Community Scorecards (CSC), are a tool used to monitor and evaluate the performance of services, projects, and even government administrative units by the communities themselves.
Problems and Purpose
Social accountability tools are increasingly recognized as a means of improving service delivery and governance through civic engagement. Community scorecards (CSCs) are citizen-driven accountability measures that enhance citizens' civic involvement and voices and complement conventional supply-side mechanisms of accountability, such as political checks and balances, accounting and auditing systems, administrative rules, and legal procedures. As a community-based social accountability tool, the CSC allows citizens to participate directly or indirectly in demanding accountability from service providers and public officials and can be used to gather feedback from service users and improve communication between communities and service providers.[1]
Origins and Development
Participant Recruitment and Selection
How it Works: Process, Interaction, and Decision-Making
In the United States, the CSC has been piloted as a strategic planning and performance management tool for communities to make informed decisions about critical issues for civic accountability. In Africa and Asia, the CSC has been successfully integrated with healthcare, education, sanitation and other sectors, resulting in increased community ownership to services, trust of public institutions and healthcare providers, and enhanced performance of health facilities, resulting in improved equity, access, quality and healthcare.[2]
The CSC process generally includes the use of focus groups and facilitated interface meetings which provide service users with the opportunity to give systematic and constructive feedback to service providers about their performance. Face-to-face meetings also help service providers learn directly from service users about which aspects of their services and programs are working well and which aspects are not.[3]
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
Analysis and Lessons Learned
See Also
References
[1] David Post, Sanjay Agarwal, and Varsha Venugopal, "Rapid Feedback: The Role of Community Scorecards in Improving Service Delivery," The World Bank, 2014, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/18975?locale-attribute=es
[2] Anbrasi Edward, Kojo Osei-Bonsu, Casey Branchini, Temor shah Yarghal, Said Habib Arwal, and Ahmad Jan Naeem. "Enhancing governance and health system accountability for people centered healthcare: an exploratory study of community scorecards in Afghanistan." BMC health services research 15, no. 1 (2015): 299.
[3] David Post, Sanjay Agarwal, and Varsha Venugopal, "Rapid Feedback: The Role of Community Scorecards in Improving Service Delivery," The World Bank, 2014, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/18975?locale-attribute=es