Cornwall, Andrea; Lucas, Henry; Pasteur, Kath. 2000. "Accountability through participation: developing workable partnership models in the health sector".

Cornwall, Andrea; Lucas, Henry; Pasteur, Kath. 2000. "Accountability through participation: developing workable partnership models in the health sector". IDS Bulletin. Vol. 31 No. 1, January 2000. pp 1-13.

The IDS Participation and Health and Social Change Groups convened a workshop in October 1999 to share experiences in the use of participatory approaches in enhancing accountability in the health sector, and to explore some of these challenges. The papers mentioned in this introductory article to the bulletin reflect some of the valuable experience on the ground in building effective participation as well as some of the many issues that arise in moving towards more active citizen engagement with service providers. The authors bring experience from current and ongoing work to reflect the links between participation, accountability and improvement in health. The workshop explicitly aimed to reflect on experiences that were moderately successful, in order to identify potential elements that contribute to and impede the success of efforts to build accountability through participation. The article is divided into the following sections: 1) The health sector context; 2) The changing role of participation in health; 3) Accountability: to whom, by whom and for what: 4) Partnership and participation (partnership in theory, and in practice; new partnership models); 5) Accountability through participation (partnership for accountability; enhancing genuine community control; participation and accountability in disabling environments; improving transparency; and enhancing accountability through participation); and 6) Directions for the future: linking participation, accountability and partnerships to improve health outcomes. Two checklists are included: the first takes into account some of the complex layers, levels and procedures that need to be considered when determining how best to enhance transparency for improved accountability; the second highlights a series of key themes, including the centrality of mechanisms for the inclusion of diverse stakeholders, for the provision of appropriate information at each level and for different purposes, for establishing and enforcing agreements between different parties, and for decision-making, monitoring and ensuring transparency.

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