Bangladesh - Belgium

Citizens’ Voice and Accountability Evaluation – Bangladesh Country Case Study
more effective and transparent in our delivery of assistance to this vital area of both
governance and social development aid provision, it also, as espoused by the Paris
Declaration, seeks to improve donor coherence and accountability to those with
whom, and on whose behalf, we work.
6. Quality of governance is recognised as a key factor correlated with poverty
reduction and macroeconomic stability, and therefore influencing the achievement of
the MDGs and preventing conflict 34 . Good governance is concerned with how
citizens, public institutions, and leaders relate to each other, and whether these
relationships lead to outcomes that reduce poverty.
7. Voice and accountability are concerned with the relationship between citizen
and the state, which is a core feature of the governance agenda. A large body of
research and experience has demonstrated that active participation of citizens in the
determination of policies and priorities can improve the commitment of government to
reduce poverty and enhance the quality of aid and outcomes.
8. Similarly, it is increasingly recognised that government/state accountability,
and the ability of citizens and the private sector to scrutinise public institutions and to
hold them to account is an important facet of good governance. Failures of
accountability can lead to pervasive corruption, poor and elite-biased decision
making and unresponsive public actors 35 .
9. Thus Citizens’ Voice and Accountability 36 are important for developing more
effective and responsive states and for enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability
of aid, particularly in the context of country led approaches. The Paris Declaration
includes specific commitments on these issues by development partners 37 .
10. There are many forms of accountability relationship (for example formal and
informal accountabilities; social, political, and electoral accountabilities,
accountabilities between different public institutions). This evaluation is focused on
donors’ support to the development of CV&A, focusing on downward or vertical
accountability i.e: that operating between the state and citizens.
11. Strengthening CV&A is pursued through a wide range of approaches.
Examples include civic education, media strengthening, national and local policy and
planning processes (including decentralisation), participatory budgeting and
expenditure monitoring, social auditing and civil society and advocacy programmes.
But the processes of empowerment and fostering an environment conducive to
accountability and responsiveness are complex and dynamic as are the difficulties of
attributing the factors that provoke change – both negative and positive. Donors have
thus recognised that there is a need to develop a more comprehensive
understanding of this area by using a common framework to evaluate interventions in
34 This association and the direction of causation is the subject of a significant body of research, for
example many of the papers by Kaufmann & Kraay, and discussion of this subject in the Global
Monitoring Report 2006 (pp. 121-2)
35 In development debates a stronger focus on participation emerged during the 1980s, in relation to
projects, and has since been taken into the consultation of poor people on development priorities for
Poverty Reduction Strategies, with varying degrees of success (see for example McGee, Levene, J. &
Hughes, A Assessing Participation in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers , IDS research report 52;
World Bank & IMF (2005) Review of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Approach). A range of information
on the topic of CV&A will shortly be available from the Governance & Social Development Resource
Centre website (www.grc-dfid.org).
36 The attached “ODI Literature Review and Donor Approaches on Citizens’ Voice and Accountability”
highlights the complexity of this subject and the various interpretations of what constitutes CV&A in
different contexts.
37 Principally Sections: 14 &15 on ownership; 38 on Fragile States; and, 48 on Mutual Accountability.
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