Basic Information
Host or sponsor
Organisations hosting, implementing, managing, serving as secretariat, or sponsoring each initiative are classified as umbrella organisations, peer groups, or third-party organisations. Umbrella organisations represent the entire sector or sub-sector whereas peer groups are simply a subset of organisations who have chosen to come together around a specific initiative. Third party organisations are independent of the sector and do not represent or include organisations that they assess in the management/governance of the initiative.
Type
Initiatives are classified as being one of six types: codes of ethics and conduct, certification schemes, information services, working groups, self-assessment tools, or awards schemes.
- Codes of conduct and ethics generally include sets of broad principles to which participating organisations commit.
- Certification schemes include self, peer and third party certification schemes. Common to each of these is a process for verifying compliance of participating organisations against a common set of standards.
- Information services include two major types of initiatives, CSO directories and information sharing portals. CSO directories tend to provide little more than contact information, information sharing portals in some cases provide detailed financial, governance or project information about participating CSOs.
- Working groups bring together two or CSOs to establish common norms, promote good practice, or develop tools to encourage implementation.
- Self-assessment tools are a frequent output of working groups. These tools are often a preliminary step in developing certification schemes, but are also a valuable contribution to CSO self-regulation absent any enforcement mechanism. Reporting frameworks fall into this category.
- Awards schemes recognise and reward good practice within the CSO sector.
Status
Each initiative is categorised as active, inactive, or in development. Inactive initiatives may be dormant or no longer enforced. They have been included to promote learning.
Thematic areas
Initiatives classified as ‘General’ are those applicable to all types of organisations, regardless of sphere of activity. For example, a code of conduct to which all NGOs in a particular country could sign up would be classified as ‘General’. In cases where initiatives are targeted at CSOs working in specific sub-fields, we have categorised them as belonging to one or more thematic areas. These areas include the following: Advocacy / Lobbying, Agriculture / Food / Nutrition, Arts / Culture / Sport, Development, Education, Environmental & Social Impact, Fundraising, Health, Humanitarian and Emergency Relief, Human Rights, Infrastructure, Microfinance, Philanthropy, Research, Social Care and Services, Water / Sanitation, and Other specific area. The final classification is used in cases where an initiative is applicable only to a subset of all CSOs, but there are so few similar initiatives that no specific classification has been created. An example of this phenomenon is the Montreux Initiative which addresses Islamic charities only.
CSO type
This classification refers to the type(s) of CSOs that participate in each initiative. In most cases, initiatives are intended for the broad group of NGOs / non-profit organisations (NPOs), community-based organisations (CBOs) or charities. In some cases, initiatives are targeted at faith-based organisations (FBOs), networks / umbrella organisations, or donors and funders. We have also included a category for trade unions.
Contact
Contact information is provided for the host or sponsor organisation, including websites, email addresses, postal and physical addresses, and telephone numbers when available.
Areas addressed
Principles or standards?
Each initiative is classified as being based on either broad principles or specific performance standards. This category is not usually applicable to information services, awards schemes, and working groups.
Content areas
Where applicable, each initiative has been categorised according to the issues it relates to / covers. These fall into six broad categories: communications, governance and management, human resources, beneficiary / client / supporter participation, monitoring and evaluation, and cross-cutting thematic areas. Initiatives may address one or several of these areas. At the end of this section, additional space is given for issues covered by the initiative that are not included in the checklist to be detailed.
Communications
Within this category an initiative may cover a number of areas. An initiative may offer a general commitment to transparency and openness. A commitment to ethical communications relates to a CSO being honest, open, and truthful in public, beneficiary, client or supporter communications. Commitments to fundraising standards refer to initiatives addressing principles or standards for communications used for fundraising purposes. These commitments generally relate to honest and open donor communications, clear communications regarding operational versus overhead costs, and avoidance of portraying beneficiaries and clients in a negative light. Finally, an initiative may include commitments to lobbying standards. These relate to honest representation of beneficiaries’ and clients’ views when engaging with policy-makers. This may also include declarations of sources of support to lobbying and advocacy targets.
Governance and Management
Initiatives that set principles or standards in this category may include a general commitment to good governance and management practices, or detail more specific commitments. In terms of financial management, sub-categories include commitments to quality financial reporting, regular and external auditing, effective management of donor funds (stewardship of funds), and a transparent and fairly evaluated tendering process (procurement). Initiatives may also make commitments to tackling and preventing corruption (anti-corruption) or to having the systems in place to manage and mitigate any conflict of interest. Finally, an initiative may address issues of board structure and set standards on how boards, board membership and board meetings should be structured.
Human Resources
Many initiatives include commitments to how participating organisations should treat their staff and volunteers. This category is sub-divided into three areas. Staff development and training, which covers commitments to providing skills training and ensuring career development opportunities for staff; and Staff and volunteer relations which cover commitments to suitable terms and conditions for staff and volunteers, including pay and benefits.
