Information for accountability: Transparency and citizen engagement for improved service delivery in education systems

Abstract

The primary aim of this report is to explore the underlying assumptions behind information-based initiatives, understand under what conditions information can lead to improved service delivery (and ultimately improved education quality and student learning), and to clarify the main mechanisms by which information generates increased engagement, accountability, or improved decisionmaking at the school level. This paper achieves these objectives by summarizing and building on recent large-scale conceptual frameworks and a growing evidence base of impact evaluations; extracting lessons from a number of case studies (see Box 1) to supplement the existing literature and provide nuanced insight into processes and mechanisms behind reform efforts; and compiling, synthesizing, and categorizing recent impact evaluations according to the intensity of interventions and their target change agents (parents, teachers, school principals, and local officials) rather than separately assessing each tactic (for example, school report cards or open data platforms). This report aims to add value in three ways: 1. Reconciling the vast literature on what can broadly be understood as bottom-up efforts to improve service delivery, increase citizen engagement, and promote transparency, particularly open data and social accountability, which tend to be treated separately in the literature due to different intellectual foundations. 2. Providing a sector-specific evaluation, whereas most analyses take a high-level approach that spans different types of service providers, or are education-specific but address multiple types of interventions simultaneously. 3. Applying a particular focus on low- and middle income countries, made possible by an influx of new research in the area.