes, skills and practices favoring
listening and constructive engagement with citizens are key. Similarly, the use of
incentives, rewards and sanctions to promote transparent and responsive behavior is
critical.

The broader enabling environment. This includes: (i) the policy, legal and regulatory
environment for civic engagement; (ii) the type of political system, how much political
freedom is granted, and a tradition of open pluralistic debate; (iii) the economic basis and
financial viability of different forms of civic engagements; and (iv) the values, norms and
social institutions present in a particular society that support or inhibit open and
pluralistic debate and critical but constructive engagement.

The following section elaborates a number of critical factors for social accountability approaches
in the education sector. First, a number of critical factors and supporting activities on the supply
side of service delivery will be discussed (what can be done from within the health sector). Then,
potential constraints and actions to overcome these related to the demand side will be outlined.
Social Accountability Sourcebook 24
3.1 Supply Side Factors
3.1.1 Transparency and Access to Information
A crucial pre-condition for any social accountability initiative is the availability of, and free
access to, relevant information on:

budget allocations at various levels, e.g. schools, specific investment and procurement
items, and intra- and inter-sectoral allocations
revenues, expenditures (including major investment and procurement items), and school
audits
human and physical resources at individual facilities
general service standards (e.g. the student/teacher ratio, student/textbook ratio,
expenditures per student), user entitlements (e.g. free admission to schools, free books)
and codes of conduct
critical performance indicators, e.g. education attainment rates or dropout rates of girls
and boys, at the individual school level, compared with regional and national averages.

Easy access to this information will allow parents, students, teachers, professional associations
and civil society organizations to constructively engage in educational service provision. They
can exercise their right to ask questions, engage in independent monitoring, conduct social audits
and other forms of public oversight, have more meaningful co-management arrangements and
disseminate technical information to the general public.

Publishing information on educational expenditures and resource levels disaggregated by district
and school significantly improves the parameters for transparency and accountability at the
various levels. The Ethiopia Protection of Basic Services project supports the government in
increasing financial transparency in the education and health sectors. Budget processes and
formats will be made public and de-mystified to make them understandable to citizens. Budget
literacy of local officials, citizens and their organizations will be strengthened. Budget and
expenditure information using simplified formats will be widely disseminated at the district
level. Schools and health centers will post information on notice boards about available and
expected resources (finances, staffing, equipment, goods provided), service standards and key
performance indicators. In particular, parent teacher associations are expected to make use of this
information in their school co-management functions which will actively be supported by a
different component of the project.

Another way for government to become more transparent is to make management structures,
roles and responsibilities clearly known and widely publicized. Such information provides an
important means of strengthening the political voice of the poor and improving their access to
educational resources.
37
Capacity building efforts should involve information on citizens rights
and entitlements. Citizens can demand better services only if they know their rights.

Individuals or organizations often have to fight and demand access to public information, even if
by law this information should be accessible. Usually, such demand is driven by a pressing
social need of some kind. For example, Article 58 of the Thai Constitution underlines the

37
See http://www.unesco.org/education/gmr_download/chapter6.pdf
publics fundamental right to know. The Official Information Act is wide-ranging and backed up
by an Independent Supervisory Committee, the Official Information Commission (OIC), and an
Independent Information Disclosure Tribunal. Both bodies have successfully stood up to
government agencies and private-sector interests in a number of high-profile cases in an attempt
to enforce rightful disclosure of information.

