Citizen Participation as a Governance Strategy for SustainableDevelopment in the East African Community: A Systematic Review(2019–2024)

A persistent gap exists between participatory governance frameworks and sustainable development outcomes in the East African Community (EAC).This systematic review synthesizes evidence from 55 studies published between 2019 and 2024 to examine citizen participation as a governance strategy, with particular attention to its intersection with public financial management reforms, including the adoption of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).Python-generated visual summaries were used to illustrate the study selection process and key thematic patterns.The findings reveal a pronounced disconnect between participatory processes and development outcomes.While citizen participation is consistently associated with improvements in transparency and accountability (reported in 69% of studies), its linkage to service delivery improvements (44%) and direct Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) progress (18%) remains weak.Major constraints include institutional resistance, persistent digital divides, and the influence of entrenched elite interests.Importantly, technical reforms such as IPSAS adoption are largely externally driven and remain decoupled from participatory accountability mechanisms, thereby limiting their developmental impact.Overall, the evidence suggests that citizen participation in the EAC currently reinforces procedural legitimacy more than it delivers transformative change.To bridge this gap, participatory mechanisms must be intentionally designed with outcome-oriented metrics and integrated with accessible, actionable financial transparency tools.This review proposes a framework for domestically owned, citizen-centered reforms that emphasize simplified public-facing financial reporting and hybrid engagement platforms.