Accountability and Service Delivery

Article

Challenges to Social Accountability and Service Delivery in Pakistan

Muhammad Hamza Abbas1

Vaqar Ahmed2

Abstract

This article highlights the major challenges to social accountability in Pakistan. Based on a perception survey of 800 household-level respondents from four provinces of Pakistan besides relevant focus group discussions and key inform-ant interviews, the findings of the study reveal that the respondents have an understanding of which of the basic services they are entitled to and which are not being facilitated by public sector service providers. Owing to the trust deficit between communities and state administration, there is a dire need for establishing and reforming informal and formal grievance redressal mechanisms. On the other hand, with over half of Pakistan’s population not having any formal education, communities need to be trained in social accountability tools through which they may access their rights and entitlements. Civil society organisations (CSOs), working in Pakistan for over the last two decades, urgently need to intro-duce innovative methods for community mobilisation. These CSOs are also facing severe internal and external security threats which are impacting the effective-ness of community-level accountability exercises. While we take stock of such challenges, there is renewed hope that government and donor community will support local-level CSOs to mitigate threats to social accountability interventions.

KeywordsSocial accountability, communities, service delivery, CSOs and Pakistan

Social Change46(4) 560–582

© 2016 CSDSAGE Publications

sagepub.in/home.navDOI: 10.1177/0049085716666601

http://sch.sagepub.com

1 International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), Washington, DC.2 Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan.

Corresponding author:Muhammad Hamza Abbas, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), 1120, 20th Street NW, Suite 500 North, Washington, DC. E-mail: [email protected]

Abbas and Ahmed 561

Introduction and Background

Social accountability relates to community-based initiatives intended to improve transparency and access to information by holding the state and its agents account-able (Gaventa & McGee, 2010). Malena et al. (2004) explain this concept in the context of demand for good governance; it is referred to as strengthening the voice and building the capacity of citizens to demand greater accountability and responsiveness from public authorities and service providers. Social accountabil-ity is also closely linked with the concept of citizen-led accountability. A study by the World Bank (2005) defines social accountability as a demand-side effort of good governance and explains how communities can best interact with local governments, service providers and the actors of the state for demanding better service delivery in, for example, education and health (Agarwal et al., 2009).

The effectiveness of social accountability tools is highly dependent on the way in which they are initiated and exercised. The National Institute of Administrative Research (n.d.) in its study relates the effectiveness and success of social account-ability mechanisms with institutionalisation: indirectly, social accountability mechanisms try to improve the efficiency and performance of government officials and politicians.

Social accountability is the new buzzword for development partners around the world in order to understand the state’s and society’s synergy that can be helpful for a better provision of public services (King, 2014). In the long term, the major advantages of social accountability are that it has the potential to reduce poverty, enhance service delivery, create people-centric policies and lead to the empowerment of citizens thus strengthening democratic processes (Institute of Development Studies, 2006). Social accountability is also closely related to the general concept of voice and accountability.

The concept of voice, given by Brown et al. (2008), explains that this is actually the capacity of citizens to express their views, demanding their basic rights and complaining to those who are responsible and in control. Voice is more effective if it is done by lobbying, protest and through proper complaint mecha-nisms. Accountability, generically speaking, is the relationship between the state (national and local levels) and its people (Foresti et al., 2007). Voice and account-ability are closely interrelated but it does not mean they are the same, organised voices lead to accountability and vice versa.

The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA) (2012) provides a compact framework for social accountability (see Appendix). The four pillars of social accountability are organised and capable public groups, responsible government, access to information and lastly, sensitivity to culture and context. In order to achieve smooth and well-functioning demand-side mechanisms and functions civic engagement is of highest importance. Different social accountability tools used all around the world, include citizens charters, a check list of entitlements, participatory budgeting, budget tracking, Right to Information (RTI), awareness of relevant laws, civic education, community score card (CRC), citizens report card, participatory planning and community-led procurements (Khadka & Bhattarai, 2012).

562 Social Change 46(4)

The concept of social accountability is new to Pakistan and is being introduced by leading international development partners and some local non-governmental institutions to improve the state of public service delivery in the country. The emergence of an independent media in the country has also played the role of catalyst in demanding rights from the state. Recently, these pressure groups in the country have forced the government to pass the Right to Information (RTI) Act, which allows communities and individuals access to information and transparent mechanisms at the national, provincial and district level.

The state has also realised the importance of social accountability mecha-nisms in the country: multiple accountability structures have been initiated by the government in Pakistan to institutionalise accountability mechanisms, internally and externally. The Government of Pakistan, in fact, passed a formal notification in 1994 for forming school management committees (SMCs) and parent–teachers associations in all its—provinces, and also earlier for the formation of health man-agement committees with the idea to ensure better participation of communities in decision-making processes (Khan, 2001; Khan, Kazmi & Latif, 1999).

