People's Action for Just and Democratic Governance: Using Evidence to Establish Accountability

The purpose of this Accountability Sourcebook, published by MSActionAid-Denmark, is to provide strategists, implementers, trainers, and enablers with an analytical framework for understanding accountability relationships between the state and its citizens. It contains an action focus on how non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs) can hold state institutions, service providers and duty bearers to account, using an evidence-based approach incorporating a range of tools and methods. The Sourcebook provides some key skills and knowledge about state-citizen accountability relationships and the practical skill and ability to hold power wielders to account. It was not been designed or structured to offer precise training guidelines but can be used by practitioners to design and inform training.
The book is divided into two main parts: Section 1: Exploring Accountability - introduces readers to the concept of accountability. The section consists of eight chapters, the first seven investigate what accountability is, how it works, who is involved and what can go wrong. Chapter 8 looks at the role of civil society in the accountability terrain.
Section 2: Working for Accountability - the four chapters in this section provide a step-by step journey through the main stages of accountability work. From starting up an accountability project right through to communicating your findings, this section considers the challenges along the way and presents a range of practical tools to consider when implementing accountability work.
MSActionAid-Denmark recommends pairing the Sourcebook with its companion publication called the Civic Empowerment Guide which is aimed at understanding processes that can lead marginalised groups in local communities to empower themselves, understand their position, and engage more equitably with other citizens and authorities in local (and national) democratic processes.