Muhammad
Hamza Abbas
Vaqar
Ahmed

Abstract

The study 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 informant interviews, the findings of the study reveal that
the respondents have an understanding of which basic services they are entitled
to and are not being facilitated by the public sector service providers. Owing to
trust deficit between communities and state administration, there is a dire
need for establishing and reforming formal and informal mechanisms to redress
people’s grievances. On the other hand, with over half of Pakistani population
not having any formal education, communities need to be trained in social
accountability tools so that they may get their rights and entitlements. The Civil
Society Organisations (CSOs), which have been working in Pakistan for over two
decades, urgently need to introduce innovative methods for community
mobilization. The CSOs are also facing severe internal and external security
threats, which are impacting the effectiveness of community level
accountability exercises. While we take a stock of such challenges, there is a
renewed hope that the government and donor community will support local level
CSOs in mitigating the threats to sustainability of social accountability
interventions.

Key Words: Social accountability, Communities, Pakistan, Service
Delivery, CSOs