BACKGROUND Improving public accountability is currently high on the global agenda. At the same time, the organisation of health services in low- and middle-income countries is taking place in fragmented institutional landscapes. State and non-state actors are involved in increasingly complex governance arrangements. This often leads to coordination problems, confusion of roles and responsibilit...

Charter schools involve a trading of autonomy for accountability. This accountability comes through two forces—markets through the choices of parents and students, and accountability to government through the writing of contracts that must be renewed for schools to continue to operate. Charter schools are supposed to be more accountable for educational performance than traditional public school...

The word and concept of "accountability" is used broadly and frequently in healthcare--often seen as the key to success change initiatives. But what accountability means and how it is applied can vary significantly. Policy-makers, managers, researchers and healthcare providers use the term in relation to everything from the quality of our relationships with and expectations of one another, to o...

BACKGROUND Accountability in global health is a commonly invoked though less commonly questioned concept. Critically reflecting on the concept and how it is put into practice, this paper focuses on the who, what, how, and where of accountability, mapping its defining features and considering them with respect to real-world circumstances. Changing dynamics in global health cooperation - such as ...

We introduce a concept of accountability traps. Two conditions characterize an accountability trap: (i) a society is caught in a self-reinforcing pattern of behavior with low accountability and (ii) within the same set of institutions, there is another selfreinforcing pattern of behavior with greater accountability and higher voter welfare. We show that a canonical model of elections is consist...

BACKGROUND Routine immunization coverage in Nigeria has remained low, and studies have identified a lack of accountability as a barrier to high performance in the immunization system. Accountability lies at the heart of various health systems strengthening efforts recently launched in Nigeria, including those related to immunization. Our aim was to understand the views of health officials on th...

Background There are several studies from different geographical settings and levels on maternal health, but none analyzes how accountability problems may contribute to the maternal health outcomes. This study aimed to analyze how accountability problems in public health system lead to maternal deaths and inequities in India. Methods A conceptual framework was developed bringing together acco...

BACKGROUND In 2006, researchers and decision-makers launched a five-year project - Response to Accountable Priority Setting for Trust in Health Systems (REACT) - to improve planning and priority-setting through implementing the Accountability for Reasonableness framework in Mbarali District, Tanzania. The objective of this paper is to explore the acceptability of Accountability for Reasonablene...

Accountability in Cloud Computing and Distributed Computer Systems Hongda Xiao 2014 Traditionally, research in computer security has focused on preventive techniques such as passwords, authentication protocols, and encryption. With the rise of internet technologies, especially cloud computing and distributed computer systems, preventive measures have proven inadequate, and security researchers ...