Objectives

The objectives of this study are:

• TohighlightchallengesfacedbyCSOsandthegovernmentinimplement-ing social accountability mechanisms in Pakistan.

• ToinquireaboutthestateofservicedeliveryinthesocialsectorsofPunjaband Khyber Pakhtunkwa. These sectors include education, health, water and sanitation.

• Toidentifythecoursecorrectionrequiredinthesocialaccountabilitymech-anisms currently in practice.

Ourstartingpoint is to identifygaps inexisting literatureandoutlinehowourstudy adds to the existing body of knowledge. The third section provides detailed methodology of the study followed by the results from survey exercises and key informant interview (KIIs). In a separate section, we also provide results from our focus group discussions (FGDs). We conclude with specific recommendations to CSOsonhowbesttodesignandimplementsocialaccountabilityinterventionsinsocial sectors. The appendix also contains few of the important initiatives by CSOsrelatedtosocialaccountability.

Gaps in the Literature

It is now encouraging to see a growing local literature on social accountability in Pakistan and South Asia. Bhidal (2011) has applied social accountability tools such as citizens’ report cards for service delivery of education. The findings depict a dismal position of service delivery in the education sector and SMCs have failed to deliver. There is a dire need to redefine the work and processes of SMCs or

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somealternativeapproachforperformancemonitoring.Otherrecommendationsincludeparticipatorybudgetingandanimprovedqualityofeducation.

A baseline study for AAWAZ voice—and accountability programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces of Pakistan evaluates the percep-tion of women and community members on service delivery in the education, health, water and sanitation. A key recommendation that needs to be put in place is the participatory approach which includes the clients of services in the decision- making processes which deal with local-level resource allocation, quality of services and timely access (Ahmed, 2015; SDPI, 2012).

CPDI (2013) has used RTI legislation as their entry point for promoting greater transparency and accountability in public sector financial management. The chal-lenges to social accountability in Pakistan mentioned in Bhidal (2013) include the state’s resistance to service delivery reforms, overlapping layers of account-ability, vested interests in important social sectors like education and health, implementation flaws in RTI legislation, decentralisation of fiscal powers to the provincial governments and absence of enabling environment for social mobilisa-tion owing to security issues (Suleri et al., 2013).

There is also some literature available on the challenges specific to the service delivery in education (Watson & Khan, 2005), health (Ahmed & Ahmed, 2014) accountability failures at local levels (Mohmand & Cheema, 2007) and the impor-tance of decentralisation for effective service delivery processes (Ahmad, 2005).

Although the studies mentioned above provide details on social accountabil-ity interventions in various sectors, we still lack literature where consolidated andsector-wisechallengestosocialaccountabilityimplementationbyCSOsareinventoried. This study goes beyond the existing literature by:

• Taking intoaccount thequalitativeperceptionof individualson thestateofservicedeliveryinsocialsectors.Ouraimhereisto(i)inquirefromthehouseholdandcommunityastohowtheywouldlikeCSOstointerveneandinwhichsocialsectors;(ii)inquirefromthepractitionersofsocialaccount-ability about the risks faced on the ground and how these may be mitigated in the future.

• Categorisationofchallengesintoimmediate,mediumandlonger-termtimesituations. We then go on to suggest that immediate challenges, if addressed properly, may prevent many of the medium to longer term challenges or risks to occur.

Methodology

Amix of a qualitative and quantitative approach has been used to access thepotential risks and challenges to social accountability in Pakistan. We validate our resultsinthelightofexistingliterature.Aspartofourquantitativemethodology,we provide findings from one of our household-level survey (n = 800) seeking information from people regarding key areas where service delivery is lacking. There were three main objectives of conducting this survey and FGDs with the households:


• There are existing social accountability forums at the local level, forexample, SMCs, Health Management Committees and we wanted to know their effectiveness.

• Wealsowantedtoknowwhatchallenges(eventhreats)peoplefacewhilethey become part of the social accountability processes and what are major issues Pakistani society is facing and how they can be solved.

• Dopeoplefeelthattheirgivingtimeandresourcetosocialaccountabilityactivities is rendering on-ground results?

Respondents for KIIs and FDGs were selected on the basis of their expertise and experiences in the field of voice and accountability in Pakistan, KIIs were those who are helping in the sustainability, efficiency and scaling-up of the social accountability agenda in the country. KII (10 in number) and participants of FGDs wereselectedfromfivedifferentcategories:CSOsandexperts;donoragenciesinPakistan; head of organisations working on social accountability; government officials and lastly, from the business community.

We surveyed 800 households, selected through a well-structured process of random selection from urban and rural areas in select districts. The sample included the four largest provinces in the country (see Table 1) and demographic distribution was also taken into account—however, it ignored Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Gilgit-Baltistan and tribal area).1 The questionnaire was subjectedto thorough pilot-testing and the feedback from pilots helped in improving the survey instruments further.

