Social Accountability in Challenging Environments: Case Studies from Egypt

Through deploying the 2015 World Bank framework of contextual drivers for social accountability, this article seeks to examine three recent social accountability initiatives (sais) in the agriculture, health, and local development sectors in Egypt to identify the contextual drivers and success factors of sais operating in challenging environments. The article aims to answer the following questions: what roles do recent sais in Egypt play? What are the challenges that sais encounter? And how do such challenges (re)shape the processes and dynamics of sais? The article finds that in challenging environments–where invited spaces are controlled, citizens’ collective action is limited, and commitment by state-officials is not guaranteed–the role of interlocutors becomes key in boosting the effectiveness of sais. It plays the role of a mediator, mobilizer to citizen and state action, and information intermediary, which generates, simplifies, and disseminates information. In this sense, this article draws on the critical missing link in sais through an in-depth analysis of the role of interlocutors in overcoming challenging or constraining circumstances.