The Resilient Roots team has been trying to understand how primary constituent accountability has impacted the policies and practices of our 14 national partner organisations. Watch the interviews below to hear first-hand what Resilient Roots has learned about the value, resourcing and relevance of primary constituent accountability in today’s context!

• How does primary constituent accountability add value to the work of civil society organisations? Part 1 and Part 2 (with Spanish and French subtitles)
• Why should we invest in primary constituent accountability?

• What should you know before starting your accountability journey? 
• Why is primary constituent accountability relevant to closing civic space?

To illustrate what primary constituent accountability mechanisms actually look like in practice, we have produced a series of infographics outlining some of the real-life examples that our Resilient Roots national partners have developed. Each infographic provides some key context about the organisation, before explaining their specific constituent-related needs, the process by which the mechanism works, and the impact it has had so far.

FemPlatz: Boosting Engagement Through Art Using visual materials to inspire and mobilise young feminists in Serbia
Video Volunteers: WhatsApp ‘Plus’ (Ke Nuskhe) Creating infographics to bolster WhatsApp conversations with Community Correspondents in India
Avanzar: Consejos Promotores con Públicos Principales Construyendo espacios de encuentro y de toma de decisiones verdaderamente inclusivos
Poverty Reduction Forum Trust: Community Scorecards Training members of the community to administer a tool for enhancing dialogue between the organisation and its constituents.
Kusi Warma: El teatro participativo y una política institucional de rendición de cuentas Como usar herramientas artísticas para co-crear propuestas de rendición de cuentas compartidas

Haga click aquí para la versión en español | cliquez ici pour la version française

The aim of the Resilient Roots initiative is to test whether organisations who are more accountable and responsive to their roots - namely, their primary constituents - are more resilient to external threats from governmental and non-governmental sources. We believe that if civil society is accountable to and engaged with its constituency, it will be able to rely more upon them to come to its defence, bridge resourcing gaps, and safeguard its long-term sustainability when it is under political or structural attack. Our approach involves prioritising innovation, taking calculated risks, embracing failure, and most importantly sharing what we learn from our pilot partners with a broader community of interested stakeholders. The initiative consists of three main components; (1) providing support to fifteen pilot partners in diverse geographies and civil society contexts around the globe, (2) improving civil society accountability and determining its relationship with resilience, and (3) fostering an environment of peer-learning and wider uptake.

This article focuses on the second component and in particular, the approach the Resilient Roots team is taking to measure changes in accountability over the course of the initiative among the pilot partners. In it you will find an overview of our methodology and some recommendations of things to consider when setting up your own mechanisms for measuring accountability. We are still working to improve our methodology and invite you to use it yourself, share your experiences with us and provide feedback on our approach. Please also share any similar approaches that you are aware of, or that you have used in your organisation with Resilient Roots ().

Read the full article