The publication is intended to serve as a knowledge resource to support policy-makers, public policy practitioners, law-makers, public institutions, public managers, the research and academic community, civil society, donor organisations, international and multilateral development agencies and all those actively involved and concerned with the subject of the ‘governance-accountability’ nexus in Africa.

Since the first ANSA-Africa stakeholder conference held in December 2006 there has been an expansion of new African networks for social accountability learning, knowledge sharing and capacity building in more than 1600 organisations across the African continent. These mirror similar trends which have emerged on the Indian subcontinent and in the Philippines with the expansion of the ANSA model. This is reflective of the growing global concern with good governance as a prerequisite for sustainable development.

 

The collective challenge confronting proponents of social accountability is how best to galvanise and institutionalise social accountability and the possibilities it presents at continental, sub-regional, country and local levels.