Mutual accountability puts forward a means to ensure that development actors hold one another accountable. This means that actions are answered for, that performance is evaluated and that changes and sanctions are enforced if necessary. The concept of mutual accountability attempts to address the imbalance in power and accountability among donors, recipient governments, civil society organisations (CSOs) and citizens. This paper underlines why and how mutual accountability needs to be part of a broader effort to promote accountability to poor and marginalised people. For mutual accountability to be effective, it must be grounded firmly in policies, institutions and processes that support the demand side of accountability and that involve ordinary people in the decisions which affect their lives. This is critical to realising a wider rights-based approach to development.

Key Recommendations

• Donors and governments should promote genuine local and democratic ownership of development processes so that the ultimate beneficiaries of aid, the poor and marginalised, are empowered. A rights-based approach to mutual accountability requires a change in the implementation of the new aid modalities, such as general budget support (GBS), to support the greater involvement of parliaments, local governments and civil society.
• Donors and governments should ensure an enabling environment that strengthens civil society’s role in supporting the poorest and most marginalised groups, especially women, to have a voice in policy and to hold those in power to account. One way of doing this is through the creation of local funds. It is essential that the processes that govern the functioning of local funds ensure outreach, and that they be defined in consultation with civil society, so as to respect and nurture CSOs’ diverse approaches to bringing about change.
• In post-conflict situations, donors and partner governments should negotiate binding ‘compacts’ that establish their respective financial and political obligations to address the root causes of violence, promote recovery and consolidate peace. Such compacts should include clear benchmarks and timelines, and should be reviewed through regular and transparent processes at country and international levels. Towards this end, donors and United Nations (UN) agencies should give direct support to the empowerment of civil society to participate in the design and monitoring of such compacts and to hold duty-bearers to account.