By This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Civil Society (Self) Regulation and Effectiveness, Global Accountability Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
The Reputation Institute (RI) for the first time included charities in their reputation index this year, who achieved scores that far exceeded RI corporate clients and broke all records. The index measures reputation by gauging public opinion and it is widely acknowledged that there is more public trust in charities than private companies. This is good news for charities so that they can carry on doing valuable work and offering vital public services largely on the backs of dedicated volunteers and public generosity. The reputation index as well as our own assessment of accountability capabilities in the corporate, NGO and intergovernmental sectors through the Global Accountability Report indicates that the corporate sector needs to be more responsive and accountable to society interests as well as their own in order to boost public opinion.
As public donations are the major source of funding it is not surprising that upholding a positive image in the eyes of the public is vital to charities. Especially for those such as the Royal National Lifeboat Institute that came top of the reputation index, and receives no state funding. Therefore the not for profit sector has more incentives to be accountable to all its internal and external stakeholders and keep a credible reputation as it is directly related to their purpose and they must maintain financial assistance and public support. Whereas companies main and sometimes sole purpose is for private gain for its staff and shareholders, but they still have direct impacts on society, the economy and the environment.
Results from the One World Trust Global Accountability report (GAR) showed that throughout the 2006, 2007 and 2008 assessments the corporate sector scored lowest in integrating accountability principles into their policies and management systems. Whereas International NGOs demonstrated strong commitment to participation receiving the highest score, but fell short behind intergovernmental organisations in transparency and evaluation. Incongruous to the fact that monitoring and evaluating performance and projects were processes developed by the for-profit sector and later adopted by the not for profit sector, the corporate sector overall have struggled most at achieving a high standard of accountability capabilities. They only seem to address them on an ad hoc basis, which sends negative messages to the public about their commitment to corporate responsibility and has cast a shadow on the sectors reputation.
It is important that corporations create a compromising arrangement that can fulfill its private needs, and consider and monitor its impacts on the public. Also charities need to work on maintaining their reputation and the public’s trust, but can not only rely precariously on their normative image as agents of social justice, ethical practice and positive change. It is imperative that they remain proactive in strengthening and enhancing their governance systems throughout all their departments, and across the different dimensions of accountability.
Tags: advocacy, NGO accountability
