The ‘Theory and Practice of Social Accountability’ project seeks to build an evidence base and public archive of transparency, accountability and participatory governance practices in India.
Project Overview
Civil society organisations in India and the government have been pioneers in collaboratively designing and institutionalising practical interventions that are aimed at deepening democratic governance such as proactive disclosure of government information, social audits and citizen oversight, transparency in decision making, facilitation support in accessing basic entitlements, and grievance redress. While these initiatives have demonstrated the possibilities of scaling social accountability at scale for the rest of the world, serious challenges remain.
Resistance to reform, social exclusion, resource constraints, weak feedback mechanisms and considerable variation across states opens up many avenues for new research. Empirical research which unpacks the functioning and challenges of grounding social accountability platforms in India is thin and has not kept pace with legal, institutional, and technological developments.
Objective
This project, situated at the intersection of policy research and practice, will focus on bridging this gap and creating a network of institutions and individuals — within government, civil society and academic institutions — to conceptualise, build, and assess the implementation of social accountability reforms in India and beyond.
The two year-project project started in September 2024 and is funded by the International Budget Partnership, USA.
The project has two main components:
(I) Research
The project will produce three types of research based outputs. First, review of laws, policies and data on accountability and transparency in public service delivery and governance in India. This will include a comparative study of central and state grievance redress portals, the functioning of independent citizen oversight bodies, implementation of social impact assessment rules amongst others. Second, a multi-state, field-based study that examines the social and political life of accountability platforms will be conducted in the second year of the project. Third, resources and toolkits for strengthening public accountability systems.
(II) Dialogue
The project will bring together various stakeholders from government and civil society who are at the forefront of research and practice on transparency and accountability in India. Workshops and seminars held over the course of this project will focus on developing a shared agenda and strategies for improving public accountability. These dialogues will also provide critical inputs into the research design that will be undertaken by the project.
