This weeks blog comes from Mesfin Tekleab, our country coordinator for Ethiopia. Our partners in Ethiopia work in particular on issues of marginality, supporting rural communities, people with disabilities and women's groups to develop accountability relationships with their representatives. This blog is part of our series examining the Mwananchi theory of change in the different countries where we work. Next week, we'll hear from Zambia.

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This is the second blog in our series coming from the Mwananchi national coordinators across the six countries where we work. Last week, Glowen Kyei-Mensah looked at how drama is influencing attitudes in Ghana. This week, Andrew Kawooya examines how interlocutors like civil society organisations can help citizens engage with local service delivery.

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"The impact of the current push for open data and open government should be seen as a breakthrough, but its impact will be context specific and dependent on the prevailing relationships.  Finding ways to encourage positive relationships, rather than imposing a technical ‘us against them’ understanding of accountability can work for lasting change in the rules of the game for poor people."

Dr. Fletcher Tembo, Director of the Mwananchi Programme, argues that we must take account of local relationships to build strong and lasting accountability, and to use data and information to enable poor people to hold duty-bearers accountable for the quality of local services.

Read the full blog here. 

The first in our series brining updates from each Mwananchi focus country, in this blog Glowen Kyei-Mensah talks about how drama has enabled communities to confront difficult issues in land ownership and gender equality.

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To help present the lessons the Mwananchi projects have been learning over the four years of the programme and to explain and discuss the Mwananchi theory of change and the challenges and achievements we have encountered in implementing it, we are presenting a series of blogs from our national coordinators in the six countries where we work. 

Week 1: Ghana - Seriously entertaining: impacting lives through drama

Week 2: Uganda - From micro to macro: how can citizens change the delivery of local services?

Week 3: Ethiopia - Working together for the 'margins of the marginalised' 

Week 4: Zambia - Local radio turns up the volume on local voices

Week 5: Sierra Leone - Young people, jobs and accountability: from marginality to dialogue?

Week 6: Malawi - Using 'village voices' to facilitate development from the ground up

The Mwananchi Programme will end in July 2013, and this year we will present a series of learnings from the five years it has run, sharing lessons and evaluating impact, including a series of national and international events and an in-depth report delving into commonalities in social accountability programming in Africa.