The most famous case involved the successful appeal of a mother, Sumalee Limpaovart, who
challenged the decision of Kasetsart School, one of Thailands elite colleges, to deny admission
to her daughter. After a two and a half year struggle, backed by the OIC and the Information
Disclosure Tribunal, Sumalees claim was upheld by the Supreme Court. The school was forced
to disclose its records, admitting that they had accepted students with the same exam results as
Sumalees daughter, because they had rich and well-connected parents. The case attracted
widespread attention and resulted in the government reaffirming their commitment to the
disclosure of information and passing legislation to enhance the transparency of educational
admissions and examination results. As a result of such cases, public awareness of their right to
know is extremely high. More than 500,000 people submitted requests for information between
1997 and 2000. The Official Information Act is seen as a vital component of the countrys
commitment to participatory democracy.
3.1.2 Decentralization
Many governments have established open and transparent systems for policy formulation and
implementation in the education sector (cf. the Foro Educativo initiative in Peru). In many
countries, the on-going decentralization process, which usually includes the education sector,
may open new avenues for even stronger social accountability processes. If funds are directly
channeled to and managed at the level of individual schools, that increases the likelihood for
them to be spent according to local preferences and for accountability to local constituencies. But
this cannot be assumed. Often, the opposite is true. For example, a budget tracking exercise in
Benin revealed that, while HIPC resources for the education sector were properly transferred to
school bank accounts, financial management at the school level frequently lacked transparency
and accountability.
38
As a rule, devolution of resources without strict rules and systems, as well
as the strengthening of local level capacities (of local officials, citizens and community based
organizations), will probably not result in improved transparency and accountability.

Decentralization to the sub-national level, such as a district, can be particularly problematic.
Compared to decentralization to the municipality or facility level, district counselors are further
away from the end-users of education services and therefore often feel less accountable. Forms
of organization that would allow villagers to collaborate and address accountability issues at the
district level are frequently weak or non-existent. At the same time, counselors are more likely to
be protected by patronage from the center. District level officers are therefore more likely to
commit offenses with impunity.
3.1.3 Institutional Reform
Through institutional reforms, government can influence the incentive structure in the education
sector towards increased responsiveness and accountability. An essential element of many
education sector reforms is to provide sufficient numbers of well trained teachers to every

38
See Floquet and Mongbo (2006).
school. Besides this target, however, it is important to develop a performance based reward
system where variable salary elements can influence staff behavior in the desired direction. This
often requires the development and setting of performance standards and codes of conduct which
help to benchmark facilities and individual behavior. When developing standards and codes of
conduct, collaboration with professional associations has often been very useful. Involving them
in these processes often helps:

build ownership and utilize the expertise of the teaching profession;
simplify the code of conduct for teachers and make it more relevant;
ensure broad dissemination of the code of conduct;
strengthen independent mechanisms for dealing with complaints;
integrate issues related to teachers professional conduct into training courses.
3.2 Demand Side Factors
3.2.1 Effective Use of Information
Social accountability initiatives are often portrayed as evidence-based advocacy. Effective use of
information is needed to build a solid base of evidence to make claims. Frequently this includes
accessing and analyzing existing supply side information (e.g. budget/expenditure information,
performance/ outcome information etc.), as well as the collection and analysis of demand side
information.

Citizen and civil society organizations frequently lack the technical knowledge and skills to read
aggregated budgets or perform particular data collection and analysis. Social accountability
initiatives therefore often entail capacity building activities in these areas. Civil society
organizations, however, sometimes also seek the assistance of knowledgeable research
organizations or think tanks for technical tasks. In the context of the first Filipino Citizen Report
Card, the technical data collection and analysis work was entrusted to a well-established social
research organization (the Social Weather Station), whereas the follow-on advocacy steps were
performed by a coalition of NGOs and CSOs with the support of the World Bank. Similarly, the
Public Affairs Center in India, the creator of the citizen report card, outsources data collection
and analysis to a private sector market research organization.

Creating a solid base of evidence is a challenge. An even greater challenge for social
accountability initiatives is for information to gain influence, be it in education policy debates,
large scale procurement, the management of individual schools, or budget, expenditure or human
resource management decisions. Public dissemination and debate are required, often with the
help of the media. Advocacy campaigns, coalition building with other actors, and direct
negotiations with policy makers and providers and are needed. For example, IDASA, a well-
established South African think tank and advocacy organization, provided a briefing service for
parliamentarians and used frequent contact with the Finance Committee to increase the influence
of its gender and childrens budget analysis work.

