Do They Work? Assessing the Impact of Transparency and Accountability Initiatives in Service Delivery

Transparency and accountability initiatives (TAIs) have emerged as a key strategy for improving public services, but the links between transparency and accountability and their impact on service delivery are often largely assumed. This article reviews several TAIs to assess their impact. It finds evidence suggesting that a range of accountability initiatives have been effective in their immediate goals and have had a strong impact on public services in a few cases, but that overall evidence of impact on the quality and accessibility of services is more mixed.

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