This issue of ANSA-EAP Learning Brief tells the story of how social accountability is being mainstreamed in large, well established nongovernmental organizations like Oxfam Great Britain. Five country teams have been participating in a series of learning and capacity building activities from October 2009 up to present. These are country teams from Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
Most of the country teams chose to imbed social accountability tools in ongoing projects on effective governments (Vietnam, Cambodia), poor women’s economic leadership (Indonesia, Philippines), and building resilient communities (Philippines).
While social accountability tools are not entirely new to most of the country teams, a lot of work needs to be done in customizing the tools to suit the local context and in imbedding social accountability to conceptual frameworks and tools currently being used by OGB particularly power analysis and gender.
The story of social accountability in OGB is still unfolding. The process of learning and unlearning is a long and hard way that requires time, strong commitment from the top-level management, and close collaboration with partner organizations working on the ground.