Making information available is an important part of accountability. It does not guarantee that people can understand, question or use it.
Edidiong Bassey, Elizabeth Cookingham Bailey and Ileana Steccolini examine this gap through the concept of accountee-ability. Their article asks us to consider the capacities and conditions of those receiving an account, not only the responsibilities of those producing it.
Who can use the information?
A public report may be accessible in a technical sense while remaining difficult to interpret. The authors argue that accountability can be limited by the capability to engage with complex information.
This shifts the conversation from publication alone to meaningful use. It asks whether citizens and organizations can make sense of the information, identify questions and mobilize what they learn. The availability of a document is therefore not the end of the accountability relationship.
Three roles for civil society
The article identifies three roles for civil-society organizations. As direct accountees, they can interpret and scrutinize complex accounts. As enablers, they can help citizens access and understand information. As co-producers, they can support independent analysis and the development of counter-accounts.
These roles provide a useful way to think about knowledge exchange. Civil society is not simply an audience for a finished report. Organizations may also contribute interpretation, capability and additional perspectives on the account being presented.
Capability is not automatic
The authors also identify tensions involving technical capacity, unequal access to information, independence, funding, power and the reliability of analysis. Participation should not be assumed to be representative or effective merely because an organization is involved.
For practitioners, the lesson is to examine the conditions for engagement as carefully as the invitation itself. A proposed discussion question is: What support would participants need to engage meaningfully, and what would protect their ability to question the account independently?
Lesson learned
Accountability is a relationship involving both information and the ability to use it. A clearer report can help, but capability and independence also deserve attention.
For the PPX community, this opens a practical conversation among public managers, evaluators, financial professionals, researchers and civil-society organizations. Each can contribute to making evidence more understandable and useful without assuming that one perspective represents everyone.
Who is currently able to interpret and challenge your organization's public information, and who may need a different form of support?
Share that question through your professional networks and consider what a more inclusive knowledge exchange could look like.
Sources and further reading
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