Supporting social accountability in the Middle East and North Africa: lessons learned from past political and economic transitions

Social accountability (SA) is an approach to governance that involves citizens and civil society organisations (CSOs) in public decision-making and in holding governments accountable for its actions. This note deems that SA is, in essence, an important feature of democratisation, and is therefore particularly relevant for countries in transition in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The authors highlight that the three key elements of social accountability in political systems are transparency, accountability, and participation. The document clarifies that:

• SA is increasingly recognised as a critical factor in improving development outcomes
• SA is important especially with regard to the management of public resources
• the transparent policy environment created by SA can lead to increased foreign investment
• an SA approach could help reinforce MENA‘s political transition by making policies more relevant to the needs of citizens
• this would reduce the risk of future political instability
  

Furthermore, the document presents six related key lessons learned from the experiences of three Asian countries:

• active citizen participation in public affairs requires an enabling environment
• government outreach to civil society is critical to building confidence and trust
• proactive disclosure of information by the government about its plans during transitions helps manage expectations of citizens
• it is important to invest in improving service delivery through partnership with civil society and users
• engaging with a broader range of stakeholders during transitions increases the legitimacy of the new government and increases sustainability of reforms
• bottom-up processes through decentralisation reforms and community-driven development enable citizen participation and improvement of services
  

The paper also figures that SA implementation in the Arab World to date points to obvious positive results in terms of transparency, democracy and service delivery.