The Impact of Local Values, Beliefs and Social Networks on the Effectiveness of Social Accountability Interventions: Evidence from Latin America and Africa

This paper will discuss evidence on the effectiveness of citizen participatory initiatives (social accountability approaches) as a mechanism to control corruption in the delivery of public services for low-income populations. As is known, social accountability interventions, while attractive for many reasons, have a mixed record in terms of their effectiveness. In this paper the role of contextual factors such as local social networks, associational modes, values, and beliefs prevailing in the target communities will be explored as determinants of the effectiveness of social accountability initiatives to make providers of public services more accountable to the constituencies they serve. The paper adopts an ethnographic perspective to the study of anti-corruption methods in order to throw insights into the manner in which the specificities of the context shape the incentives for citizens to participate and for service providers to be responsive to citizens’ demands. The evidence comes from case studies in Mexico and Tanzania. Preliminary evidence from the currently ongoing research suggests that in some instances an obstacle to effective social accountability programs has to do with an understanding of welfare and agency based on the community as a unitary actor, as opposed to citizens acting in the exercise of their individual rights and entitlements, which is the premise around which social accountability interventions are generally constructed. However, the same cases also throw light into other mechanisms, indigenous to the communities, through which local providers of public services had been called to account successfully when the services provided were perceived as deficient. The paper will discuss the desirability of “working with the grain” in terms of harnessing indigenous social attributes to develop more effective anticorruption strategies.