It’s always exciting when new resources appear on the web aimed at those of us interested in nonprofit governance. I just received word of such a new resource that you’ll want to check out right away.
The One World Trust is a UK-based NGO devoted to “making global governance more accountable.” It’s probably best known for its Global Accountability Report, an annual assessment of the accountability practices of some of the world's most prominent corporations, inter-government organizations, and NGOs.
The One World Trust has just announced the start of a path-breaking project to map nonprofit self-regulatory initiatives around the globe. This initiative documents national, regional, and international efforts to increase NGO accountability through codes of conduct, certification schemes, reporting frameworks, working groups, and other mechanisms.
Underlying all of these efforts is a focus on common norms and standards for NGOs. The effect of these sector-level self-regulatory initiatives, writes the One World Trust, is to build public trust, protect the political space in which NGOs operate, and support the sharing of good practice and learning.
The newly launched portal (www.oneworldtrust.org/csoproject ) includes an interactive map of country initiatives. It’s fascinating to click on individual countries and receive a pop-up summary of accountability initiatives in each location.
Altogether the One World Trust has mapped 309 initiatives worldwide. An accompanying report notes that this is many more than experts had thought existed, but in turn may be only a fraction of actual self-regulatory efforts among the world’s NGOs.
What does this have to do with good governance? Nearly all of the accountability initiatives the One World Trust catalogs include a central focus on the governance of organizations and the behavior of boards. And with good reason: boards are the innermost agent of accountability within organizations. On the micro-level, they are guarantors of accountability much in the way seals of approval and other approaches are guarantors of accountability on the macro- or sector-wide level.
Boards that are doing their jobs guarantee accountability by ensuring that internal processes (especially financial processes) are directed toward fulfilling the nonprofit mission. They give a voice to all stakeholders in major decisions. And they both enforce and demonstrate the norms of transparency, engagement, ethical behavior, and dedication to the common good that lie at the very heart of civil society.
For the moment, the One World Trust database of self-regulatory initiatives is concerned mostly with their geographic spread and scope. One hopes that in the future the portal will include more information and analysis about each initiative’s content.
Personally, I’d love to know how each self-regulatory initiative defines good governance, what it says about the role of a board, and how it seeks to regulate board-like functions such as internal checks and balances and oversight of the chief executive.
But meanwhile, what a great contribution to our resources on governance! Have a look at the site and see what it says about initiatives in your country. The site’s authors are looking for more information, so be sure to contact them if there’s an initiative you know about that should be included.
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