In the course of doing its work in the country and in the region, ANSA-EAP inevitably encountered situations where it had to grapple with and articulate the nuances between two different yet quite related concepts, that of social accountability (SAc) and anti-corruption.
Admittedly, “social accountability” is a more recent framing of the actions necessary to strengthen the democratisation and empowerment of citizens in advancing the agenda of good governance. Many of those working under the social accountability banner, including those from ANSA-EAP, come from an anti-corruption background.
This led to the use of interchanging concepts often obfuscating the porous divide between social accountability and anti-corruption.
On the other hand, there were also instances when discussions tended to make comparative assessments between social accountability and anti-corruption.
Situations such as this have led to a realization of a need to understand and clearly articulate the hairline distinctions and intertwined dynamics between anti-corruption and social accountability.
It is in this context that an inception paper on social accountability and anti-corruption was developed.