Social accountability initiatives at the local level, in primary and secondary schools, face less of
a challenge to achieve concrete, tangible improvements. Numerous community scorecards in
countries as diverse as Armenia, Benin, and Gambia have solved problems at the local level and
intensified collaboration between groups. However, a persistent challenge remains in how to
channel information related to problems of overall sector management, strategy or policy to
higher levels. A related problem is the difficulty of aggregating qualitative evaluation results to
present a representative picture to policy makers
3.2.2 Client Voice
The scaling-up challenge of the community scorecard approach is symptomatic for supporting
the articulation and aggregation of client voice. Often it is already a challenge to enable citizens
and service users, particularly from marginalized groups, to articulate their preferences and
feedback. A second, related challenge is how to aggregate the voices of different social groups.
Participatory learning and action approaches may be particularly helpful to establish inclusive or
group-specific analyses and recommendations, e.g. revealing the differential constraints facing
children of farming (settled) and livestock (nomadic) communities (or boys and girls in the same
community) when it comes to school attendance. The third challenge is how to make their voice
heard by decision or policy makers in distant district or national capitals.

Besides relatively expensive participatory policy research programs, e.g. the Ugandan
Participatory Poverty Assessments, client voice can be captured and analyzed via quantitative
and statistically representative approaches (e.g. citizen report card, quality of service delivery
survey) with public dissemination, debate and direct forms of negotiation with service providers
and policy makers to achieve policy influence.

Another way of expressing (and aggregating) voice is through organizations such as parent
teacher associations, federations, and professional organizations. Together with institutionalized
forums for public dialogue, debate and negotiatione.g. the Foro Educativo in Peru or education
sector multi-stakeholder working groups in a number of PRSP processesuser associations and
their federations can become a powerful voice for their constituencies. User associations,
however, frequently need considerable institutional and capacity development for advocacy.
3.2.3 School Autonomy and Client Power
A successful way to strengthen client power in educational service delivery is arrangements
which go beyond simple co-management and public oversight mechanisms. This could be
observed in a number of cases when resources and decision making authority related to schools
is handed over to communities. El Salvadors Community Managed Schools Program (EDUCO)
gives communities significant authority over schools, including their finance and staffing. An
early evaluation found that enhanced community and parental involvement improved students
language skills and diminished absenteeism that could have long-term effects on achievement. In
Benin, community teachers who complement the regular teaching staff are hired by the school
boards. This is partly financed from HIPC resources disbursed to each school establishing direct
accountability between the PTA, schools and teachers.

In Israel, greater school autonomy has had a positive impact on teachers motivation and sense of
commitment and on schools achievement orientation. However, only 4 percent of the variance
in the effectiveness schools could be explained by school-based management. Autonomous
schools in Nicaragua and community schools in Ethiopia, most of which serve deprived areas,
have produced results as good as other schools. This positive finding is related to their relative
autonomy in staff selection and staff monitoring.

The results of the OECDs Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) suggests that in
those countries in which principals report a higher degree of school autonomy with regard to
choice of courses, the average performance in reading literacy tends to be significantly higher.
The picture is similar, though less pronounced, for other aspects of school autonomy, including
the relationship between mean performance and the degree of school autonomy in budget
allocation. The OECD warns, however, against a cause-effect interpretation, because school
autonomy and performance could well be mutually reinforcing or influenced by other factors.

Those who work with schools need help in finding their own solutions to improving quality.
Schools can be given greater freedom provided that accountability frameworks are well defined.
Head teacher and principal leadership can significantly influence the quality of schools.
Community leaders and others providing support to schools at the local and district levels can
also help provide leadership and direction. Generally, accountability at the school level needs to
be mirrored by greater central accountability.

4. CHECKLIST: SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR

Supporting the emergence and practice of social accountability in the education sector can follow
the process outlined below.

