In El Salvador, Joining Forces has adopted World Vision’s social accountability approach, Citizen Voice and Action (CVA), to equip 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 and then communities also rate services performance using criteria that they themselves define, using an adaptation of the “community score card”.
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 are 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.
Joining Forces has adopted World Vision’s CVA programme in El Salvador where groups of girls feel now more empowered thanks to this methodology.