Community Score Card - Citizen-Driven Accountability

It enables community members, health providers, and government officials to work together to identify and overcome health coverage quality and equity obstacles. The approach is simple, can be adapted for varied contexts, and can systematically pinpoint and address the specific challenges women face in health services.

CARE Malawi pioneered the CSC methodology in 2002, and since then, it has become an internationally recognized social accountability tool, spreading within CARE and beyond. CARE now has over a decade of experience implementing CSC across a range of sectors, including health, food security, water and sanitation, education, and governance, and in countries such as Cambodia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia, Nepal, and Egypt.

Key impacts

An evaluation of a CSC project in the Ntcheu district of Malawi showed significantly greater improvements in the proportion of women receiving a home visit during pregnancy, those receiving a postnatal visit, and overall service satisfaction in intervention compared to control areas.
A review of a decade of CARE’s projects using CSC found CSC-related improvements in service provider and power-holder effectiveness, accountability, and responsiveness. Several projects also reported CSC-related increases in health provider openness and transparency.

Resources

Community Score Card Project Brief

This brief provides a short overview of one of CARE’s core social accountability models, the Community Score Card, including key applications of the model across sectors.

Community Score Card Project Brief (Long Version)

This brief provides an overview of one of CARE’s core social accountability models, the Community Score Card including the CSC process, key applications of the model across sectors, and emerging priorities.

Community Score Card Case Study: Evolution to Scale

After CARE Malawi pioneered the Community Score Card (CSC) methodology in 2002, 102 projects have used the CSC to create impact for 8.2 million people. This brief explores the CSC as a methodology that has successfully been scaled and adapted to new sectors, geographies, and crisis settings.

A Journey through the Community Score Card in Malawi

This brief aims to outline CARE’s history in designing and implementing the Community Score Card (CSC) and covers the innovation of the CSC in Malawi and the evidence generated over nearly two decades of implementation and adaptation.

Community Score Card in Emergencies Learning Brief

To further unlock the potential of the Community Score Card in humanitarian settings, we designed this pilot of the CSC in Emergencies in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Community Score Card© (CSC)

Strengthening Healthcare

CARE’s Community Score Card© (CSC) is a citizen-driven accountability approach for the assessment, planning, monitoring, and evaluation of public services.

CARE's Community Score Card