ANSA South Asia Region (ANSA-SAR) & Global are currently coordinated from the Institute of Governance Studies, BRAC University, Dhaka. The Affiliated Networks for Social Accountability (ANSA) are an initiative to promote, strengthen and sustain social accountability knowledge and praxis globally. Social Accountability refers to the ways and means in which citizens can hold public institutions accountable in terms of delivering public services, improving people's welfare and protecting people's rights and entitlements. Funded by the World Bank Institute, currently there are three regional ANSA hubs – Africa, East Asia Pacific, and South Asia, as well as a Global Seed Fund component to promote ANSA in different regions.
The primary objective of ANSA-SAR & Global is to enhance and scale up social accountability and governance initiatives in the South Asia Region and elsewhere, through providing project grants to civil society organizations, giving academic fellowships to young scholars and building capacities and competencies within both state and civil society institutions.
ANSA-SAR has already partnered with organizations from 7 countries, namely, Argentina, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Kyrgyz Republic, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, in its initial round of activities.
The strategy for South Asia Region will be to connect an active but highly dispersed community of practitioners and enabling practices and facilitate cross learnings and exchanges. For the Global component, the seed funds will be used to stimulate discourses and start-up activities in regions where social accountability practices are in its infancy.
Four select niche areas are being addressed primarily, including:
- Climate Change – Adaptation and Mitigation
- Right to Information
- Procurement
- Citizen Watchdogs (Third Party Monitoring)
These areas will be addressed through the following measures:
- Advancement of knowledge around social accountability concepts & praxis – Commissioning Case Studies, Academic Fellowships, generating knowledge products like Toolkits, Manuals etc.
- Promotion of practices – Commissioning medium to large Civil Society Grants to initiate Action Projects that stimulate and/or deepen social accountability projects and programs.
- Facilitation of learning and sharing capacity building events – Designing & conducting workshops and conferences
- Strengthening of Communities of Practices – Facilitating creation and sustenance of coalitions and networks
The ANSA website can be reached at www.ansa-sar.org
