The heads of 11 of the world’s leading human rights, environmental and social development international organisations have today publicly endorsed the first global accountability charter for the non-profit sector.
Why be concerned about NGO governance?
International NGOs play an increasingly influential role. Global public opinion surveys show higher trust in NGOs than in government and business. In addition to an internal desire to be transparent and accountable, the Accountability Charter also seeks to demonstrate that NGOs deeply value public trust, do not take it for granted and are committed to sustaining and deepening that trust. This initiative comes at a time when the non-profit sector is coming under closer scrutiny, both from those who want it to flourish and those who seek to curtail NGO activities.
You can view the full charter here, but here is an outline of the key principles
- Respect for Universal Principles (freedom of speech, assembly, and association)
- Financial and political independence
- Responsible advocacy
- Genuine partnership with communities and NGOs
- Non-discrimination (in all activities, both internal and external)
- Transparency
- Good governance
- Ethical fundraising
- Professional management
Ethical corporation has a good review of the charter. While the author argues that this is an initiative which should welcomed, there are some pitfalls — for example, take responsibility in public criticism, which is part of the charter:
If an NGO attacks Nike in an area where that company is actually the best in its industry, and as a result people lose their jobs, was that responsible criticism because the arguments may have been true, or irresponsible because they were not well targeted at those that we most at fault?
And that is the main problem with the NGO Accountability Charter. It is very difficult to be clear about what behaviour will be ruled in or out as a result of an NGO signing it.
The more important issues from the sustainability of NGOs perspective the charter addresses are transparency and good governance. Although the charter just touches on governance, and does not go into many of the details associated with the topic, focus on it is important in that there are pressures to develop NGO governance standards. I wonder if we are going to go through the same exercise as we did with corporate governance standards, where experts and practitioners came to an understanding [eventually] that you can’t simply import governance standards from developed into developing countries, because the institutional environment within which these standards are to be implemented can be quite different. Just check out how many corporate governance codes there are.
*Hat tip to John Sullivan for the link.
Published Date: June 23, 2006