Accountability: A Matter of Trust. NGOs: learning together, to end poverty. With foreign aid, failure is essential to learning. This is the first of a four-part series on innovative ways to deliver aid in our conflicted world.
A dollar donated in foreign aid never translates to a dollar received by deserving people in a poor country. That dollar has to be siphoned through a system of bureaucracies that chip away at it while trying to transform it into beneficial action. Typically, this action is in the form of a “project,” an organized attempt to target beneficiaries and offer them goods or services. Thus, whether aid improves the lives of people depends on whether a project is well designed, whether the targeted population is selected properly and how efficiently it’s implemented. Each is a link in the chain that translates aid into concrete action on the ground.
In recent years, there’s been a lot of attention on improving project design by evaluating the impact of projects, particularly by using randomized trial methodologies borrowed from the medical sciences. Accountability - Key resources. NGO Accountability: Issues, Lessons & Challenges. NGO Accountability - Bibliography. Asking Do-Gooders to Prove They Do Good. NGO Accountability. NGOs & codes of conduct. INGO Accountability Charter.
Seeing where the money goes. NGO transparency: a gold star or ‘could do better’? When it comes to aid, transparency and accountability are more than just fashionable terminology meant for grandiloquent discourses and dense research papers.
It’s commonly accepted that access to clear and timely information is critical for improving the effectiveness of aid and its impact on the ground. However, recent debates on NGO transparency (or rather the lack of it) raise questions about what actually constitutes accountability, and what are its boundaries or how to balance the need for accountability with the mandate for assisting those is need. Disaster Accountability Project (DAP) has recently published a report on the Transparency of Relief Organizations Responding to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. In a nutshell the report states that though many organisations were actively soliciting donations after the disaster, few were sharing regular, factual details of their work, such as how many people were served, where, how, etc. Back to top.
Mapping Technology Allows NGOs to Coordinate Disaster Relief in West Africa. Charities and Financial Transparency. 18/11/2011 at 4:36 pm One of the key improvements of recent years in global development is the movement towards greater transparency.
Inspired by a small group of people, largely from the NGO world, real momentum is building towards international agreement to make information about aid more accessible and useful. (see also these blog posts by Owen Barder and Devex) The Irish Government has signed up to the IATI standards, and Irish NGOs have, through Dóchas, also pledged to increase their transparency and accountability. Dóchas is also actively promoting adherence to the SORP standards on financial reporting; something that is increasingly important, now that the Government has let it be known that Charity Regulation is not a priority for the foreseeable future. For this reason, Dóchas has developed draft guidelines on financial reporting, that eventually will become obligatory for Dóchas members. Aid transparency is important. Like this: Like Loading... Entry filed under: NGOs. Database of NGO self-regulation initiatives.
One World Trust - CSO database. About the project Civil society organisations are facing increasing pressure to demonstrate their accountability, legitimacy and effectiveness.
In response, a growing number are coming together at national, regional and international level, to define common standards and promote good practice through codes of conduct, certification schemes, reporting frameworks, directories and awards. This project provides the first comprehensive inventory of such civil society self-regulatory initiatives worldwide.
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