Accountability – Quality and Equity in Public Service Provision

Accountability is a key issue in promoting more responsive and fair service delivery for people living in poverty. In many countries, the state is often not able or not willing to live up to its responsibility of providing basic services. Many basic essential services such as education, health, water and sanitation are often poor in quality, not what people need or want, and frequently completely absent for the majority of the most poor and marginalised.

This app explains, step by step, how civil society organisations and activists can help to reform local services by demanding accountability from the state and service providers.

The HRBA Governance Resources Series

Is a collection of APPs focusing on key governance issues of central importance to ActionAid’s Human Rights Based Approach developed by the AAI Democratic Governance Team. The APP titled Democracy introduces the series and should be studied first. Thereafter, the titles: Accountability, Power, Budgets and Voice can be studied individually. Read together, the titles complement each other and contribute to an overall appreciation of key governance issues at the local level. The series supports frontline staff and partners in their efforts to achieve ActionAid’s strategic promises of improving service delivery for people living in poverty and achieving a fairer distribution of resources to finance public policies aimed at reducing poverty.