In this series of presentations Dr. Sita Sekhar of the Public Affairs Foundation provides a comprehensive overview of the Citizen Report Card (CRC), a social accountability tool for systematically gathering user feedback on experiences with public services and advocating for improvements.  She provides in-depth instruction on assessing the applicability of a CRC, designing and implementing a CRC, and using a CRC for advocacy and policy reform.

Materials are available in both French and English.

According to the World Bank, Social Accountability is "an approach towards building accountability that relies on civic engagement, i.e. in which it is ordinary citizens and/or civil society organizations who participate directly or indirectly in exacting accountability."  In this series of presentations Russell Wildeman of IDASA and Blanche Sonon of Social Watch Benin, describe various social accountability tools, or mechanisms that citizens and civil society organizations can use to increase accountability.

Advocacy is essential in getting the results and recommendations of any study into the right hands and implemented.  In this series of presentations Pat Made, of CommsConsult, and Caroline Poirrier of Results for Development, discuss different types of advocacy, focusing on evidence-based advocacy, a specific type of advocacy focused based on data and information. They detail what makes evidence-based advocacy different, and present strategies for building an advocacy plan and how to use it to inform decision making.

Although a survey may be the main source for data collection in most studies, it is certainly not the only source.  Non-survey data collections methods can be a valuable source of information, and in this presentation Anslem Wandega of ANPPCAN discusses how these methods, such as focus group discussions and key informant interviews, can be used.

Without thoughtful and implementable recommendations grounded in evidence, even the best studies can end up stuck on a shelf.  In this presentation Lineth Oyugi, of the Federation of Kenya Employers, presents a case study from her experience in Kenya, that contains strategies for forming clear, practical recommendations based on study findings.

In this series of presentations Delius Asiimwe of the Kabano Research And Development Centre, Dr.Harouna Wassongma of Consortium pour la recherche économique et sociale (CRES), and Dr. Seni Kouanda of Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé (IRSS), discuss the steps involved in implementing a QSDS, including planning data collection, desiging surveys, and managing and analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data.

In this series of presentations Zerubabel Ojoo, of Management Systems and Economic Consultants, Ltd, and Lineth Oyugi, of the Federation of Kenya Employers, discuss technical steps and considerations for implementing a Public Expenditure Tracking Survey, including translating research questions to survey questions, deciding who to survey, mapping resource flows, and cleaning and analyzing data.

A critical component of conducting a survey is sampling.  In this series of presentations Dr. Khangelani Zuma, Research Director and Head of Biostatistics at the Human Sciences Research Council, and Dr. Seni Kouanda of Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Santé (IRSS), discuss various sampling strategies and methods for designing a valid sample for small scale research studies.

In this presentation Courtney Tolmie discusses the importance of keeping long term objectives in mind when selecting tools and methodologies for any study, and making sure that they connect before starting research. She brings in examples from past TAP grantees and emphasizes that it is imperative to know what you want to accomplish before deciding how to accomplish it.

In this presentation John Mugo, of Uwezo East Africa, discusses the Household-based assessment of basic literacy and numeracy skills of children ages 6-16 in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda undertaken by Uwezo.  He discusses details of the assessment, such as the sampling frame, how the assessment was created and implemented, and how it can be used to bring about change.