Results I: Institutional and Quantitative Analysis

Institutional Formation and Implementation

The government has institutionalised accountability structures for internal and external accountability in the country. There exists, the Auditor General Departments, PublicAccounts Committee, Ombudsman, Federal InvestigationAgency, Anti-Corruption Establishments and National Accountability Bureau. There are clear laws relating to the conduct of business for the public servant and for curbing the menace of corruption in Pakistan falling under the Government Servant Rules, 1964; the Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 1973;

Table 1. Survey Sampling Methodology

Provinces Sample Size Districts

Punjab 300 Faisalabad and Multan Sindh 300 Karachi and Sukkur Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 100 Peshawar Balochistan 100 Quetta Total sample size 800

Source: SDPI (2013).

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Pakistan’s Penal Code XLV of 1860; the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 and the Federal Investigation Act, 1974.

At the national level, social accountability structures have been facilitated through an amendment in the Constitution of Pakistan. Article 19-A in the con-stitution says, every citizen will have RTI in all matters of public importance. Given that after the 18th constitutional amendment, provinces have power to pass their own RTI bills, PILDAT (2016) produced a comparative scorecard for all the country’s provinces on the RTI and Freedom of Information (FoI) regimes. The overall ranking of the provinces is given below:

1. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 73 per cent secured the first position for its Right to Information Act, 2013 and because of the formation of Right to Information Commission in the province.

2. Punjab Province with 65 per cent secured the second position for the Transparency and Right to Information Act, 2013, and the formation of the Punjab Information Commission.

3. Balochistan Province with 29.3 per cent secured third position for it Freedom of Information Act, 2005.

4. The federal government with 25.6 per cent was placed fourth for its FreedomofInformationOrdinance,2002.

5. Sindh’s provincial government with 24 per cent was positioned last.

As part of the Constitutional Amendment No. 18, the following article was added to Chapter 1 of the Constitution entitled ‘Fundamental Rights’. The fundamental Right to Education was also guaranteed for all citizens of Pakistan by the Constitution. The article says: ‘The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 5 to 16 years in such a manner as may be determined by law’ (Constitution of Pakistan, Article 25-A, Chapter 1: Fundamental Rights).

Implementation and Effectiveness Issues

The major issues relating to accountability structures in Pakistan are the loopholes in the systems and procedures. In Pakistan accountability processes are complex and non-standardised and they are designed according to the needs of each depart-ment not for the public at large (Iftikhar, 2010). In major public offices, proce-dures are cumbersome and operated manually.

A study conducted by government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Citizen’s Centric Governance (2011) provides issues and challenges to social accountability in the provincewhichresonatewiththequalitativeresultsbelow.

The dream of effective social accountability mechanisms cannot be fulfilled until or unless the government realises the need to revamp the local government system in Pakistan (Guess, 2005). There is significant evidence to validate this argument especially in the context of Pakistan where local governments offer direct contact between local policy makers and people for whom it served as a better channel for to communicate their demands to the government (Hasnain, 2010).


Local Government System

According to the 18th Constitutional Amendment, Balochistan Province passed the Local Government Act in 2010, provinces of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh passed their Local Government Acts in 2013. UNDP (2013) defines these laws as a great achievement towards decentralisation despite the lack of passion and an effective consultation process during their formulations stage. There are a number of important distinctions in the Local Government Acts passed by the provinces in comparison to the Local Government Act of 2001, passed by the President General Musharraf’s government, in that the provinces did not devolve sufficient functions and powers to the local government and that they still had the power to dismiss representatives on the basis of an executive order from the provincial government.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Act only gave the discretion to the local government to utilise financial resources and it empowered the Village and Neighbourhood Councils to supervise all local government functionaries including the revenue divisionof thedistrict(UNDP,2013).Otherprovincesdidnotpassonthedis-cretion to use financial resources and the provincial government would allocate funds on their own.

Women, on the other hand, faced many challenges to their right to vote. In a number of districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa women were barred from voting and the sad part was that political parties mutually agreed not to allow women to vote (Boone, 2015). The districts where women were not given due chance to vote in the local elections include some parts of the Malakand Division, the Hangu District and the Lower Dir district.

On the Issue of Corruption

Oursurveyfindings,asexplainedabove,alsobroughttolightthatasignificanthigh number of businesses have reported that corruption is one of the big issues, coupled with unemployment and the law and order situation, facing the country. According to the Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International (2015), Pakistan globally stands at 117 out of 168 countries with overall score of only 30 out of 100. The corruption index organised by Transparency International ranks countries based on how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be. Pakistan’s corruption ranking has improved significantly over the years: in 2006, Pakistan was ranked 142 but the overall score still remained on the lower side.

The recent investigations, entitled the Panama papers, have also highlighted how bad the situation of corruption is in the country, and indicated how the Prime Minister’s family and many other notables were named for holding off-shore companies and using the system for their own benefits. In order to effec-tively tackle corruption, the country needs a comprehensive national-level anti- corruption strategy.

