TY - RPRT TI - Taking scale into account in transparency and accountability initiatives AU - Fox, Jonathan T2 - MAVC Research Summary AB - We know that gaining access to information and raising citizen voices are not the same as achieving accountability. It is important to look beyond the symptoms of accountability failure, and consider how to tackle the causes. This short research summary discusses different understandings of scale, one important aspect of making transparency and accountability initiatives more strategic. Scale shapes both the causes of accountability failure and the tactics and strategies needed to address it. CY - Brighton DA - 2016/12// PY - 2016 DP - opendocs.ids.ac.uk LA - en PB - IDS UR - https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/123456789/12684 Y2 - 2017/01/04/12:21:09 ER - TY - RPRT TI - Scaling accountability through vertically integrated civil society policy monitoring and advocacy AU - Fox, Jonathan T2 - MAVC Working Paper AB - This working paper argues that the growing field of transparency, participation and accountability (TPA) needs a conceptual reboot, to address the limited traction gained so far on the path to accountability. To inform more strategic approaches and to identify the drivers of more sustainable institutional change, fresh analytical work is needed. This paper makes the case for one among several possible strategic approaches by distinguishing between “scaling up” and “taking scale into account”. This proposition grounds an explanation of the vertical integration strategy, which involves multi-level coordination by civil society organisations of policy monitoring and advocacy, grounded in broad pro-accountability constituencies. To spell out how this strategy can empower pro-accountability actors, the paper contrasts varied terms of engagement between state and society, proposing a focus on collaborative coalitions as an alternative to the conventional dichotomy between confrontation and constructive engagement. The paper grounds this discussion by reviewing the rich empirical terrain of existing multi-level approaches, summarizing nine cases – three each in three countries – to demonstrate what can be revealed when TPA initiatives are seen through the lens of scale. It concludes with a set of broad analytical questions for discussion, followed by testable hypotheses proposed to inform future research agendas CY - Brighton DA - 2016/12// PY - 2016 DP - opendocs.ids.ac.uk LA - en PB - IDS UR - https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/123456789/12683 Y2 - 2017/02/17/18:26:08 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Social Accountability: What Does the Evidence Really Say? AU - Fox, Jonathan A. T2 - World Development AB - Summary Empirical evidence of tangible impacts of social accountability initiatives is mixed. This meta-analysis reinterprets evaluations through a new lens: the distinction between tactical and strategic approaches to the promotion of citizen voice to contribute to improved public sector performance. Field experiments study bounded, tactical interventions based on optimistic assumptions about the power of information alone, both to motivate collective action and to influence the state. Enabling environments for collective action combined with bolstered state capacity to respond to citizen voice are more promising. Sandwich strategies can help ‘voice’ and ‘teeth’ to become mutually empowering, through state–society synergy. DA - 2015/08/01/ PY - 2015 DO - 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.03.011 DP - ScienceDirect VL - 72 SP - 346 EP - 361 J2 - World Development SN - 0305-750X ST - Social Accountability UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X15000704 Y2 - 2018/07/26/14:55:18 KW - public information access KW - social accountability KW - state–society synergy KW - transparency KW - voice ER - TY - JOUR TI - When Does ICT-Enabled Citizen Voice Lead to Government Responsiveness? AU - Peixoto, Tiago AU - Fox, Jonathan T2 - IDS Bulletin DA - 2016/01/14/ PY - 2016 DO - 10.19088/1968-2016.104 DP - CrossRef VL - 41 IS - 1 SP - 23 EP - 39 SN - 02655012 UR - http://bulletin.ids.ac.uk/idsbo/article/view/34 Y2 - 2016/07/14/10:50:31 ER - TY - RPRT TI - Connecting the Dots for Accountability: Civil Society Policy Monitoring and Advocacy Strategies AU - Fox, Jonathan AU - Halloran, Brendan CY - London DA - 2016/// PY - 2016 DP - DataCite PB - Transparency & Accountability Initiative ST - Connecting the Dots for Accountability UR - http://www.internationalbudget.org/publications/connecting-dots-accountability Y2 - 2016/04/05/15:05:24 KW - IMPORTANT ER - TY - RPRT TI - Assessing the Evidence: The Effectiveness and Impact of Public Governance-Oriented Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives AU - Brockmyer, Brandon AU - Fox, Jonathan A. AB - Transnational multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) – voluntary partnerships between governments, civil society, and the private sector – are an increasingly prevalent