Good Governance and Accountabilityin the Nonprofit Sector

The Global Accountability Project

Monica Blagescu2 December 2004

Balancing levels of accountability

International humanitarian NGOTrade-unions

Local CSO (partner)Local associations

Government Agencies

Community alliance

The public at large

Board/CouncilMission

Various departments

Affected populations

Forces shaping the debateForces shaping the debate

Global decision making increasing Mediated representation

National Governments The nonprofit sector, CSOs

Independent citizen action (the “global associational revolution”)

Visible social justice movements at local, national, regional and global level

Unprecedented interconnectedness, capacity to exchange information and communicate

The GAP Model Accountability: power relations between various

actors which interact or affect each other Stakeholders at the forefront of the debate: internal

and external Accountability at policy and project levels Accountability: inwards, upwards, downwards An accountable organisations takes active and

proactive steps to address the needs of its internal and external stakeholders and perform according to its mission.

Who is accountable to whom and for what ?

The Accountability Framework: basic, widely applicable elements

Complaints and Complaints and redressredress

EvaluationEvaluation Participation Participation

TransparencyTransparency

The Accountability Framework• Self-assessment and training tool• Peer assessment tool• Tool for beneficiaries

The Global Accountability Index• specific areas for improvement within the

accountability of the assessed organisations• best and worst accountability practices• a global perspective on accountability trends

and challenges

Key Challenges

Challenges• Rhetoric versus practice• Lack of power and political will to lack of resources• Context-driven practices

Making the normative case• Positive and negative effects• Linkages between accountability and performance

“Embeddedness” at different levels Capturing lessons learnt

• Diversity of contexts and diversity of nonprofit sector – is there a one size fits all conceptual framework?

• The accountability debate of nonprofit organisations that operate in politically sensitive countries

• Incentives versus “punishment” for non-compliance

• Building a culture of organisational learning

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