Relevant Survey Findings

Figure 1 exhibits survey findings related to major demands for public service deliveryatlarge.Ourresultsrevealedthatrespondentsclearlyhighlightedthatthe

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weak supply side of public sector service delivery was the biggest challenge to community engagement. For example, 54.6 per cent replied that a lack of social services was the biggest issue, 28.9 per cent replied that corruption was the major issue, 53.3 per cent replied the issue was unemployment and 36.8 per cent responded that the volatile law and order situation in the country was a huge challenge.

The relevance of this data related to social accountability frameworks could be seen in the highest percentage of responses associated with the lack of an effective public service delivery. This survey revealed that social accountability mecha-nisms and initiatives would need to be tailored for each sector if communities weretobeenabledindemandingbetterqualityservicesfromthepublicsector.

Private Sector and Social Accountability

As government’s revenue collection in most developing countries is meagre and therefore not be sufficient to deliver effectively public goods, a case could be made for limiting the government’s role to formulating socio-economic policies and regulation and leaving the management of public sector units to the private sector. Figure 2 elaborates where the private sector could be useful in dealing with the major issues confronting Pakistan. Twenty-one per cent believed that it could be helpful in creating employment; 9.3 per cent felt that private sector involve-ment could improve social services, 9.8 per cent believed that competition and entry of more firms could benefit the energy sector and end the ongoing energy crisis; 5 per cent favoured private sector participation in education and 5.3 per cent opted for its involvement in the health sector.

Ahmad (2008) also emphasised that the private sector could join hands with communities for strong accountability mechanisms in the country which would lead to better service delivery and good governance in the country: indeed, a per-ception strongly supported by the survey’s respondents. Such a nexus was also in the interest of the private sector which was perceived as safe and secure and vibrant communities will imply a rising future demand, free and fair markets, and a more educated and skilled pool of labour force.

Results II: Qualitative Results

Security and Safety Issues

Mainly all of the key informants were of the view that internal security was the biggest risk as well as a challenge to social accountability in Pakistan (for detailed challenges to social accountability, see Figure 3). The programmes and people who are actively involved in strengthening social accountability in Pakistan face security threats from the extremists and terrorist groups. Pakistan is facing this menace from over a decade now and these threats have placed a huge obstacle in the smooth functioning of overall social accountability system in the Khyber Pakhtunkwa and Balochistan Provinces. The security risk to social accountability comes from both security outfits and the extremists. Educating people is an unde-sirable activity in the views of the extremists which effectively hampers service delivery in public sector schools and colleagues (Buchanan & Tollison, 1984).

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Figure 3. Negative Impacts on Social Accountability Initiatives. Source: Authors’ own depiction from KIIs and FGDs.

Functioning of Local Government System

Devolution and decentralisation in Pakistan have in the past helped communities to stimulate pro-accountability processes at the local level. The basic idea behind decentralisation was to take the public representatives closer to citizens (World Bank, 2005). All the provinces have now passed legislation and implemented the local government system. However, Provincial Local Government Acts provide inadequateautonomytolocalauthorities,bothintermsofexerciseofpowerforservice delivery and financial management, except for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, so there is still a dire need for improvement (UNDP, 2013).

Government’s Priorities and Lack of Political Motivation

The forces of clergy and traditional feudal lords still exercised substantial power over formal and informal power systems. Further, parliamentarians had their own political agendas and bureaucracy have their own interests. In Pakistan, there was a fear of adopting a social accountability framework at the local government level because it was felt that vulnerabilities of the government might get exposed (Hasnain, 2008). The government was only interested in leading those initiatives that were performing under their own umbrella. The KIs (key informants) also said that whenever any government officials were aware of a programme and they werereadytoworkinclosecollaborationwithCSOsandcommunities,suddenlythe relevant government official would get posted somewhere else. Once this happened, the community lost the entire social capital and the rapport that had been with the government and associated officials.

Flaws in the Supply Side of Service Delivery

There were certain risks and challenges to social accountability that were contin-gent upon the supply side of the system: these were a lack of an enabling environ-ment, legal and regulatory frameworks, an accommodating political environment and an inaccessible government. Practitioners who were working for demand side, talked about the rights of citizens, freedom of speech and RTI without

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highlighting the fact that those who were duty bearers did not care about these things. According to these practitioners (Ahmad, 2008; Khan, 2001), while there were laws related to the above-mentioned rights, however, two issues hindered the receipt of such rights—a general lack of knowledge in claiming rights and a lack of community-based platforms that could act as pressure groups.

