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Monitoring Free Maternal Health Services for institutional delivery in Uttar Pradesh, India

Jashodhara Dasgupta The women leaders of the grassroots organization, Mahila Swasthya Adhikar Manch (MSAM in Uttar Pradesh India) conducted a neighborhood survey in 188 revenue villages of 18 blocks in 10 districts of Uttar Pradesh, to assess  women’s experiences of accessing ‘free’ maternal health services in Government hospitals between Sep’11 and March’12. The non-literate women used a […]

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

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 itthat, “citizen voice can be pivotal in providing the demand-side pressure on government, service providers, and organizations such as the […]

Taxation and Accountability: Experimental Evidence for Taxation’s Effect on Citizen Behavior

A paper by Lucy Martin (Yale) In sub-Saharan Africa, low taxes co-exist with even lower government accountability, seen in high levels of corruption and low public goods provision. While there are existing theories of why taxation might be linked to better governance, many of the microfoundations of this eff ect remain unclear. I argue that taxation impacts governance by […]

State Culmination and Review Programme, Community Based Monitoring in Maharashtra, India

Significant improvements presented, major unresolved health system issues raised. by Abhay Shukla Community based monitoring of health services, a process for health system accountability being implemented with support from National Rural Health Mission, completed five years in June 2012. As part of this process in Maharashtra, a State Level Culmination and Review programme in the […]

Transparency and accountability: Bringing the politics back in

By Alina Rocha Menocal Over the past two decades, citizen- led initiatives to hold power holders to account have taken the world by storm. The promise embedded in such efforts- that more enlightened and engaged citizens demanding greater accountability around issues that they care about can have a decisive impact in improving development effectiveness, the […]

How can fiscal transparency lead to better accountability and development?

For people interested in transparency and its impact on development, these are very interesting times. The last few years have seen a flurry of international initiatives aimed at promoting transparency in a variety of areas of government action. The Open Government Partnership, launched in 2011, already has more than 50 member governments who have undertaken to promote transparency […]

How Do We Know We Are Making A Difference? Challenges Before the Practitioner of Community Monitoring Processes in Assessing Progress and Evaluating Impacts

By Dr. Abhijit Das Community based monitoring is emerging as a promising practice for improving programme effectiveness and as a key component of rights-based implementation of health programmes. One of the challenges of this approach is to demonstrate that it is yielding results. Community based monitoring is often seen as a process intensive intervention, which […]

Ethical Issues in Community Based Monitoring of Health Programmes: Reflections from India

By Renu Khanna This paper explores the different sets of power relationships and resultant ethical dilemmas that arise when developing community monitoring systems. Community Based Monitoring and Planning, as part of the Government of India’s strategy to achieve quality health care within the National Rural Health Mission, is used as an exploratory case study. The […]