In May 2019, the Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS) was contracted by the USAID Transparent Effective and Accountable Municipalities (USAID TEAM) to monitor and assess the implementation of six different infrastructural projects financed by the municipalities of Gjakova, Peja and Gjilan, with the aim to boost transparency of local government, promote accountability of municipal officials, and increase visibility of citizens’ complaints and improve the quality of services. In order to do this, GLPS utilized Social Audit, which is one of the numerous social accountability tools that aims to monitor and scrutinize the performance of local governments in implementing various projects, quality of service delivery and management of public funds. Social accountability tools are widely used in developed countries and have proven to be an efficient tool to increase civic activism in demanding more transparent and accountable governments, resulting in an increased quality of services offered by the authorities. In a close consultation with the USAID TEAM, GLPS selected the abovementioned municipalities due to a higher intensity of initiatives undertaken, and the nature of projects selected for monitoring purposes and the stage that the projects were at when the project took place.

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