Managing Upward and Downward Accountability in an International Development Project - A Case Study of a World Bank Telecommunications Infrastructure Project in Benin

Abstract: This thesis examines the research question: How is the Results Framework used to manage upward and downward accountability in a World Bank project and what implications does this have on project effectiveness? The thesis looks at the complex case of accountability in the international development industry, where the literature predicts that the needs of donors for control for showing impact (upward accountability) are incompatible with the needs of beneficiaries for learning for project management and participation for ownership (downward accountability). When these needs clash, stakeholder salience theory predicts that upward accountability wins out over downward accountability, which has negative implications on project effectiveness. The thesis explores an in-depth case study of upward and downward accountability in practice at the project level through the lens of the Results Framework in a World Bank-funded telecommunications infrastructure project. It finds that, while upward accountability does indeed crowd out downward accountability in the Results Framework, this does not mean downward accountability is ignored; instead, alternative tools are used to incorporate downward accountability's needs into the project. This implies that the lack of downward accountability in the Results Framework does not have negative implications on project effectiveness. Beyond the research question, the thesis also presents some speculative findings on the nature of upward and downward accountability in a development project, which appears to be more complicated than suggested in the literature.