NGO Accountability: Politics, Principles and Innovations

Description

As the fastest growing segment of civil society, as well as featuring prominently in the global political arena, NGOs are under fire for being 'unaccountable'. But who do NGOs actually represent? Who should they be accountable to and how? This book provides the first comprehensive examination of the issues and politics of NGO accountability across all sectors and internationally. It offers an assessment of the key technical tools available including legal accountability, certification and donor-based accountability regimes, and questions whether these are appropriate and viable options or attempts to 'roll-back' NGOs to a more one-dimensional function as organizers of national and global charity. Input and case studies are provided from NGOs such as ActionAid, and from every part of the globe including China, Indonesia and Uganda. In the spirit of moving towards greater accountability the book looks in detail at innovations that have developed from within NGOs and offers new approaches and flexible frameworks that enable accountability to become a reality for all parties worldwide.

Lisa Jordan is Deputy Director of the Governance and Civil Society Unit of the Ford Foundation, USA. Peter van Tuijl has over twenty years of experience working on NGO capacity building, governance and accountability issues. He has been employed by Novib (now Oxfam Netherlands) and UNDP. He is based in Jakarta, Indonesia, and currently works as a Senior Technical Advisor on a project to combat corruption in the Indonesian National Police, supported by the U.S. Department of Justice

'Credible and effective accountability is quite simply a pre-condition for NGOs' continued historical significance as global and local agents of change. Prepared by informed and yet critical insiders, this book faces this reality unflinchingly whilst illuminating its real-life complexities and implications in today's daunting political context.' Simon Zadek, Chief Executive, AccountAbility, and author of The Civil Corporation 'This collection breaks out of the straitjacketed thinking that characterizes much of the accountability discussion today. Rather than treating NGO accountability as a technocratic endeavour based in managerial best practice, the authors confront its political and power-laden underpinnings head-on. Jordan and van Tuijl show us the dark side of accountability politics - how its language and mechanisms can be abused for suppressing basic rights of voice and political participation. Yet, they also give us a vision, grounded in field-based innovation, of what accountability can be: a pathway towards universal human rights and better democratic governance.' Alnoor Ebrahim, Visiting Associate Professor, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Harvard University, and Wyss Visiting Scholar, Harvard Business School