Effect of Social Accountability on Improving Service Delivery and Outcomes in the Public Sector in Uttar Pradesh, India
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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02879708 |
Recruitment Status : Unknown
Verified August 2018 by Manoj, Duke University.
Recruitment status was: Active, not recruiting
First Posted : August 26, 2016
Last Update Posted : August 31, 2018
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In several low and middle-income countries, Social Accountability (SA) interventions have been introduced as an innovative approach to governance, aiming to improve delivery of public services. These interventions typically include information provision to citizens regarding their rights/entitlements and local provider performance, and additionally, facilitation of community engagement with providers and officials.
The state government of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and the Uttar Pradesh Health Systems Strengthening Project (UPHSSP) have identified 12 districts where the social accountability initiative will be introduced on a priority basis. This study focuses on interventions in 2 of these districts (Sultanpur and Fatehpur), to study mechanisms through which information and collective action lead to improved accountability and outcomes. Within the 2 districts, the study is implemented as a cluster randomized evaluation with 120 villages randomized into 2 treatment arms and one control arm.
This study aims to: (a) measure the causal effect of SA interventions on key outcomes (health status, quality of service); (b) test the effectiveness of social networks based strategies to disseminate information for community engagement; and (c) study individuals' decisions to participate in collective action efforts in the context of social networks and information interventions. In addition to evaluating the impact of the SA interventions, the study aims to generate new knowledge on relative strengths of information seeding strategies, identifying those that maximize the spread of information through the village network, and subsequently estimate peer effects on participation decisions.
Condition or disease | Intervention/treatment | Phase |
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Health Behavior | Other: Information Only Other: Information and Facilitation | Not Applicable |

Study Type : | Interventional (Clinical Trial) |
Estimated Enrollment : | 300000 participants |
Allocation: | Randomized |
Intervention Model: | Parallel Assignment |
Masking: | Single (Participant) |
Primary Purpose: | Health Services Research |
Official Title: | Effect of Social Accountability on Improving Service Delivery and Outcomes in the Public Sector: a Cluster-Randomized Control Trial in Uttar Pradesh, India |
Study Start Date : | April 2015 |
Actual Primary Completion Date : | July 2018 |
Estimated Study Completion Date : | July 2019 |
Arm | Intervention/treatment |
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No Intervention: Control
40 (of 120) randomly selected villages receive no intervention
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Information Only
40 randomly selected villages are assigned to the "information only" arm where households will receive information regarding their rights and entitlements pertaining to healthcare, certain health outcomes specific to their village, as well as health-related activities happening in their village.
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Other: Information Only
Households will receive information regarding their rights and entitlements pertaining to healthcare, certain health outcomes specific to their village, as well as health-related activities happening in their village (such as the VHSNC meetings and Village Health and Nutrition Days). Information will be disseminated through an initial visit to all households, and from then on either through (1) broadcast messages sent to households via mobile phone, (2) central individuals in the village social network who will be asked to spread that information, or (3) public officials charged with spreading the information throughout the village. |
Information and Facilitation
The remaining 40 villages will receive similar information as the villages in the Information Only Arm, but will also have facilitators present that ensure the existence of the VHSNC at the village level as well as the occurrence of VHSNC monthly meetings.
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Other: Information and Facilitation
In addition to the information interventions described above, this intervention will provide trained facilitators to help community members engage in a participatory process with VHSNCs and identify key deficiencies for improvement in health services that most concern community members. The facilitators are trained to help organize meetings and are provided a detailed checklist of activities to be undertaken prior to the the meetings. The three key health workers at the village level (ASHA, ANM, and AWW) report to the local (village level) elected representatives and block level authorities, who receive feedback from the community in the accountability interventions. |
- Weight-for-height Z scores [ Time Frame: 12 months after intervention implementation ]
- Satisfaction with providers - averaged from a rating index and/or constructed by a PCA on the rating index [ Time Frame: 12 months after intervention implementation ]Level of satisfaction with local healthcare providers, as estimated by (1) averaging rating scores across a satisfaction index (questions asking the respondent to rate aspects of their last experience with the provider on a scale of 1-5); and/or (2) running a principal components analysis on the same index and taking the first component.
- Participation - as measured from self-report [ Time Frame: 4 months, measured each month, and at 1 year during endline survey ]household participation in VHSNC meetings and attendance at VHNDs, measured by self-report
- U5 mortality rate [ Time Frame: 12 months after intervention implementation ]under 5 mortality rates
- incidence of diarrhea [ Time Frame: 12 months after intervention implementation ]
- duration of diarrhea illness [ Time Frame: 12 months after intervention implementation ]
- Info spread [ Time Frame: 4 months, measured each month ]proportion of the village that received/retained information spread through the different info dissemination strategies

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Ages Eligible for Study: | Child, Adult, Older Adult |
Sexes Eligible for Study: | All |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | Yes |
Inclusion Criteria:
- households residing in the villages selected for the evaluation
Exclusion Criteria:
- none

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT02879708
India | |
Uttar Pradesh State Institute of Rural Development | |
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, 226202 |
Principal Investigator: | Manoj Mohanan, PhD, MSPH | Duke University |
Responsible Party: | Manoj, Assistant Professor, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT02879708 |
Other Study ID Numbers: |
D0168 IE-P150365 ( Other Grant/Funding Number: World Bank Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF) ) |
First Posted: | August 26, 2016 Key Record Dates |
Last Update Posted: | August 31, 2018 |
Last Verified: | August 2018 |
Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement: | |
Plan to Share IPD: | Yes |
Plan Description: | The investigators plan to make the de-identified data set publicly available. |
Social Accountability Healthcare Quality Health System Strengthening |
Child Health Childhood pneumonia Childhood diarrhea |