Pakistan was among those countries where resource allocation for the non-development expenditures was a serious problem which also resulted in poor service delivery. Development expenditures were always on the lower side of government priorities. The 2016–2017 Budget revealed that development expen-ditures were PKR 1.05 trillion, whereas the current expenditures was PKR 4.03 trillion (MoF, 2016). The majority of funds that were allocated to development expenditures was used for infrastructure projects like building roads, bridges, railways and airports, while inadequate allocations were made for educa-tion, health, water and sanitation. This year alone, infrastructure development expenditures (roads, bridges, railways and so on) would be receiving more than 50 per cent of the development expenditures by the federal government.

Cultural Norms

Social accountability was highly dependent on the cultural norms and practices. There was always a risk whenever social accountability initiatives were challeng-ing the authority of those who were controlling systems and thought themselves as an authority and possessor of all the powers (Jejeebhoy & Sathar, 2001). Even in places where informal decision-making institutions were in place, tribal elders or influential people, for example, felt threatened by the CSOs which were trying to build upon scientific methods and introduce social accountability interventions.

Different social accountability programmes in Pakistan resulted in developing accountability committees and other relevant forums and they very often ignored the presence of women and minorities (Mohmand & Cheema, 2007).

CSOs Acceptance in Society and within the Government

MostprogrammesthatentailedsocialaccountabilitywerebyCSOsinPakistan.TypicallythoughsuchCSOsreallyworkedundermanyrestrictions,rangingfromsigning Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the government to general acceptabilitybythegeneralpublic.AsinrestofthedevelopingworldtheseCSOsnot only faced restrictions in their formation but also certain faced constraints in their functioning. There were also efforts made to tighten rules regarding their foreign funding (UNDP, 2010).

TheCSOsacceptancewithinthegovernmentwasalsofairlyweak.Forinstance,as pointed out by one of the KIs, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan(SECP)nowwantedallCSOsinPakistantoberegisteredwiththem,astepthatreflectedtheweaknessofthecountry’slegislationframework.InOctober2015, the Interior Ministry of Pakistan issued a policy for regulation of interna-tionalnon-governmentalorganisations(INGOs),underwhichtheMoUsbetween


thegovernmentandINGOswasbeingrevoked.TheCSOslodgednewapplica-tions fornoobjectioncertificates (NOCs)butasof January2016anumberofINGOsreportedthattheyhadnotreceivedanyresponsefromtheInteriorMinistry(ICNL, 2016). According to recent available statistics, there were 20 large interna-tional aid organisations which had not been issued NoCs: some of these organisa-tions included the International Republic Institute, National Democratic Institute, SavetheChildrenandOxfamGB(Miraj,2015).Asitwas,manyCSOsworkingin the Federally Administrative Tribal Areas (FATA) had to undergo extensive legal procedures and also seek approval from the Frontier Disaster Management Authority or the Provincial Disaster Management Authority to get a NoC.

Information Gap and Lack of Research

The KIs also suggested that there were clear information gaps which were not conducive for strong social accountability framework. There was an underlying fear that the voice of the people was not heard because that would prominently publicise people’s wish lists (Keohane, 2003). When these were not fulfilled they would lead to disappointment, hyper-responses and had a potential to create a hostile environment. Demand-side accountability therefore needed to collaborate with supply-side accountability which, in turn, needed to be facilitated by research and a level of technical guidance and competence. In this context, KIs highlighted that local communities were not provided with proper research and toolkits that could help them with a better understanding of what social accountability actually referred to. There was also the risk of creating hostile relationships whencommunitiesmisunderstoodtheconceptofaccountability(Pasha,Iqbal&Mumtaz, 2002).

Amongdonorsandlocalnon-governmentalorganisations(NGOs),noexercisewas undertaken to learn from programmes that were already functional or had finished. There was also no move to imbibe international best practices. Most of the knowledge management toolkits, which were theoretically in place during theprogrammesundertakenbyCSOs,didnotculminateinstrongdocumentationbased either on lessons learnt or on experiences gained.

There were also a few challenges related to the evaluation and accurate captur-ing of the impact of various social accountability initiatives in Pakistan. Social accountability programmes and similar programmes, like voice and account-ability, were aimed at reducing poverty. But there was not sufficient evidence available that these programmes did indeed have an effect on reducing poverty in Pakistan though in the surrounding regions there was plenty of proof available (ANSA, 2012).

Flaws in Project Design and Lack of Follow-up

Most of the KIs stated that there were challenges arising from the basic design of the programmes that were being implemented in Pakistan. The donors had their own understanding of social accountability and its framework without taking into account the major risks and challenges that these programmes would face in the

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context of Pakistan. The theory of a changed framework, followed by the usual log framing exercise for project monitoring, did not comprehensively encompass risks to life, assets and even livelihoods, a fact also mentioned by Watson and Khan (2005). Log frames, once set, were rarely changed during the project course as development partners feared a complete re-evaluation and uncertainty if they requestedforrevisionsinlogframes.AnotherproblemhighlightedbytheKIswasthat due to flaws in the programmes aimed at social accountability the follow-up of accountability interventions in latter periods became difficult.

