A Strategic Approach to Social Accountability in Pakistan

Abstract

This paper explores the progress of the Empowerment, Voice and Accountability for Better Health and Nutrition (EVA) project implemented by Palladium in partnership with the Centre for Communications Programmes Pakistan. EVA aims to empower, organise and facilitate Pakistan’s citizens to hold the provincial governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to account for the delivery of quality reproductive, maternal, new-born, child health and nutrition services (RMNCH-N). The paper situates the project within contemporary understandings of social accountability programming, and examines its approach to operationalising an adaptive, politically savvy and locally led way of working in a challenging context. It also comments upon the foundations of EVA’s early successes and its potential future directions as a way of offering guidance for similar projects. EVA is a five-year project (2014–19) funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in Pakistan. The project is a component of DFID Pakistan’s flagship maternal and child health project ‘The Provincial Health & Nutrition Programme’.