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Civil Society and Accountability in Rwanda

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posted on 2024-09-05, 20:49 authored by Zenobia Ismail
This rapid review synthesises evidence on civil society and accountability in Rwanda including any particular evidence of the role of donors and the impact of their support. The review finds that the evidence on the impact of social accountability interventions is mixed; however, interventions have been more successful in reducing corruption than enhancing service delivery. Recent scholarship on social accountability notes that the theory of change which assumes that transparency leads to accountability relies on the premise that citizens, including marginalised groups, have agency to effect change. However, this premise is overly optimistic in most developing countries (Fox, 2015). Consequently, there is a push for adapting programmes to suit local conditions (Wild et al., 2015), and for the ‘sandwich strategy’ which requires that multiple coalitions advocate for accountability (Fox, 2015). Furthermore, CSOs play a useful role as intermediaries which purvey information in user-friendly formats and advocate for accountability on behalf of the community (van Zyl, 2014). Another finding of the review is voice and accountability interventions which are targeted directly at women and other marginalised groups have yielded some impact on empowerment (Joshi, 2013).

Funding

Department for International Development, UK Government

History

Publisher

IDS

Citation

Ismail, Z. (2018). Civil Society and Accountability in Rwanda. K4D Helpdesk Report. Birmingham UK: University of Birmingham

Series

K4D Helpdesk Report 412

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

IDS Item Types

Helpdesk

Copyright holder

© DFID - Crown copyright 2018.

Country

Rwanda

Language

en

Project identifier

K4D::238a9fa4-fe4a-4380-996b-995f33607ba0::600

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