World Vision's social accountability approach, Citizen Voice and Action (CVA), equips communities to hold their own governments accountable for the promises they make. CVA works by educating citizens about their rights and equipping them to advocate for improvements to basic services.

First, communities learn about basic service rights, such as how many teachers or nurses the government promises them under formal standards or local law. These standards become a part of a mini- social audit where the standard is compared against the reality in individual clinics, schools, water access or extension services. Then communities have the opportunity to rate government’s performance against subjective criteria that they themselves generate, using an adaptation of the “community score card”. For example, women often say that nursing staff may be rude or disrespectful and they want their attitude to improve.

Finally, communities work with all stakeholders to influence decision-makers to improve services through ‘town hall’ style meetings where all the data about a service is shared and an action plan to deliver improvements is agreed. Ongoing advocacy to achieve the plan is a key part of the process going forward.

In 2020, World Vision's CVA programme is used in more than 47 countries and more than 700 programmes in several thousand health clinics, schools and other service points such as water access, extension services and child protection.