Child-led Social Accountability

Last registered on March 14, 2023

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Child-led Social Accountability

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0003105

Initial registration date

June 22, 2018

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

June 22, 2018, 4:15 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

March 14, 2023, 3:30 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Bangladesh

Region

Dhaka, Satkhira

Primary Investigator

Name

Akshay Dixit

Affiliation

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Sulaiman Munshi

PI Affiliation

BRAC International

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2016-11-01

End date

2020-06-30

Keywords

Education, Governance, Health, Other

Additional Keywords

Children's empowerment

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

How to hold education and health service providers accountable for the quality of services they deliver, and how to empower service users to voice their concerns, is a question relevant across all contexts. A collaboration of three NGOs in Bangladesh has been piloting an innovative approach to achieve this objective. The child-led social accountability (CLSA) approach involves organising and informing groups of children to monitor quality of services provided at education and health facilities, hold discussions with service providers to determine actions to address their concerns, and follow up on progress against the agreed actions. This study evaluates the impact of the CLSA approach.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Dixit, Akshay and Sulaiman Munshi. 2023. "Child-led Social Accountability." AEA RCT Registry. March 14. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3105-5.1

Former Citation

Dixit, Akshay and Sulaiman Munshi. 2023. "Child-led Social Accountability." AEA RCT Registry. March 14. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3105/history/173973

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The overall objective of the Child-led Social Accountability (CLSA) project is to contribute to the realization of children’s rights to health and education through increased accountability and responsiveness of primary health and education service delivery in Bangladesh.
The specific objective is to design and test a child led social accountability framework, to improve the accountability and responsiveness of primary health and education improved service delivery.

The following activities were envisaged to achieve the above objectives:
I. Stakeholder mobilization
This component involves introducing the project to the key “audience” (including local government officials and representatives, service providers, youth, and children) and encouraging them to participate.

II. Service assessments & Interface
i. Information: Children are informed of their rights and entitlements, with a focus on those specific to education and health.
ii. Social accountability tools: Children, service providers, and local government representatives co-design social accountability tools to monitor service delivery

III. Accountability for service improvement
i. Action Plans: Children discuss their issues with service providers, and children and service providers agree on certain actions that providers will take to improve the quality of service delivery
ii. Follow-up on Action Plans: Children follow-up on the progress against the Action Plan.
iii. Refresher information sessions for children

Intervention Start Date

2017-06-01

Intervention End Date

2018-05-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

1. Access to health/education services for deprived groups of children
2. Quality of health/education service delivery
3. Children's wellbeing (health, education and protection outcomes)
4. Children's agency
5. Children's democratic values

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Quality of service delivery - Facility infrastructure; Presence & functionality of feedback mechanism; Provider effort/engagement; Children’s perceptions of quality
Children's Agency - Grit scale; Locus of Control scale
Democratic Values - Political Communication; Political Awareness; Democratic Agency; Tolerance
See pre-analysis plan for a full description.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The experimental design involves two arms:
1. Treatment - Including all components described in the intervention section.
2. Comparison - Including the stakeholder mobilization component, and the information aspect of the service assessments component.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

The 62 education/health facilities were randomly assigned to the two experimental arms via paired random assignment.
Further, the group of participating children in the treatment group was randomly divided into 3 groups of approximately equal size for each facility. This randomization was stratified by age (younger/older than the median age), gender, and whether the child’s guardian completed at least primary school.

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes