Social Accountability as a Form of Civic Education: An Experiment in Bangladesh

• In Event: Political Learning: Teaching Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes

Abstract

How can civic competencies – a sense of agency and autonomy, the capacity for civic action and political participation – be enhanced among young people? Approaches to civic education often focus on student learning within the classroom, or on encouraging young people to be involved in community service. I propose a novel approach to civic education that enables young people to hold their local government accountable, i.e. social accountability as a form of civic education. I refer to this as “child-centered social accountability” (CCSA).

By providing young people with a platform to engage actively with local governance and service delivery in their communities, this approach builds collective- as well as policy-oriented action. CCSA can strengthen young people’s civic competencies in a variety of ways. Communicating with local government officials and service providers about the practical details of public service provision is akin to a hands-on lesson in aspects of governance, such as the roles of various actors in the service bureaucracy, and administrative/political decision-making. Further, the objective of CCSA is for young people to collectively reflect on the quality of services their community receives, and then try to influence that quality. This requires the development and exercise of capacity for civic action. It involves working in groups where different individuals are likely to have differing backgrounds and opinions.

I test the approach in both urban as well as rural Bangladesh with 36 schools and 26 health facilities, involving nearly 3,000 young people of ages 9-17. The intervention, implemented by local civil society organizations, consisted of an Information component and an Accountability component. The Information component informed young people of their rights and entitlements to education and healthcare. The Accountability component engaged them in conversation with their school/health clinic authorities and local government officials, giving them the platform to convey their feedback and demand action to improve the services they receive.

I randomly assign each education/health facility to one of two groups, a full Treatment group, and an Information-only group. This design reveals the causal impact of the “Accountability” component of the intervention, separate from Information alone. Within the treatment group, I also randomly vary the timing of young people’s participation, which allows me to infer whether any impacts sustain beyond participation in the intervention.

I find evidence to suggest that the treatment led to a robust impact of more than 0.3 standard deviations on young people’s self-efficacy, measured using indices for Locus of Control and Grit. Furthermore, participation in CCSA had significant impacts on young people’s political efficacy vis-à-vis their local and National governments. Evidence also suggests that participation in CCSA triggered a more general curiosity for government/politics among young people. Political knowledge in the treatment group was remarkably higher relative to the comparison group (with an effect size of nearly 0.8 standard deviations). Treatment group participants were also significantly more likely to talk about government or politics, or to read/watch political news. Moreover, these impacts sustained well after their participation in the intervention concluded, suggesting longer-term effects.

Author

• Akshay Govind Dixit, Harvard University