Collect performance and system information such as ease of access, quality of education,
available funds and utilization patterns. This information gathering should include an
analysis of the actors (stakeholder analysis is useful) and describe, if relevant, the
existing form of decentralization.

Assess the accountability challenges in the education sector. This should include an
assessment of the effectiveness of existing forms of accountability within the system, the
reason for the strengths and weaknesses among formal accountability mechanisms, and
the identification of areas for improvement.

Assess existing social accountability initiatives and their experience. Map existing social
accountability initiatives. Analyze a sufficient cross-section of promising experiences.
Contact relevant stakeholders and discuss with them the particular challenges and
constraints as well as plans and resources to support future social accountability
initiatives. Try to understand how current initiatives have developed strategic influence,
and which public debate, negotiation, sanction and enforcement mechanisms were
successful. This will be critical in finding an optimum social accountability strategy.

Prioritize challenges and determine appropriate entry points. Appropriate entry points
can directly relate to bridging mechanisms between the user, education policy makers and
service providers. Equally, they can refer to the strengthening of demand or supply side
capacity to engage in social accountability. Or they can support improved access to
information and the broader enabling environment for social accountability. Entry points
can be found in the policy, strategy, budgeting, operational planning or implementation
cycle, at both the national and the school levels

Design a social accountability strategy. Carefully consider existing and required
capacities within the education sector, citizens and civil society organizations. The
strategy often involves a significant capacity building component. Consider a viable
implementation arrangement that helps to raise interest, respect and collaboration
between actors within the education sector and citizens, clients and CSOs. Consider
sufficient steps to increase the policy influence of social accountability initiatives.

Implement the strategy. Who will take the lead on implementing the strategy? How well
are the champions or lead agency anchored in their constituencies? Are there enough
human and financial resources and capacity to implement it? How can quick gains and
demonstration effects be achieved? How can risks be managed, particularly early
failures, confrontation, and frustration?

Build public understanding and support for these mechanisms. It is important to ensure
buy-in from many stakeholders. The more buy-in, the greater the chance of success.
Communication strategies should be in place, and planned and tested in advance. It is
important to ensure policy alignment so that messages regarding educational priorities
and goals are communicated in a consistent and timely manner and in a language
understood by all stakeholders.

Monitor and enforce actions. Taking action can often be more easily done from within
the education system. Benchmarking is useful to ensure that the change process is on
track. Civil society organizations, community based organizations and other citizen
groups can take necessary actions that can help to foster change within the system.
5. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
5.1 Case Studies
5.1.1 Kibera Community Schools Enabling Voice for Social Accountability
The Kibera Slum Education Program is supported by Oxfam. Kibera (a suburb of Nairobi,
Kenya) is the largest informal settlement (slum) in sub-Saharan Africa.
39
Although there are city
council schools in formal residential areas nearby, Kibera children cannot afford them because
prior to the introduction of the free primary school education policy by the National Rainbow
Coalition (NARC) government in January 2003, schools were allowed to charge indirect fees
such as contributions to the building fund. Since January 2003, there is stiffer vetting of such
charges to ensure that they do not become a disguised system of school fees which would
exclude poor children from primary school education.

For several years, Kibera slum residents have relied on non-formal schools built through the
communitys own efforts. Their schools are considered informal and are not recognized by the
government because they do not conform to the Ministry of Education guidelines on physical
infrastructure, for example the requirement that schools must be constructed on a minimum of
five acres of land, which slum communities cannot afford. Because the Ministry does not
recognize the schools, it does not post teachers to these schools or pay their salaries. The
communities must raise their own funds to staff and equip the schools.

