Public accountability has re-emerged as a top priority for health systems all over the world, and particularly in developing countries where governments have often failed to provide adequate public sector services for their citizens. One approach to strengthening public accountability is through direct involvement of clients, users or the general public in health delivery, here termed 'communit...

1.0 Introduction Public accountability pertains to the obligations of persons or entities entrusted with public resources to be answerable for the fiscal, managerial and program responsibilities that have been conferred on them, and to report to those that have conferred these responsibilities (INTOSAI).4 From this definition of public accountability it is clear that the public entities that ut...

Two notions of accountability embodied in proposals to reform managed care have different ethical implications. Market accountability requires plans to inform purchasers and consumers about performance and options, in theory legitimizing limits to care through consumer choice. Recognizing the limits of consumer choice, accountability for reasonableness requires that the rationales for limits to...

Although excessive transparency and accountability demands can have a counterproductive effect on organisational performance (Bovens 2005), longstanding hierarchical accountability structures to ensure financial conformance in English local government continue to endure. Interestingly however, the previously top-down regime for performance accountability in English local government has been rep...