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The Community Score Card, originally developed by CARE Malawi in 2002, is a citizen-driven accountability measure for the assessment, planning, monitoring and evaluation of service delivery. The CSC can be used to gather feedback from service users and improve communication between communities and service providers. As such, it is designed to complement conventional supply-side mechanisms of accountability by bringing together service users and service providers first to identify the underlying obstacles to effective service delivery, and then develop a shared strategy for their improvement. The CSC is simple to use and can be adapted to any sector entailing service delivery.

Watch this video to learn more about the Score Card Process

Raising the Score - What is the Community Score Card?

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The CSC brings together community members, service providers, and local government to identify service utilisation and provision challenges; to mutually generate solutions; and to work in on-going partnership to implement and track the effectiveness of solutions identified. Given its adaptability and the wide range of contexts within which it is used, the CSC implementation process varies according to what is appropriate within different settings. Broadly speaking, however, the CSC application consists of five phases (see diagram below):

1. Preparatory work and planning (including identification and training of facilitating staff, community research, introductory engagement with community, development);

1. Community scoring of performance by community members and service providers (including division into focus groups, development of performance indicators and scoring system);

1. Self-evaluation by service providers

1. Interface meeting between service users and providers, and action planning (including district-level meetings, feedback and dialogue, consolidation of findings across communities);

1. Post-implementation activities (including training a cadre of facilitators, standardizing indicators, collecting and consolidating feedback).

The CSC should form part of an on-going assessment process, and is commonly repeated on a biannual basis.

What is CARE’s experience with The CSC?

CARE Malawi developed the CSC methodology in 2002 as part of a project aimed at developing innovative and sustainable models to improve health services. The CSC was intended to support the participatory assessment of health needs and service provision as a means of proposing action for more appropriate services. CARE's CSC tool was rapidly taken up by the World Bank, who used the CSC tool in the education and health sectors of The Gambia. Since 2002, the CSC has become an internationally recognised tool for improving service delivery, and has been a central component of many of CARE’s governance programmes across a range of sectors. CARE has made use of the CSC methodology in a wide range of sectors, in countries that include Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia and Egypt, taking on a variety of roles that range from direct implementation to providing technical training and support.

What is the CARE CSC Community of Practice (CoP)?

The CSC CoP is intended to bring together both new and seasoned development practitioners in order to advance CARE’s thinking on CSC methodology and practice. The founding members of the CSC CoP participated in the first CSC expert working meeting in Arusha, Tanzania in 2013, and subsequently produced the CSC Implementation Guidance Notes (see below section CSC Guidance). This wiki and the CSC CoP Listserv are intended to serve as a platform for CARE CSC practitioners to engage in joint learning and knowledge sharing.

What will you find on this wiki?

CSC Tools and Resources

CSC Case Studies, Reports and Briefs

CSC Learning Events

Contacts

• For more information on the CARE CSC and health work please contact Carolyn Grant, Senior Program Officer, Sexual, Reproductive and Maternal Health Team, CARE USA at cgrant@care.org
• For more information on the CARE CSC in general, please contact Gaia Gozzo, Governance Team Leader, Quality Control Team, CARE International UK at gozzo@careinternational.org