The residents campaigned for formal recognition of their schools by arguing successfully for
abolition of the distinction between formal and informal schools on the basis that such a
distinction stigmatizes the children in schools described as informal. Instead, the government
should recognize and complement the initiative taken by poor communities. They also argued for
an end to the indirect charges that keep poor children out of primary schools that are in theory
free. This second issue has been rendered less significant by the NARC governments policy of
free universal primary education which has restricted and regulated school boards power to levy
charges such as building funds. This has opened up poor childrens access to schools previously
unavailable to them. With the support of Oxfam, Kibera residents mobilized community support
to prepare a detailed petition to the Ministry of Education which was supported by high profile
events such as marches and discussion forums with education officials.
5.1.2 Madhya Pradesh: Education Guarantee Scheme
Madhya Pradeshs Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) has dramatically improved access to
primary education, especially for children from very poor households and in scattered
settlements.
40
The program is rooted in strengthening the demand for participation in education
service delivery, inter alia, through a fast track approach to basic education by linking it with
local self-government institutions.

39
See, http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/evaluation/downloads/impact_report_2004.pdf
40
For more details, see
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/reducingpoverty/docs/FullCases/India%20PDF/India%20Educ%20guarantee%2
0scheme.pdf

The EGS was initially designed to address the issue of access. After a tentative start, between
July 1997 and July 2000, an impressive 26,751 EGS Schools were created (42 per cent of them
in Tribal areas) catering to 1.23 million children, of which 47 percent were girls, 44 percent were
Tribals, and 91 percent were from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other socially
disadvantaged communities. As of June 2003, the program had appointed 31,815 teachers
identified by the community and trained by the government education department.

The structure of EGS is indigenously designed with the government pledging its own resources
not linked to the availability of grants from the Government of India or foreign donor agencies.
In an environment where frequent turnover of officials is often cited as a reason why programs
fail to be sustainable, the Government of Madhya Pradesh ensured the continuation of a
motivated team of officials for a decade starting in 1993-94. The universal primary education
program was completed through an adult literacy program initiated in 1999. A series of
institutional reforms were initiated, culminating in the Madhya Pradesh Peoples Education Act
(2001) and the Statutory Framework for Quality in 2002.

Social Accountability Tools
A 1996 door-to-door survey was undertaken jointly by panchayat leadership, teachers and
literacy activists to identify children not going to school, followed by an enrolment drive. This
led to the development of decentralized panchayat-level plans for primary education. The
underlying factors of non-enrolment in schools were unavailability of facilities, economic
requirements, and school related factors. The EGS created institutional structures and statutory
mechanisms for inclusion of the poor rural children without access to primary schools within one
kilometer. This provided a forum for the articulation of the demand for education through the
panchayat. It led to public commitment by the government to establish EGS primary schools and
mechanisms for continued participation of the community and the panchayats in management
and supervision. Open discussions in the panchayat and the official system not only created a
climate for change, but gave the people a mechanism to demand schools for their children.

Another innovation was the governments provision of a unilateral legal guarantee pledging to
meet its obligation of providing an EGS School within 90 days and training and academic
support to the teachers identified by the community. Necessary statutory institutions and
mechanisms were established to enable the government to respond and empower the panchayats
to make decisions and demands on the administration. The forging of mutually supportive links
between the state government, local self-government institutions and civil society was a
watershed, ensuring convergence and synergy between the administrative, financial, and
academic arms of education. Making the system responsive and accountable to the gram sabha
effectively reversed the accountability pyramid. EGS schools today are owned and accountable
to the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and the Village Education Committee, who are elected
by the gram sabha. Subsidies allocated by the government for the EGS program are managed by
the panchayat and allocations and expenditures are supervised by the PTAs of each school. The
government, the panchayat and the school form three corners of the management pyramid. Other
institutional reforms strengthen decentralized management and quality monitoring.

Results
A notable success of the EGS has been a sharp reduction in the numbers of out-of-school
children from 1.3 million boys and 1.6 million girls in 1996 to 346,000 boys and 428,000 girls in
2002-03. This was coupled with an increase in the female literacy rate by 21 per cent over the
decade. Aggregate enrollment rates ratios have also increased across the spectrum and exhibit
no discrimination between social groups.

