In late 2009, following three decades of gradual economic and governance reform by Vietnam’s one-party government, three organizations came together to implement a social audit across the country. The Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI)—a joint policy project of the United Nations Development Programme, the Vietnamese nongovernmental organization the Center for Community Support and Development Studies, and the Communist Party–affiliated Vietnam Fatherland Front—aimed to draw information about citizen perspectives into decision making in Vietnam. It also sought to formulate quantitative measures of provincial performance and governance. Based on public surveys, PAPI aimed to provide a reliable picture of citizen experiences with provincial government along six dimensions: participation in government at local levels, transparency, vertical accountability, control of corruption, implementation of and adherence to public administrative procedures, and public service delivery. By 2011, PAPI was able to measure governance quality in all 63 provinces in Vietnam. The survey project represented the nation’s first large-scale effort to systematically gather information about citizens’ experiences with their local and provincial governments. It also led some provincial governments to create action plans that would improve the services citizens received and boost the rankings of those provincial governments in the index.

Rachel Jackson drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Hanoi in July 2014. Case published December 2014.

Associated Interview:  Jairo Acuña-Alfaro

In the early 1980s, the poor condition of roads and other infrastructure in remote areas of the Philippines hindered economic growth and heightened regional inequalities. A major problem was the central government’s inability to follow through on its own improvement projects in far-flung regions of the 7,100-island archipelago. In 1986, President Corazon Aquino created the Community Employment and Development Program, which changed the way the government managed its rural public works program. Her administration empowered citizens to monitor the progress and quality of construction. In the northern province of Abra on the main island of Luzon, two dozen volunteers formed Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government to ensure that officials and contractors carried out their jobs faithfully. In 1987, the group alerted central government agencies to 20 incomplete projects and provided evidence on which to base a high-profile inquiry against a number of local officials. The group then went on to monitor about a hundred projects under Aquino’s development program. In 1988, the group earned a presidential citation as well as national and international recognition. Over the next two decades, Concerned Citizens expanded its activities to monitor more than 600 infrastructure projects valued at 300 million pesos (US$7 million), including roads, school buildings, irrigation systems, and bridges. This case study illustrates the challenges associated with citizen monitoring, a form of short-route accountability.