Social accountability: a primer for civil society organizations working in family planning and reproductive health.

The right to freely and responsibly decide if when and how many children to have has been enshrined in numerous international treaties conventions and political consensus documents. Governments are obligated to manifest their international commitments to family planning and reproductive health and rights through their policies and funded programs at the national state/province and local level. Yet the reality on the ground is that for most countries worldwide from the least to the most developed countries governments fail in many respects to operationalize these international commitments. In recent years the international development community has turned its attention to the role of accountability in achieving greater impact of development interventions.Social accountability is characterized primarily by the active involvement of citizens engaging with government decision-making processes to ensure government fulfills its commitments and implements policies and programs appropriately. While the FP/RH community has a long-standing commitment to advocacy and social mobilization to advance reproductive rights some social accountability concepts and interventions are relatively new to the FP/RH community. This guidance document is a primer for CSOs working in health that are looking to initiate or expand activities aimed to hold government entities accountable for delivering on their national and international commitments related to family planning/reproductive health and rights. This document provides: An overview of current concepts of social accountability; A synopsis of common methodologies and tools used by civil society to engage in social accountability; Ideas and examples on how social accountability can be used to further FP/RH within a country; Suggestions on what elements CSOs might take into consideration when deciding to implement a particular methodology; A selection of documents and resources that may be helpful in implementing social accountability activities.