The key message that emerges from the EGS experience is that structural reform in a single
sector cannot be sustained unless accompanied by reforms in governance. The government
acknowledged that EGS as a bottom-up and panchayat-centered innovation cannot be
institutionalized unless there is decentralization and devolution of power. Empowering local
self-government institutions (panchayats) through effective decentralization of development
planning and resource allocation were identified as logical next steps. Notwithstanding the sense
of ownership among local stakeholders and the momentum of the program, the EGS program
needs more time to become institutionalized and an integral part of the administrative culture of
the state.
5.1.3 Peru: Foro Educativo
Peru has undergone a tumultuous socio-political history during the 1980s and 1990s including
the rise of authoritarian rule, disjuncture between the public and private spheres, democratization
and a transition to decentralization. Essential state run public services in health and education
were outsourced to increase greater accountability and transparency. Emphasis has been placed
on the demand side of accountability the strengthening of pathways through which citizens can
be directly involved in governance and demand greater accountability.

Foro Educativo was formed in 1992 as a space for debate and reflection about national problems
in education. The forum is composed of a diverse array of people including school managers,
politicians, academics, and education experts with broad experience and knowledge in the public
and private sectors. Under its new plan, Education and Human Development: Basis for a
Consensus, it focuses on seven specific areas: quality of basic education, financing, valuing the
teacher, decentralizing pedagogy and administration, evaluation and accreditation, reforming the
ministry and the National Education Council, and media. During the transition government,
many of these proposals were mainstreamed into the official rhetoric on education. For example,
the concept of a quality basic education as a right for all and the notion that inequality in
education is an expression of social inequality have been accepted as a foundation of current
public policy.

Currently, the National Education Project is the most important part of the forums advocacy
agenda. Enhancement of teacher skills and decentralization are among its greatest concerns.
The new democratic government placed Foro Educativo in a position to have increased impact at
the national level by recruiting some of its members as prominent advisors and officials of the
Ministry of Education. Conversely, this also poses the challenge of preserving the Forums
autonomy as an independent civil society organization. Similarly, the creation of the National
Council of Education, and the incorporation of Foro Educativo leaders into it, underlines the
need for the Forum to define its institutional role in clearer terms. Although its individual and
non-institutional membership provides Foro Educativo the advantage of integrating its members
into the state structure and therefore influencing the education policy from inside, the forum
faces the permanent challenge of safeguarding its independence and institutional integrity as a
civil society organization and its capacity to build partnerships with other civil society
organizations at the national and sub-national levels.

Results and Ways Forward
In the 15 regions observed by the Sistema de Vigila Peru, Regional Participatory Education
Councils have been established. Their purpose is to integrate civil society representatives into
the planning process for regional education. These councils have 6 to 49 members. At the local
level, over 55 Participatory Local Education Councils have been created in 8 of the 15 regions
monitored by Vigila Peru. The local and regional level bodies have more civil society
representatives (165) than representatives of the state (98). Still, the links between these different
levels are weak or non-existent. Decentralization remains unfinished.

Foro Educativo has not taken the initiative to establish regular links with Parent Associations or
with the recently created Institutional Education Centers. Both types of organizations constitute
mechanisms by which parents become involved in decision-making that affects schools. A
stronger organic link between Foro Educativo and these client-power mechanisms would give
the forum an opportunity to aggregate voice from the bottom up, and to develop a more solid
constituency and credibility for its advocacy work.

The presence of new participatory fora at regional and provincial levels provides new
opportunities for establishing channels for voice. If these connections are established, the
presence of the new bodies can enable the national fora to serve a more meaningful and effective
role in influencing policy at the national level. As the process of decentralization continues to
transfer responsibilities for planning and execution of education policy and programs to the
regions, the role of regional and local fora will change. The fora will become not only a primary
contact point between the state and society for communication and long term policy, but also a
body which defines programs and assumes medium term governance responsibilities. The
organization, capacities, roles, and representation of the Fora will need closer examination.