Beneficiary / Client Supporter Participation
Initiatives which address issues in this category may include a general commitment to beneficiary / client / supporter participation, or may be more specific as to when this engagement will occur. An initiative may commitment to engagement in all project cycle stages, or in any of the following stages: in needs assessment, in project design, in implementation, in monitoring, in evaluation, or in strategic planning. Some initiatives may commit to financial reporting to beneficiaries / clients / individual supporters as well.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Initiatives covering issues in this category may include a general commitment to evaluation. They may also include specific commitments to integrating learning into future planning and activities as well as public and/or internal dissemination of evaluations. Some initiatives may also detail principles or standards that commit participating organisations to evaluating how projects and activities affect the wider community in the long term (impact evaluation).
Cross-cutting thematic areas
This is not a single category, but rather a set of issues that cut across all areas of an organisation’s work. These include gender equality, measuring and being conscious of environmental impact of projects and activities, proactively addressing non-discrimination and promoting human rights, collaboration and partnership within the CSO sector (CSO collaboration and partnership) including North-South relationships, and state – CSO relations.
Participation
Scale of initiative
Under this category, the number of organisations participating in an initiative is detailed. In cases of tiered levels of participation this information is detailed as well. When available, a document listing all members is included at the bottom of each initiative page under Downloads.
Reasons for participation
There are a number of reasons why an organisation would participate in a self-regulatory initiative:
Financial reasons
Financial incentive for participation include access to or eligibility for donor funding (donor funding access) or government funding (government contracts / grants / funding) as well as potential tax deductions or tax status benefits.
Legal reasons
Participation in some initiatives may be legally mandated (legal requirement). In these cases, government regulations include the specific language and requirements of the initiative. In other cases, government regulations may require a CSO sector umbrella organisation to develop or implement an initiative without spelling out the specific contents of that initiative. In those cases, the reason for participation is marked as a quasi-legal requirement.
Other reasons
CSOs may choose to participate in a self-regulatory initiative as a condition of membership (membership requirement) in a peer or umbrella group. In other cases, an organisation may obtain a certificate or seal of approval for its participation, which it may use to distinguish itself from its peers.
In many cases, however, participation in a self-regulatory initiative does not result in any tangible financial or legal benefits. Organisations may participate to enhance performance, build public and donor trust, demonstrate commitment to quality, or discourage the development of related government regulation. Although organisations and the CSO sector more broadly may benefit from participation in a particular initiative in a myriad of ways, in cases where there is no specific and tangible benefit, the reason for participation is categorised as enhancing credibility, quality or reputation.
Compliance
Compliance systems for self-regulatory initiatives consist of both the structures for monitoring the compliance of participating organisations (the monitoring mechanism) and the mechanisms for sanctioning participating organisations for violations of the terms of the initiative (sanctioning mechanism). When an initiative has such a compliance system in place, details are provided.
Monitoring mechanism
Commitment only
The majority of CSO self-regulatory initiatives have no mechanism in place for monitoring compliance; participating organisations simply promise to meet all the necessary principles and standards.
Complaints based
Some initiatives go a step further in monitoring compliance by responding retroactively to complaints or reports of non-compliance.
Certification schemes
Certification schemes involve verification of compliance. There are three types:
Self-certification schemes
Involve verification of compliance with standards by participating organisations themselves. Often a statement of compliance needs to be submitted. Peer certification involves verification of compliance by one or several peer organisations. Third party certification involves external organistions assessing and verifying compliance with standards. These are typically ratings agencies.
Evidence base
Certification schemes require explicit verification of compliance. This verification can be based on interviews with staff and an audit of organisational documents and policies (desk based), or be based on interviews with beneficiaries / users and involve visiting a selection of field operations (field-based). Some initiatives require both (desk and field-based).
Certificate or seal
Some certification schemes result in participating organisations receiving a certificate or seal of approval indicating their compliance. In many cases, these certificates or seals of approval may be used in promotional materials or provide access to funding
Sanctioning mechanism
Description of sactioning mechanism
Sanctioning mechanisms vary widely. Where they exist, the initiative page contains a short description of how the mechanism is structured and functions.
Removals
Can removal be enforced?
Some initiatives have provisions for expelling participating organisations from the initiative if they are found to be in violation of the principles and standards and have shown no indication of addressing areas of non-compliance .
Is removal publicised?
Some initiatives publicise the names of any participating organisations expelled from an initiative.
Has removal ever been used?
A few initiatives have utilised the expulsion/ removal from participation as a sanctioning mechanism. This is noted where information is available.
Analysis
This section examines how an initiative fits in with others in its country, region, or thematic area (such as humanitarian and emergency relief). It may also indicate where there are gaps in the content of an initiative, where an initiative is adopting an innovative approach to raising standards among CSOs, and/or how the initiative fits into the political and operational context of participating CSOs.
Similar initiatives
Up to six initiatives are listed in this section. These initiatives represent similar initiatives and opportunities for learning in the region or thematic area.
Downloads
Three types of documents are included on each initiative page where available. These documents have been gathered by the One World Trust, but remain the property of the organisations that prepared them. In many cases, these documents are in the national languages of where the initiative is based.
Copy of initiative
The text of the initiative itself is included here, in English if available.
List of participating organisations
In cases where there are more than 10 participating organisations, a full list is included here, where available.
Supporting documents
Other documents, including additional language versions of the initiative, details of compliance mechanisms, or information on how to participate in an initiative may be included in this section.
