NGO ACOUNTABILITY AND DONOR

MANAGEMENT
KEERTHANA.R
MSW 2 CD 14-25

Accountability is defined as the quality or state of being

accountable; especially: an obligation or willingness to accept
responsibility or to account for ones actions.

Accountees

Accounters

HELD TO ACCOUNT

DOES THE HOLDING

NGO

STAKEHOLDER

(GENERAL )ACCOUNTABILITY SETTING PROCESS

1. Standard setting: Defining behaviour expected of the accountee and the
criteria of judgment.
2. Investigation: Exploring whether or not accountees have met the standards
expected of them.
3. Answerability: Processes in which accountees are required to defend their
actions, face sceptical questions, and generally explain themselves.
4. Sanction: Process in which accountees are in some way punished for falling
below the standards expected of them (or perhaps rewarded for achieving or
exceeding them).

BASIC GUIDELINES WHICH HAVE TO BE MET TO ACHIEVE ACCOUNTABILITY IN

THE NGO CONTEXT
Governance of the organization.
Financial integrity sources of funds, methods of fundraising, bookkeeping and
auditing systems, use of funds etc.
Organizational reliability and capacity (policies, process, and management systems).
Performance effectiveness (level of benefits and types of impacts experienced either
by members, targeted beneficiaries or the general public).
Voice / advocacy credibility (veracity, accuracy, authority, fairness and representative
nature of public statements and advocacy campaigns).
Access by stakeholders to information about the organization.
The organizations responsiveness to complaints.

THE GLOBAL ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

FRAMEWORK

I. Member Control
II. Appointment of senior staf
III. Compliance mechanisms
IV. Evaluation processes
V. External stakeholder
consultation
VI. Complaints mechanism
VII.Corporate social responsibility
VIII.Access to information

RISK MAPPING TOOL

FOR NGO BOARDS

KEYSTONE CAPABILITIES
PROFILER

It summarizes the three

capabilities as follows:
I. Accountability
II. Strategy
III. Operational integrity

(i) Legal accountability mechanism

The basic legal standing of civil society organizations Establishment
and registration procedures Capital, Asset and/or membership
requirements, Tax treatment and benefits, Disclosure and public
reporting requirements.
(ii) Civic accountability mechanism
There are a growing number of civic or external stakeholder
mechanisms that are emerging with a focus on encouraging, enabling
and/or calling for better NGO performance and accountability.
Eg.GuideStar ,Charity Navigator,ForeignAID Ratings LLC
(iii) Self-regulatory or voluntary mechanism
The third broad category of accountability mechanisms can be
summarized as both
individual and collective mechanisms established by NGOs
themselves, usually on a
voluntary or self-regulatory basis. These include mechanisms such as:
voluntary
certification or accreditation schemes; peer review and learning
networks; and both

The Panchayati Raj Minister of Odisha said-at one point of time, it was
desired by the Planning Commission to encourage NGO participation in the
socio-economic development process with the hope that there will be healthy
competition between the government agencies and voluntary organisations.
But finally, it has been observed that the NGOs are running a parallel
government with the patronage of senior bureaucrats. A new regulatory
mechanism has to be thought of to make the NGOs accountable.

LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY LEADS TO WHAT?

The first is what might be termed the efficiency problem - when aid is
opaque and unaccountable, funds are more likely to go astray (through
corruption or inefficiency) between donors and the ultimate or intended
beneficiaries.
The second is the efectiveness problem. A lack of transparency in aid
can impede efforts to make it more effective in a number of ways. For
example, donors are unable to coordinate their activities in particular
countries or communities unless they have access to timely and accurate
data about the activities and approaches of other donors (given the
proliferation of actors in the aid system discussed above, this can be a major
problem), and recipients of aid are unable to plan ahead unless they have
information about future aid flows.

2007) as the beginning of a process to evolve a new working relationship

between the Government and the voluntary sector, without affecting the
autonomy and identity of voluntary organisations (VOs).
It aims to provide an enabling environment for the voluntary sector and also
make it
accountable, so that VOs can play their constructive role in development
activities effectively.
EXAMPLE 1
PUBLIC AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT,KARNATAKA
The Citizens Report Card in Bangalore was a civil society initiative
undertaken in 1993 to
monitor government services in terms of efficiency and accountability. The
exercise gathered
citizen feedback on performance of public agencies and disseminated the
findings to the
citizenry, thus exerting public pressure on the agencies to initiate reforms.
A seven-point rating scale facilitated quantification of citizen satisfaction
levels with regard to service delivery, dimensions of corruption, staff
behavior, and so forth. It is said to have considerably improved the
delivery of public services, through reductions in corruption and

EXAMPLE 2
THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION MOVEMENT
IN INDIA

The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) has been working to

improve the right of access of ordinary citizens to information held by public
officials in rural areas. Its major breakthrough was the effective lobbying it
did for implementation and effectiveness of the Right to Information Act
2005.
Section 2(h)(d)(ii) of the act defines Public authority under which,nonGovernment Organizations(NGOS) which are substantially financed, directly
or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government fall.
By gaining access to some public records through petitioning a small number
of sympathetic public officials, MKSS was able to begin to match stated
resource allocations with actual sales and distribution, and uncovered levels
of fraud ranging from $2,500 to $12,500 per village in missing
resources.
The organization has successfully organized public hearings in which
detailed information is read out to villagers and elected government officials

DONOR MANAGEMENT
DonorSource of funding for an organizations
program activities or operations.
Typically, funding is for a specific intervention with
a specific timeframe and budget.

A donor may be:

an individual or group;

a large agency, such as the United States Agency for International

Development (USAID) or the Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency (SIDA);

a multinational agency, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,

Tuberculosis and Malaria or the World Bank Group;

a foundation, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or the

Firelight Foundation; or a corporation, such as Nike or the MTN
Group.

DONOR-ORGANISATION RELATIONSHIP PRIMER

1.Communicate effectively. Being clear, direct and honest.

2. Follow up after donor meetings. A record of the meeting clarifies

decisions and actions that will be taken in the future.

3. Be responsive to donor requests. Quickness in response matters.

4. Make realistic promises and deliver on them. Genuineness, honesty to be

achieved. Deadlines matter, trust even more.

5. Use donor funds as expected. Implement of program as per proposal

specifications important.Alterations to be communicated, Guidance to
be sought from donor(if any).
6.Submit accurate, complete programmatic deliverables on time. They
document the accomplishments and successes. Quality over Quantity.
7.Do not surprise donors. Be open and truthful about challenges and
barriers(Setbacks and missteps) in your program as well as
successes throughout the period of performance.

8. Share your achievements. Recognize and give credit to donors. Tell your
organizations story (see eNews Success Story Reporting) and disseminate
program results broadly and through a variety of media newspapers,
radio, Web sites, social media, conferences, meetings, special events.
9. Take solutions a step further. Suggest ways in which you can eliminate a
problem and articulate how you can share new knowledge with other
stakeholders to support lasting solutions. Identify gaps in your present
program or interventions.

10. Prepare for visitors and opportunities to showcase your program. A wellorganized and informative introduction and site visit with program
stakeholders is an important way to communicate your successes and needs.

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