It was found that development partners were still reluctant to commit to long-term funding of social accountability interventions. It was proposed by some that the indicators to evaluate accountability interventions should also include trickle down impacts for marginalised communities. Lastly, another failing in most programmes was weak exit strategies.

Duplication of Efforts

Many local organisations also felt that they were unaware of similar projects being undertaken by other like-minded bodies. Fragmented interventions, and a certain level of ‘donor fatigue’, could be seen in instances where the donors were placing large funds for similar projects thus negatively effecting patterns of accountability interventions.Overtime,CSOs became competitors in the samegeographic area. Some had even been working for decades yet no effort was made in creating a coalition of these groups. This resulted in different departments being reached by many different groups ending up with the message being diluted. Severallocal-levelCSOscomplainedthatdonorswhofinancedsocialaccounta-bility interventions preferred sticking to a short-term project mode and not scaling interventions in a consolidated and programmatic manner (Ebrahim, 2003).

Media Engagement

It was said that social accountability interventions were not usually on the radar of media organisation which offered little space to project such initiatives. Besides, most media entities worked from urban areas and their understanding of civil society work in rural communities was weak. It was also felt that any impact or changes at the micro-level should be well documented in the print, electronic and social media so that examples and role models could be made more visible.

Results III: Focus Group Discussions

This section outlined lapses in service delivery and provided a general entry point forvariousCSOsdesigningtheirsocialaccountabilityinterventions.WeconductedFGDs with women in six districts from the Punjab province of Pakistan (including Lodran, Sialkot, Pakpattan and Jhang) and Khyber Pakhtunkwa Province (includ-ing Dera Ismail Khan and Upper Dir). We briefly discuss the results below.


Service Delivery in Education

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a participant in the FGD said that they did not send their children to government schools, because there was no accountability of govern-ment teachers. In the boys’ school there was also an additional problems of teacher absenteeism. Some comments included. ‘The teacher is not serious; he just goes around having meals at other people’s homes, not teaching’. Such an attitude basi-cally showed the lack of social accountability and interest of communities.

The problems with the education system in Punjab and its service delivery were different from those found in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Female participants reported that though there were plenty of government schools the public preferred private schools for their children. It was felt that children received better atten-tion in private schools. Furthermore, enabling facilities, including washrooms and drinking water, in female schools were missing.

Service Delivery in Health

FGD results from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa portrayed a dismal picture of the health situation in the province: there were no proper hospitals; the medical staff, if it wasthereatall,wasnotverysupportiveandonecouldseelongqueuesofpatientswaiting to receive treatment. Some of the participants also added that in their areas there were no lady health workers who could facilitate the treatment of female patients. Weak monitoring systems in the public sector health systems also undermined the effectiveness of grievance redressal mechanisms.

In the case of Punjab, there were clear differences seen in the rural and urban areas of Punjab. People from urban areas reported that there were many improve-ments in the hospital in the area; especially in the emergency wards. However, improvements depended on the availability of a good doctor. If he/she left things would fall apart again. In rural areas some irregularities were reported by female participants. For example, they said there were no medicines available in the hospitals. The likelihood of sustained disease and even death seemed higher in the case of female patients.

Water and Sanitation

Female participants from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported that getting clean drink-ingwaterwasquitedifficult.Manyof themhad togo fill cans from the riverwhich located 2–2.5 kilometres away from their home. With regard to sanitation there were no formal amenities. Said respondent: ‘Most of us go into the fields for urination or defecation.’ Some people would dig a hole in the ground and then build a temporary shed on the top. Some schemes and programmes had put in place by the government but the respondents showed dissatisfaction over the condition of sanitation facilities and clean water supply in the countryside and even in urban localities.

Sanitation and potable water was an issue in most districts of the Punjab, female participants reported there was contaminated water in their areas and but

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theirrequestforredressalwasnotbeingheardbythegovernment.Additionally,no collective effort was being made to tackle these basic necessities. From the FDGS it emerged that there were no sewage lines or septic tanks, and sometimes when water was drawn there sewage was found. The water systems were so inad-equateandunhygienicthatattimesdrinkingwaterhadthesmellofgutterwater.

Military Operation and Its Impact on the Social Sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Since 2008, more than five million people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the FATAhadbeenregisteredasdisplaced.AccordingtostatisticsfromtheUNOCHA,the military operations in North Waziristan (NW) and Bara Agency that began in 2014 further aggravated the situation, adding 770,000 to the count of internally displaced persons (IDPs).2 The huge influx of IDPs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had resultedinfurtherpressureonthealreadyinadequateservicesintheprovince.

