Citizen report cards : monitoring citizen perspectives to improve service delivery

The delivery of public services in many developing countries is often inefficient and inadequate, marked by nonresponsive agencies and political leadership as well as corruption. Moreover, even when governments initiate measures aimed at improving the quality and effectiveness of service delivery, citizens often do not have the opportunity to provide input on whether the changes have achieved their desired objectives. This lack of feedback prevents service providers from identifying areas in need of improvement and undermines transparency and accountability. Social accountability mechanisms are increasingly recognized as a means of gathering feedback, thereby improving service delivery and governance in World Bank-supported projects. Social accountability is an approach that relies on civic engagement in that citizens participate directly or indirectly in demanding accountability from service providers and public officials. Examples of social accountability tools and mechanisms include participatory budgeting, public expenditure tracking, social audits, citizen charters, and citizen report cards (CRCs), the focus of this note. This note highlights important issues that World Bank task teams should consider when working with clients to implement CRCs.