Ensuring acceptability of service through accountability

The panel, authored by Adriane Martin-Hilber and Louise Hulton, highlights specific examples of citizens and civil society holding decision-makers to account for high-quality maternal and newborn health services.

Featured examples include E4A’s efforts to collect and package evidence on quality of care, ranging from maternal death surveillance and response systems (Ethiopia, Sierra Leone) to facility scorecards (Sierra Leone and Ghana) and a Countdown case study (Tanzania).

The panel also discusses how this evidence can best be used within local accountability mechanisms. This includes facilitating district health management team meetings to review scorecards (Sierra Leone), strengthening the office of the district Ombudsman (Malawi), or setting up formal independent accountability mechanisms (Nigeria).

The piece stresses the importance of an enabling environment in promoting accountability, from transparent budgets to a unified civil society working together under a platform such as MamaYe to effect change.