Currently, national elites play a primary role in raising voice at the national level in the sectoral
fora and act as representatives of the interests of the poor. The fora acknowledge that these
bodies do not directly represent the poor. They do not involve organizations or individuals
belonging to the poor and many of them represent the experience of service providers. This
indicates that the fora interpret and translate the needs and perspectives of the poor concerning
education and health into voice through their advocacy activities. The report makes
recommendations that fall into the following three main categories:

enhancing the structure to meet the challenges of decentralization
improving the way they interpret the needs of the poor
strengthening links with other institutions and with client power organizations.

One of the most important challenges of the education sector in Peru is the lack of quality
standards and mechanisms to monitor school performance. Foro Educativo is in a privileged
position to tackle this challenge. In agreement with the Ministry of Education and in the context
of the CNE, Foro Educativo could be instrumental to the implementation of user satisfaction
surveys, and issue an annual report card for the sector. If Foro Educativo rewarded high
performing schools in poor districts (on its own or in combination with CNE or the Ministry),
that would be an incentive linked to the report card and would add to the visibility and credibility
of the Forum.

5.1.4 South Africa: Example of Organizations Providing Oversight Measures
South Africas constitution has mandated the South African Human Rights Commission to
advance social and economic rights. In particular, section 184 (3) requires that: Each year the
Human Rights Commission must require relevant organs of the state to provide the Commission
with information on the measures that they have taken towards the realization of the rights in the
Bill of Rights concerning housing, health care, food, water, social security, education and the
environment.

The Commission has developed a set of questionnaires that are sent annually to all departments.
It requires information on what the departments have done to promulgate new legislation and
policies, what budgets have been set aside, and whether special measures have been considered
for marginalized groups such as the disabled, street children, and children infected or affected by
HIV/AIDS. This information is analyzed by the Commission and then presented to Parliament.
There is a process in which input from civil society is considered. Being a constitutional body,
the Commission has the power to subpoena officials and information from departments in the
event that information is not made available.

There is considerable debate around these measures the nature and scope of the right to
education, the adequacy of the measures taken, and the meaning of the phrase progressive
realization of rights. The Commissions report is seen as a contribution to those debates and as a
tool that can assist the government, Parliament and civil society in developing a critical
awareness of social and economic rights including the right to education. For example, the
report on education provides information on:

progress in the realization of education
challenges for the realization of education
critique of measures instituted

As an example of findings in the last report, the Department of Education succeeded in ensuring
that all targeted Early Childhood Development sites for children between the ages of five and six
were operating. However, the Department acknowledged that only 13 percent of all children
have access to the program. In the context of a substantial increase in student enrolment rates in
primary schools between 1994 and 2001, the Department focused on further increasing access to
general education and training through reviewing public school financing and the system of
school fee exemptions. The report highlights that some schools and provincial departments of
education failed to make parents aware of the school fee exemption. Some recommendations
have led to policy and legislative reform. The Commission has successfully ensured the right to
education for refugee children in South Africa.

An external body monitoring government has resulted in a less biased report on government
performance. It allows for better informed debate on what the legal obligations of the state are
with regard to education. Finally, it is hoped that the report will lead to congruence in program
design, budgeting, and implementation of the right to education.

Parliamentarians are another important player with regard to social accountability. As elected
representatives, they have the right and duty to hold the executive branch accountable. In many
democratic systems, there is a legal obligation for the executive branch of government to explain
and justify its decisions and their implementation. They have the task of making sure that the
executive branch is implementing agreed policies and spending public money raised through
taxes. Many countries have Parliamentary education committees.

5.2 Bibliography

Ahmad, J., S. Devarajan, S. Khemani, and S. Shah. 2005. Decentralization and Service Delivery
(Working Paper 3603). Washington, DC: World Bank.

