#  **_Premise 1: Higher levels of OGD make government more accountable._**

Under this premise, OGD provides an evidentiary basis through which citizens can be better informed on how government is performing. In particular, for this information to be effective—for it to be a type of “clear” transparency as noted by Fox (2007)—two elements would need to be present. In line with Khemani’s earlier findings,<sup>106</sup> this would first include information on sectoral performance, both in terms of provision of services (e.g. number of teachers, number of vaccinations, etc.) as well as service delivery outcomes (e.g. completion rates, infection rates, etc.). Second, in order for the efficiency of such service provision and outcomes to be determined, transparent information is needed both on how much was budgeted for these services as well as how much was actually spent on these services (e.g. execution rate). Only by having both types of data can “demand-side” consumers—that is, citizens, civil society organizations, researchers, journalists, and other “infomediaries”—make informed judgements as to whether the government is adequately executing its mandate and meeting its responsibilities.

However, it should be noted that transparent access to sectoral and budgetary data is just one element; in order to hold government officials accountable, citizens need mechanisms to exercise their “voice”, either formally or informally. In line with the earlier work of Fox (2007), such voice channels could provide a degree of “answerability” and “enforceability”, which is crucial to ensuring a principle-agent element in the citizen-state interface. Formal citizen voice channels would include electoral mechanisms in the form of free and fair elections, which are held at regular intervals in line with legal provisions, and with no _de jure_ or _de facto_ impediments to participation. Other non-electoral, or social accountability mechanisms, could include, _inter alia_ : ICT-enabled platforms<sup>107</sup> for collecting citizen feedback, satisfaction surveys, complaint and redress mechanisms, petitions, protests, and other participatory institutions for citizens.

Given the need for both information to be publicly available as well as for mechanisms to be in place for citizens to express their voice and hold service providers to account, the research will investigate a number of enabling “conditions,” which have been postulated by the earlier work of Peixoto (2013), as noted above. These including the following:

- **Publicity Condition:** A vital element necessary for supporting citizen voice is the “publicity condition,”<sup>108</sup> which provides for an enabling environment whereby “disclosed information actually reaches and resonates with its intended audiences”.<sup>109</sup> Conceptualized as such, the publicity condition would presuppose the existence of a necessary degree of political freedoms and civil rights so that the disclosed data can reach citizens—if not directly, then through third-party intermediators such as CSOs, social movements, academics, and the media. At minimum, this condition would imply, _inter alia_ : constitutional protections for freedom of expression, speech, press (and internet); relevant freedom of information or access to information legislation; media freedom, impartiality, and protections against censorship; as well as the ability for civil society organizations, academia, unions, and other civic organizations to operate free from harassment, discrimination, or persecution.

- **Political Agency Condition:** A second critical element is the presence of a “political agency condition,”<sup>110</sup> which provides the legal and institutional “mechanisms through which citizens can

> 106 World Bank. 2016. Making Politics Work for Development: Harnessing Transparency and Citizen Engagement. Policy Research Report. Washington, DC. p 220.

> 107 Examples of such ICT platforms include “Maji Voice” in Kenya; “I Change My City” in India: “Pressure Pan” in Brazil; and “U-Report” in Uganda.

> 108 This condition relates to other concepts in the literature such as “answerability”, “soft” accountability, and “yelp.”

> 109 Peixoto, “The Uncertain Relationship.”

> 110 This condition relates to other concepts in the literature such as “enforceability,” “hard” accountability, and “teeth.”

17