Beginner’s Guide to Social Accountability and Participation

About the Course

Governance is realised by citizens through their access to services such as health, education, sanitation, identification documents, transportation, and more. The effectiveness and relevance of these services determine the quality of governance systems. Access to these services is particularly difficult for the poor, vulnerable, and marginalised, who often either pay for sub-standard services or are deprived of services altogether.

This has led to the emergence of social accountability practices, which aim to hold individuals, organisations, and institutions responsible for inefficiencies or lack of service. However, accountability can only work effectively when citizens are able to demand action from powerful institutions.

The course “Beginner’s Guide to Social Accountability and Participation” aims to equip learners with the basic approaches for building accountability relationships between citizens and governance institutions, emphasizing citizen participation and understanding social accountability as a cornerstone of just and participatory governance.

Objectives of the Course

• Understand the concepts of accountability and social accountability, and how they fit into democratic governance. 
• Explore key social accountability mechanisms and how they function within the governance cycle. 
• Understand the importance of civic engagement and citizen participation in strengthening accountability. 
• Get familiar with different social accountability tools and understand why they’re important. 
• Recognise common challenges faced when applying social accountability in various contexts. 

Who is this Course for?

This course is designed for development sector professionals, students, programme managers and coordinators, grassroots implementers, organisational leaders, CSR personnel, researchers, academicians, trainers, consultants, policymakers, and anyone else who wants to understand how social accountability is a cornerstone of just and participatory governance.

Learning Approach

The course is structured into multiple modules, providing learners with a comprehensive understanding of key concepts through interactive and engaging modes of learning, including text, videos, audios, case studies, graphics, assignments, and additional reading materials. It is advised that you complete this training in a quiet environment, to enhance your learning and given that the material in the course might be sensitive in nature. Additionally, a stable and high-speed internet connection is essential to ensure smooth access to all course content.

You will have two weeks to complete the entire course, from the date of signing-up and receiving your login details. You can save your progress at any point and come back to the course within this two-week period. You can use different devices to complete the course, such as laptops/ desktops, smartphones and tablets.

Upon successful completion, including completing all assignments, learners will receive a certificate.

People Behind this Course