The common populace does not have access to meaningful mechanisms to gain access to information, redress grievances and to generally feed their input in the policy, planning and implementation processes of institutional governance. A positive service provider and service receiver relationship is not present.
Social accountability tools are used to tackle this problem, which strengthen the ability of service users and civil society groups to demand greater accountability from service providers. They are designed in a way that beneficiaries of a project or service have an enabling mechanism to have a greater say in the planning and implementation process and also that the resulting projects and services are managed in a transparent manner with due regards to the importance of social accountability.