Social Audit

A social audit is a tool to evaluate programmes, schemes and activities, often used by government-run service delivery agencies. As a concept, ‘social audit’ was introduced in 1972 by Charles Medawar to promote corporate, governmental and professional accountability. The underlying principle of the social audit is that a decision-maker, in any democratic system, should be accountable for the use of power and that power should be used in consultation and understanding with the people who are affected by the use of that power. At a later stage, this concept evolved as a tool, especially among corporations, to report their contribution to the overall development of society and to receive feedback from the community on their contribution.

Some organizations use this tool to evaluate their impact on the environment and employment in case of closure and/or relocation of an enterprise. Initially, these evaluations were completed without a shared structure, method or criteria, and the concept was used [Page 703]more as a social concept than as an economic concept. Further, community-based organizations use this tool in the interest of the community to interrogate physical and social assets, natural resources and other needs. Recently, some non-government organizations, mostly in the developing countries, have started using this tool very frequently and on a large scale.

The social audit is a process in which the details of the financial and non-financial resources used by public agencies for development initiatives are collected, analyzed and then shared with the community. Different stakeholders, like community people, department officials, representatives of implementing agencies and office bearers of the institution or local government, participate in this audit. The sharing takes place on a public platform. Ultimately, the process provides users an opportunity to scrutinize developmental activities, methods of decision-making, the pattern of expenditure, and more, and it allows people to enforce transparency and accountability in those activities. Social audits strengthen downward accountability and help give voice to the poor and marginalized.

Different approaches are popular in different countries to conduct social audits. One very common approach to conduct a social audit is a ‘campaign’ linked with awareness generation activities within the community at various levels. In this method, community members form groups, collect information from various sources and develop their knowledge related to various aspects of a particular development project. In this process, they also try to develop knowledge of the respondents (and other stakeholders).

Some government agencies conduct social audits using pre-designed formats. These agencies collect data, with limited engagement of the community, and share that with higher authorities, again with limited engagement of the community. Since this method does not promote community engagement, it also does not generate knowledge among the community members.

Another approach to social audits is facilitated mostly by civil society organizations, in which they engage volunteers, mostly from outside the community, and collect data to share in a public hearing attended by government officials. With this process, they try to generate knowledge among community members and local officials, through engaging external expertise and resources.

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