Nearly half of IDPs children, in the age group of 5–18 years, were not attend-ing schools. The major reasons that were highlighted in the IVAP (2015) study were proximity to schools, unavailability of teachers, no separate schools for girls and children had to work to financially support their families. When asked about the use of government health facilities, significantly, a huge number of IDPs reported that they visited government health facilities in the region. The study also showed that those who visited government health facilities reported that institutionslackedpropermedicines,equipmentandfemaledoctors.Almostone-third of the IDPs surveyed by the study showed they were not using safe water for drinking which came from wells and canals.

Conclusion

This study essentially aimed to find out at the household level, possible social accountability tools, that could used for improving public service delivery. We also inquired from practitioners of social accountability in Pakistan, thecurrent and future challenges facing this issue at the local level. This paper used bothqualitativeandquantitative researchmethods toaccess thepotential risksand challenges to social accountability in Pakistan, and these results were validated through a comprehensive literature review.

The access to public service delivery of basic social services remained a challenge for the people living in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This situa-tion was further exacerbated by corruption in accessing entitlements and sluggish resolutionoflocalisedconflicts.Ourfindingssuggestedthatsocialaccountabilitymechanisms would need to be tailored for each of these issues if communities weretobeenabledindemandingbetterqualityservicesfromofficials.Thetailor-ing of such mechanisms would be aided by local political economy analysis.

The major challenge to social accountability was the volatile law and order situation spread across the country; fragmented government priorities; multipli- city of programmes by federal and provincial governments; flaws in the supply


side of service delivery; political intervention in the appointments of education and health officials; cultural norms that prevented participation of women, lack of local-levelresearchondriversofsocialaccountability;thelackofCSOsacceptanceby society and government; difficulties in carrying out impact assessments of pilot social accountability initiatives, weak follow-ups of existing initiatives and a lack of donor coordination on similar projects, which, in turn, threatened sustainability of existing initiatives. The households in most locations surveyed for this paper were found to be ignorant about the grievance redressal mechanisms in turn leading to a feeling of general helplessness.

Weaknesses in the implementation of local government acts by provincial governments were also one of the important reasons for poor service delivery and weak social accountability mechanisms in the country. The provincial assemblies, it was felt, should recognise how important a strong local government system was for good governance and an improved service delivery. Women were again marginalised in the new local government system, and in a number of districts they were even barred from using their very basic right of voting. The lack of civil service reform to improve public services was also missing in the current narrative.

We saw in this paper that current strategies, aimed at strengthening social accountability, were often found to be short term, while the long-term and sustain-abilitydimensionwereignored.Othermultipleissueswerealsobypassedwhileformulating such strategies such as the lack of trained human resources, enabling institutionsandtrainedCSOs.

Demand-side accountability could not achieve a level of sustainability until andunlessitwassupportedbyaresponsivesupply-sideaccountability.SoCSOsneeded to work simultaneously with the state machinery in order to strengthen and shape political will towards community development and to make both communities and officials responsive towards their responsibilities. In this respect, a game changer could be a deregulated media and relatively independent senior judiciary inPakistan.Both thesequartershad themandateand reach tobring to the attention of policy stakeholders issues that are critical to a society’s well-being.

Abbas and Ahmed 577

Appendix ANSA Framework

Tab

le A

1. F

ew Im

port

ant

Initi

ativ

es b

y C

ivil

Soci

ety

Org

anis

atio

ns in

Pak

ista

n

Maj

or P

artn

er O

rgan

isat

ions

Soci

al A

ccou

ntab

ility

App

roac

h/ P

roje

cts

Geo

grap

hica

l Cov

erag

e

The

Asi

a Fo

unda

tion

and

Free

Fai

r El

ectio

n N

etw

ork

(FA

FEN

) an

d T

rust

for

Dem

ocra

tic

Educ

atio

n an

d A

ccou

ntab

ility

(T

DEA

). D

onor

: USA

ID

Pro

ject

Nam

e: S

tren

gthe

ning

Citi

zens

Voi

ce a

nd P

ublic

A

ccou

ntab

ility

(C

itize

n’s

Voi

ce P

roje

ct)1

So

cial

Acc

oun

tabi

lity

(SA

) to

ol:

Mul

tiple

All

the

four

Pro

vinc

es o

f Pak

ista

n.

TD

EA a

nd T

he A

sia

Foun

datio

nD

onor

: Dep

artm

ent

for

Inte

rnat

iona

l D

evel

opm

ent

(DfID

), U

Kai

d.

Pro

ject

Nam

e: S

uppo

rtin

g T

rans

pare

ncy,

Acc

ount

abili

ty,

and

Elec

tora

l Pro

cess

es in

Pak

ista

n (S

TA

EP)2

SA

to

ols

: Civ

ic E

duca

tion,

Par

ticip

ator

y Pl

anni

ng, S

ocia

l Bu

dget

ing

etc.

All

the

four

Pro

vinc

es o

f Pak

ista

n.