Atchoarena, D. and L. Gasperini. 2003. Education for Rural Development: Towards New Policy
Responses. Rome and Paris: FAO and UNESCO.

Catholic Relief Services. 2003. Social Accountability Mechanisms: Citizen Engagement for Pro-
Poor Policies and Reduced Corruption. Baltimore: Catholic Relief Services.

Dehn, J., R. Reinikka, and J. Svensson. 2002. Survey Tools for Assessing Service Delivery.
Washington, DC: World Bank, Development Research Group.

Di Gropella, E. 2004. Education Decentralization and Accountability Relationships in Latin
America. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Floquet, A, and R. Mongbo. 2006: Tracage des resources publiques affectes aux quinze coles
primaires dans le dpartement de lAtacora/ Benin. Rapport la demande de l'observatoire du
changement sociale (OCS). Cotonou.

Fiszbein, A., ed. 2005. Citizens, Politicians, and Providers: The Latin American Experience with
Service Delivery Reform. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Gnanasegaran, G. 2002. Reach and Effectiveness of Participatory Approaches in Maternal and
Child Health Programme under the Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Project. Unpublished
Doctoral Dissertation, Deemed University, Gandhigram.

Hallak, J. and M. Poisson. 2005. "Ethics and Corruption in Education: An Overview," Journal of
Education for International Development 1 (1):1-16.

Kane, E. 1996. Seeing for Yourself: Research Handbook for Girls Education in Africa.
Washington: World Bank.

Litvack, J., J. Ahmad, and R. Bird. 1998. Rethinking Decentralization in Developing Countries.
Washington, DC: World Bank.

Mumvuma, T. 2004. Global Stocktaking on Social Accountability in Africa. A Synthesis of
Findings (Draft Report). Washington, DC: World Bank.

Peters, S. J. 2004. Inclusive Education. Washington, DC: World Bank.

Reinikka, R. and J. Svensson. 2002. Assessing Frontline Service Delivery. Washington, DC:
World Bank, Development Research Group.

Shaeffer, S. 1994. Participation for Educational Change: A Synthesis of Experience. Paris:
UNESCO.

Veneklasen, L. and V. Miller. 2002. A New Weave of Power, People and Politics. Edited by D.
Budlender and C. Clark. Oklahoma City: World Neighbors.

Wagle, S., and P. Shah. 2002. Participation in Public Expenditure Tracking. Washington, DC:
World Bank.

World Bank. 2003. World Development Report 2004: Making Services Work for Poor People.

World Bank. 2004. The Governance of Service Delivery in ECA: A Regional Study.

5.3 Website Links to Resources and Case Studies

Accountability in Education:
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/globaleducationreform/09.CurriculumReform/09.01.Acco
untability/accountability.html#9

Action Aid, UK: http://www.actionaid.org.uk/

Bernhard Van Leer Foundation: http://www.bernardvanleer.org/page.asp?pid=2

Center for Research in Education and Democracy: http://edu.uwe.ac.uk/cred/papers/education-
reforms.asp

Global Campaign for Education: http://www.campaignforeducation.org/

Malawi community score cards for assessing education as part of assessing the progress of
Malawi Social Action Fund Phase 3:
http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/138968/720-1467_ml.pdf

OXFAM: http://www.oxfam.co.uk/

Samrakshan Trust, Annual Report 2003-04, Madhya Pradesh, Indian, available at:
http://www.samrakshan.org/pdf/Kuno_AR03_04.pdf

Social Capital and Poverty Reduction:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001325/132556e.pdf

UNESCOs civil society website:
http://www.unesco.org/education/efa/partnership/civil_society.shtml

UNESCOs training kit for local NGOs in Education (Participatory Management in Basic
Education): http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001320/132032e.pdf

WBI workshop:
http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/decentralization/Feb2004Course/page1.htm

World Bank resources and case studies:
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/est/resources/knowledge%20resources/case%20studies.ht
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