With social accountability practitioners in Africa and elsewhere as their chief audience, McNeil (governance practice, World Bank Institute) and Malena, a political sociologist and independent
consultant associated with the Participatory Governance Programme of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, collect seven case studies of social accountability initiatives in the
African context. The case studies are by social accountability practitioners associated with initiatives by civil society groups and local and national governments that empower citizens to
exercise their rights and hold governments accountable for the use of public funds and how they exercise authority, and describe their experiences in designing, promoting, and applying
strategies and illustrate their implementation in Zimbabwe, Ghana, Malawi, Benin, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Senegal and issues like difficult political environments, access to information, the low
readability of information, what happens when government and civil society work together, responses to the needs of women and children, and implementation challenges faced in decentralized and
centralized environments. Annotation 穢2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
