Using Evidence to Establish Accountability: A Sourcebook on democratic accountability for development practitioners and learning facilitators

The Accountability Sourcebook provides the reader with an analytical framework for understanding accountability relationships between the state and its citizens, and an action focus on how NGOs and 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 focus of this Sourcebook is on countries that are transitioning to, or consolidating, democratic governance systems, primarily in Africa. Africa is of course a vast and varied continent with enormous differences. The cultural, social, political and economic contexts vary greatly between northern, southern, eastern and western Africa. This Sourcebook does not attempt to contextualise accountability in any specific location. The intention is to raise issues related to accountability more generally, while encouraging readers to consider them further in relation to their own contexts, based on their own knowledge and experiences. The Sourcebook is a resource for exploring the meaning of accountability, learning about its basic elements, and discovering practical options for civil society actors to increase accountability at the local level.