Affi

liate

d N

etw

ork

for

Soci

al A

ccou

ntab

ility

(A

NSA

) an

d Su

stai

nabl

e D

evel

opm

ent

Polic

y In

stitu

te (

SDPI

)D

onor

: AN

SA

Pro

ject

Nam

e: E

quita

ble

Educ

atio

n in

Pak

ista

n:

Add

ress

ing

Gen

der

and

Rur

al-U

rban

gap

s in

Low

er

Seco

ndar

y Ed

ucat

ion

in P

akis

tan.

S

A t

oo

ls: C

itize

ns R

epor

t C

ard

(CR

C)

Raw

alpi

ndi a

nd Is

lam

abad

.

AN

SA a

nd C

entr

e fo

r Pe

ace

and

Dev

elop

men

t In

itiat

ive

Don

or: A

NSA

Pro

ject

Nam

e: P

rom

otin

g T

rans

pare

nt a

nd A

ccou

ntab

le

Reg

ime

for

Publ

ic p

rocu

rem

ent

Reg

ime

in P

akis

tan.

SA

to

ols

: Rig

ht t

o In

form

atio

n (R

TI)

and

Budg

et T

rack

ing.

Raw

alpi

ndi a

nd Jh

ang

AN

SA a

nd S

hehr

i-CBE

Don

or: A

NSA

Pro

ject

: Peo

ple

and

Land

: Em

pow

erin

g C

omm

uniti

es fo

r So

cial

Just

ice-

A C

ase

Stud

yS

A t

oo

ls: C

itize

ns S

core

Car

d

Rur

al K

arac

hi

Cen

tre

for

Civ

ic E

duca

tion

in P

akis

tan

Pro

ject

: Mul

tiple

initi

ativ

es o

n C

ivic

Edu

catio

n an

d in

volv

emen

t of

com

mun

ities

.S

A t

oo

ls: R

TI,

civi

c ed

ucat

ion

etc.

All

the

four

Pro

vinc

es o

f Pak

ista

n.

DA

I and

DFI

DP

roje

ct: I

lm Id

eas

SA

To

ols

: Dem

and

Acc

ount

abili

ty a

nd p

rom

ote

inno

vatio

n

in P

akis

tan’

s ed

ucat

ion

sect

or

All

the

four

Pro

vinc

es o

f Pak

ista

n.

(Tab

le A

1 co

ntin

ued)

Maj

or P

artn

er O

rgan

isat

ions

Soci

al A

ccou

ntab

ility

App

roac

h/ P

roje

cts

Geo

grap

hica

l Cov

erag

eJo

hn H

opki

ns U

nive

rsity

and

DFI

DP

roje

ct: E

mpo

wer

men

t, V

oice

and

Acc

ount

abili

ty fo

r

Bett

er H

ealth

and

Nut

ritio

nS

A t

oo

ls: T

BD

Khy

ber

Pakh

tunk

hwa

and

Punj

ab

CPD

I and

NED

Pro

ject

: Str

engt

heni

ng C

ivil

Soci

ety

to Im

prov

e

Acc

ount

abili

tyS

A T

oo

ls: B

udge

t T

rack

ing

and

Mon

itori

ng

Raw

alpi

ndi

Inte

rnat

iona

l Rep

ublic

an In

stitu

te (

IRI)

Pro

ject

: Dem

ocra

tic G

over

nanc

e A

ll th

e fo

ur P

rovi

nces

of P

akis

tan.

SA

To

ol:

Civ

ic E

ngag

emen

t an

d St

reng

then

ing

Polit

ical

Par

ties

Acc

ount

abili

ty L

abP

roje

ct: A

ccou

ntab

ility

Incu

bato

r Fl

agsh

ip P

rogr

am fo

r Y

oung

Le

ader

s in

Pak

ista

nA

ll th

e fo

ur P

rovi

nces

of P

akis

tan.

Nat

iona

l End

owm

ent

for

Dem

ocra

cy (

NED

)P

roje

ct: ‘

The

Aw

aken

ing’

A S

ocie

ty fo

r So

cial

& C

ultu

ral

Dev

elop

men

tS

A T

oo

ls: C

ivic

eng

agem

ent

Swat

, Khy

ber

Pakh

tunk

hwa

So

urce

: A

NSA

, Cen

tre

for

Civ

ic E

duca

tion,

The

Asi

a Fo

unda

tion,

NED

, Acc

ount

abili

ty la

b, IR

I, C

PDI,

DfID

and

SD

PI.

1

Ava

ilabl

e: h

ttp:

//asi

afou

ndat

ion.

org/

proj

ect/

proj

ects

earc

h.ph

p?co

untr

y=pa

kist

an#

2

Ibid

.

(Tab

le A

1 co

ntin

ued)


Notes

1. The views expressed are those of the authors and not of the Council of Social Development or Social Change.

2. For more details please visit: http://www.humanitarianresponse.info/system/files/ documents/files/PAK691_Pakistan_Humanitarian_Snapshot_Jan15_v1_A4_20150130_ 0.pdf

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