Closing the feedback loop: can technology bridge the accountability gap?

Enhanced transparency, accountability,
and government or donor responsiveness to people needs are
imperative to achieve better and more sustainable
development results on the ground. The rapid spread of new
technologies is transforming the daily lives of millions of
poor people around the world and has the potential to be a
real game changer for development. Improved accountability
and responsiveness are critical for reaching the goals of
eliminating extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity
with a focus on improving the well-being of the most
vulnerable and marginalized groups in society. Within the
broader political economy context, many questions remain
unanswered about the role that new technologies can play to
act as an accelerator for closing the accountability gap.
Within this context, this report brings together new
evidence from leading academics and practitioners on the
effects of technology-enabled citizen engagement. The report
aims to address the following four main questions: how do
new technologies empower communities through participation,
transparency, and accountability?; are technologies an
accelerator for closing the accountability gap - the space
between supply (governments, service providers) and demand
(citizens, communities,civil society organizations) that
must be bridged for open and collaborative governance?;
under what conditions does this occur?; and what are the
experiences and lessons learned from existing grassroots
innovators and donor-supported citizen engagement and
crowdsourcing programs, and how can these programs be
replicated or scaled up?. The report presents a theoretical
framework about the linkages between new technologies,
participation, empowerment, and the improvement of poor
people's human well-being based on Amartya Sen's
capability approach. The book provides rich case studies
about the different factors that influence whether or not
information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled
citizen engagement programs can improve the delivery and
quality of public services to poor communities. The report
analyzes in depth both the factors and process of using new
technologies to enhance the delivery of primary health
services to pregnant women in Karnataka, India, and of
several community mapping and crowdsourcing programs in
Guinea, Haiti, Kenya, Libya, Sudan, and other countries.