strategy for promoting government responsiveness and accountability to citizens. While most transnational MSIs involve using voluntary standards to encourage socially and environmentally responsible private sector behavior, a handful of these initiatives – the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST), the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the Global Initiative on Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) and the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) – focus on information disclosure and participation in the public sector. Unlike private sector MSIs, which attempt to supplement weak government capacity to enforce basic social and environmental standards through partnerships between businesses and civil society, public sector MSIs ultimately seek to bolster public governance. But how exactly are these MSIs supposed to work? And how much has actually been achieved?The purpose of this study is to identify and consolidate the current state of the evidence for public governance-oriented MSI effectiveness and impact. Researchers collected over 300 documents and interviewed more than two-dozen MSI stakeholders about their experiences with five public governance oriented multi-stakeholder initiatives.This report provides a ‘snapshot’ of the evidence related to these five MSIs, and suggests that the process of leveraging transparency and participation through these initiatives for broader accountability gains remains uncertain. The report highlights the ongoing process of defining MSI success and impact, and how these initiatives intersect with other accountability actors and processes in complex ways. The study closes with key recommendations for MSI stakeholders. DA - 2015/09/01/ PY - 2015 PB - Transparency & Accountability Initiative ST - Assessing the Evidence UR - http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2693608 Y2 - 2016/03/24/17:07:54 KW - Accountability KW - Participation KW - Program evaluation KW - Transparency KW - global governance KW - multi-stakeholder ER - TY - RPRT TI - How Do Donor-led Empowerment and Accountability Activities Take Scale into Account? Evidence from DFID Programmes in Contexts of Fragility, Conflict and Violence AU - Anderson, Colin AU - Fox, Jonathan AU - Gaventa, John AB - Development donors invest significantly in governance reform, including in contexts characterised by conflict and fragility. However, there is relatively little comparative study of their change strategies, and little understanding of what works and why. This paper explores the strategies of six recent DFID-funded programmes in Mozambique, Myanmar, and Pakistan with empowerment and accountability aims. Document review and field interviews are used to analyse the application of multi-scalar or multi-level change strategies, since such approaches are hypothesised to potentially generate more leverage for public accountability reforms. Analysis suggests that these strategies can strengthen citizen ability to navigate governance systems to resolve problems and claim accountability, and can bolster pro-accountability coalitions’ internal solidarity and external legitimacy. Multi-level strategies also appear associated with establishing more significant pressure for reform than exclusively local or national approaches. Yet conventional project reporting focuses on counting activities and outputs rather than analysing the dynamic, interactive processes at work in these strategies, and few evaluations are publicly accessible. To fully understand what kinds of action strengthen citizen demands for accountability requires a more transparent and rigorous approach to learning from donor-led governance interventions. DA - 2020/04/03/ PY - 2020 DP - opendocs.ids.ac.uk LA - en M3 - Working Paper PB - IDS SN - 536 ST - How Do Donor-led Empowerment and Accountability Activities Take Scale into Account? UR - https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/15211 Y2 - 2020/08/25/14:26:27 ER - TY - RPRT TI - Seeing the Combined Effects of Aid Programmes AU - Burge, Richard AU - Nadelman, Rachel AU - McGee, Rosie AU - Fox, Jonathan AU - Anderson, Colin T2 - IDS Policy Briefing AB - Multiple aid agencies often try to support change in the same places, at the same time, and with similar actors. Surprisingly, their interactions and combined effects are rarely explored. This Policy Briefing describes findings from research conducted on recent aid programmes that overlapped in Mozambique, Nigeria, and Pakistan, and from a webinar with UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) advisors and practitioners. The research found three distinct categories of ‘interaction effects’: synergy, parallel play, and disconnect. We explore how using an ‘interaction effects’ lens in practice could inform aid agency strategies and programming. CY - Brighton DA - 2022/05/10/ PY - 2022 DP - opendocs.ids.ac.uk LA - en PB - IDS SN - 196 UR - https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17391 Y2 - 2022/07/01/09:03:59 ER -