Is It Time for a New Paradigm for "Citizen Engagement"? The Role of Context and What the Evidence Tells Us

Resource type
Author/contributor
Title
Is It Time for a New Paradigm for "Citizen Engagement"? The Role of Context and What the Evidence Tells Us
Abstract
The meteoric rise of "citizen engagement" Almost all development agencies promote some form of citizen engagement and accountability, often framed as 'voice', 'demand-side governance', 'demand for good governance' or 'social accountability'. The current World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim, recently put it that, "citizen voice can be pivotal in providing the demand-side pressure on government, service providers, and organizations such as the World Bank that is needed to encourage full and swift response to citizen needs". There has, in turn, been a mushrooming of useful operational guidance on different "tools" for social accountability - i.e. steps, inputs and methodologies - that guide discrete interventions, ranging from citizen score cards to participatory expenditure tracking. One might, however, be forgiven for thinking that some of the debates on citizen engagement need an injection of realism; especially as contextual factors can make or break a "tool's" implementation. A review of experience to date would be one good place to start.
Blog Title
People, Spaces, Deliberation
Website Type
Text
Date
29/04/2013, 15:57
Accessed
21/04/2016, 10:02
Language
en
Short Title
Is It Time for a New Paradigm for "Citizen Engagement"?
Citation
O’Meally, S. (2013, April 29). Is It Time for a New Paradigm for “Citizen Engagement”? The Role of Context and What the Evidence Tells Us [Text]. People, Spaces, Deliberation. http://blogs.worldbank.org/publicsphere/it-time-new-paradigm-citizen-engagement-role-context-and-what-evidence-tells-us