The Community Score Card Toolkit
CARE Malawi developed the Community Score Card (CSC) in 2002 as part of a project aimed at developing innovative, and sustainable models to improve health services. This is the original CSC toolkit, created by CARE Malawi to provide CSC practitioners from various institutions with practical CSC implementation guidance. The toolkit is generic in nature and can be applied in any sector including health, education, water and sanitation, and agriculture.
Easy to use
The Community Score Card (CSC) is a two-way and ongoing participatory tool for assessment, planning, monitoring and evaluation of services. It is easy to use and can be adapted into any sector where there is a service delivery scenario. The Community Score Card brings together the demand side (“service user”) and the supply side (“service provider”) of a particular service or program to jointly analyze issues underlying service delivery problems and find a common and shared way of addressing those issues. It is an exciting way to increase participation, accountability and transparency between service users, providers and decision-makers.
Positive influence
The goal and core strategy of the Score Card The main goal of the Community Score Card is to positively influence the quality, efficiency and accountability with which services are provided at different levels. The core implementation strategy to achieve the goal is using dialogue in a participatory forum that engages both service users and service providers.
What are the main features of the Score Card? The Community Score Card is a participatory tool that:
- Is conducted at micro/local level and uses the community as the unit of analysis.
- Generates information through focus group interactions and enables maximum participation of the local community.
- Provides immediate feedback to service providers and emphasizes immediate response and joint decision-making.
- Allows for mutual dialogue between users and providers and can be followed by joint monitoring WHAT is NOT part of the Community Score Card?
- It is NOT about finger-pointing or blaming.
- It is NOT designed to settle personal scores.
- It is NOT supposed to create conflict.
