Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
This Campbell systematic review assesses the effectiveness of community monitoring interventions in reducing corruption. The review summarises findings from 15 studies, of which seven are from Asia, six from Africa and two from Latin America. Community monitoring interventions can reduce corruption. They also improve use of health services, but no significant effect is found on school enrolments or dropouts. There is no improvement in health service waiting times, but there is an improvement in weight for age, though not child mortality. There are beneficial effects on education outcomes as measured by test scores. Community monitoring interventions appear to be more effective in improving outcomes when they promote direct contact between citizens and providers or politicians, and when they include tools for citizens to monitor the performance of providers and politicians. In all cases, findings are based on a small number of studies. There is heterogeneity in the findings with respect to health and education. Hence it is difficult to provide any strong, overall conclusions about intervention effectiveness. PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY COMMUNITY MONITORING INTERVENTIONS CAN REDUCE CORRUPTION AND MAY IMPROVE SERVICES Community monitoring interventions (CMIs) can reduce corruption. In some cases, but not all, there are positive effects on health and education outcomes. Further research is needed to understand contexts and designs for effective interventions. WHAT DID THE REVIEW STUDY? Corruption and inefficient allocation of resources in service delivery are widespread in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Community monitoring interventions (CMIs) are intended to address this problem. The community is given the opportunity to participate in monitoring service delivery: observing and assessing providers' performance to provide feedback to providers and politicians. This review assesses the evidence on the effects of community monitoring interventions on corruption and access and quality of service delivery outcomes. The review also considers the mechanism through which CMIs effect a change in corruption and service delivery outcomes, and possible moderating factors such as geographic region, income level or length of exposure to interventions. WHAT STUDIES ARE INCLUDED? To assess the effect on corruption included studies had to have either an experimental or a quasi‐experimental design. Qualitative studies were included to assess mechanisms and moderators. The review assesses 15 studies of 23 different programmes' intervention effects. The studies were conducted in Africa (6), Asia (7) and Latin America (2). Most studies focused on programmes in the education sector (9), followed by health (3), infrastructure (2) and employment promotion (1). What is the aim of this review? This Campbell systematic review assesses the effectiveness of community monitoring interventions in reducing corruption. The review summarises findings from 15 studies, of which seven are from Asia, six from Africa and two from Latin America. WHAT ARE THE MAIN RESULTS OF THIS REVIEW? Community monitoring interventions can reduce corruption. They also improve use of health services, but no significant effect is found on school enrolments or dropouts. There is no improvement in health service waiting times, but there is an improvement in weight for age, though not child mortality. There are beneficial effects on education outcomes as measured by test scores. Community monitoring interventions appear to be more effective in improving outcomes when they promote direct contact between citizens and providers or politicians, and when they include tools for citizens to monitor the performance of providers and politicians. In all cases, findings are based on a small number of studies. There is heterogeneity in the findings with respect to health and education. Hence it is difficult to provide any strong, overall conclusions about intervention effectiveness.. WHAT DO THE FINDINGS OF THIS REVIEW MEAN? The evidence identifies CMIs as promising. That is, there is evidence that they are effective. But the evidence base is thin, the interventions do no work in all contexts, and some approaches appear more promising than others. Future studies should assess the effectiveness of different types of community monitoring interventions in different contexts, sectors and time frames to identify when and how such programmes may be most effective in improving outcomes. There is a need for adequate information and tools to assist citizens in the process of monitoring. Research about these mechanisms and their moderation of the effectiveness of CMIs should be a priority for further research in the area. HOW UP‐TO‐DATE IS THIS REVIEW? The review authors searched for studies published until November 2013. This Campbell systematic review was published in November 2016. Executive summary/Abstract 1.1 Background In many low‐ and middle‐income countries (L&MICs) corruption and mismanagement of resources are prevalent in the public sector. Community monitoring interventions (CMIs) aim to address such issues and have become common in recent years. Such programmes seek to involve communities in the monitoring of public service providers to increase their accountability to users. However, their effectiveness in reducing corruption and improving access and quality of services remain unclear. 1.2 Objectives This review aims to assess and synthesise the evidence on the effects of CMI interventions on access to and quality of service delivery and corruption outcomes in L&MICs. More specifically, the review aims to answer three main questions: What are the effects of CMIs on access to and quality of service delivery and corruption outcome measures in L&MICs relative to no formal community monitoring or CMIs with less community representation? What are the mechanisms through which CMIs effect a change in service delivery and corruption outcomes? Do factors such as geographic region, income level or length of exposure to interventions moderate final or intermediate outcomes? 1.3 Search Methods We searched for relevant studies across a broad range of online databases, websites and knowledge repositories, which allowed the identification of both peer reviewed and grey literature. Keywords for searching were translated into Spanish, French, and Portuguese and relevant non‐English language literature was included. We also conducted reference snowballing and contacted experts and practitioners to identify additional studies. We used Endnote software to manage citations, abstracts, and documents. First stage results were screened against the inclusion criteria by two independent reviewers, with additional supervision by a third. 1.4 Selection Criteria We included studies of CMI in countries that were classified as L&MICs according to the World Bank definition at the time the intervention being studied was carried out. We included quantitative studies with either experimental or quasi‐experimental design to address question 1. In
Molina et al. (Fri,) studied this question.