Opening the Black Box

Opening the Black Box: Contextual Drivers of Social Accountability fills an important knowledge gap by providing guidance on how to assess contextual drivers  of  social  accountability  effectiveness.  This  publication  aims  to more strategically support citizen engagement at the country level and for a  specific  issue  or  problem.The  report  proposes  a  novel  framing  of  social accountability  as  the  interplay  of  constitutive  elements:  citizen  action  and state action, supported by three enabling levers: civic mobilization, interface and information. For each of these constitutive elements, the report identifies 'drivers' of contextual effectiveness which take into account a broad range of contextual factors (e.g., social, political and intervention-based, including information  and  communication  technologies).Opening  the  Black  Box offers  detailed  guidance  on  how  to  assess  each  driver.  It  also  applies  the framework at two levels. At the country level, the report looks at 'archetypes' of  challenging  country  contexts,  such  as  regimes  with  no  formal  space  or full  support  for  citizen-state  engagement  and  fragile  and  conflict-affected situations. The report also illustrates the use of the framework to analyze specific social accountability interventions through four case studies: Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Yemen, and the Kyrgyz Republic.