This handbook has been produced by the Basel Institute on Governance in support of the USAID-funded project "Engaged Citizenry for Responsible Governance". It is meant to be used in conjunction with the handbook on social accountability methods, developed by the Basel Institute in support of the same project.

This handbook has been produced by the Basel Institute on Governance in support of the USAID-funded project "Engaged Citizenry for Responsible Governance”. It is meant to be used in conjunction with the handbook on participatory monitoring, developed by the Basel Institute in support of the same project.

Ignorance, apathy and disempowerment are recurring drivers of impunity. Social accountability, on its part, aims to empower citizens with information and provide effective channels through which to exercise agency. 

Authored by Claudia Baez Camargo, Head of Governance Research, this publication guides practitioners towards localising anti-corruption interventions that invite citizen participation in order to make them more effective.

Social accountability has become a favoured approach among most major multilateral and bilateral donors to develop grass roots mechanisms for democratic governance. In a successful scenario, citizen participation can promote more responsive governments and better provision of basic services by linking users’ feedback to the policy design, implementation and monitoring activities typically undertaken by the state.