Humanitarian accountability: a conceptual analysis

Drawing on the public accountability literature, mainly using Bovens’ concepts of accountability as mechanism and accountability as a virtue, this paper reviews existing strategies for conceptualisation and operationalisation of accountability in the humanitarian sector and compares their advantages and shortcomings. Humanitarian work takes place in contexts that are characterised by inherent power imbalances between donors, humanitarian organisations, local communities and affected populations. In this context, humanitarian organisations have a multitude of accountability relationships, some of them are formal – for example, through contracts with donors – while others are legal and political obligations. Others are informal, such as those with affected populations who do not have any formal power to hold these organisations accountable. Efforts from humanitarian organisations to become more accountable have to date mainly focused on accountability virtue, a normative concept that defines accountable behaviour, and the sector has developed a multitude of voluntary standards and business inspired frameworks. However, less attention has been paid to accountability as a mechanism, which requires organisations to explain and justify their conduct to a forum and face judgement. It appears that donors are the only existing forum to which humanitarian organisations do have to give an account and be answerable for their acts and performance. The author argues that a mix of these approaches (virtue and mechanism) could improve accountability in the humanitarian sector. However, the success of such an approach to humanitarian accountability will essentially depend on how far both donors and humanitarian organisations are willing to let go of power and control

The Web sites of New Zealand non-governmental development organisations : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, School of People, Environment and Planning, College of Humanities and Social Sciences

New Zealand Non-Governmental Development Organisations (NGOs) are facing challenges in areas of accountability, effectiveness, efficiency, and communication and sharing of information, both internally and externally. The technology of the World Wide Web has the ability to assist organisations in facing these challenges. This study examines the Web sites of NZ NGOs and evaluates them against accepted best practice criteria to see whether the sites are effective in meeting the challenges and enhancing the activities of the organisations. Looking at how NZ NGOs are currently using the Web and comparing their efforts with current 'best practice' will help organisations understand how establishing and maintaining a Web presence can best address the challenges

The accountability of community sector agencies: a comparative framework

Accountability in community sector organisations is analysed in comparison with the public and private for-profit sectors, according to a number of variables: who is accountable (collective and individual); for what they are accountable (legal compliance and financial reporting, general performance, treatment of individual clients); and to whom they are accountable (the public, ‘owners’, and ‘clients’). Accountability of individual members within organisations is also explored. ‘Accountability’ to personal values is misleadingly so named. The community sector has significantly less accountability

Accountability for Human Rights Violations by International Organisations

With the proliferation of international organisations and their ever increasing role in a wide range of policy fields, situations multiply in which human rights are threatened or violated through the actions, operations or policies of such organisations. The present book, with carefully selected contributions from many prominent scholars and practitioners, is the first to explore these problems in a comprehensive manner and to examine the accountability mechanisms that are available. In a first, cross-cutting part, the contributions study general concepts, such as the accountability of international organisations as an evolving legal concept, international organisations as independent actors, the logic of sliding scales in the law of international responsibility and the relations between the international organisations and their Member States in regard to their respective obligations and responsibilities. The subsequent parts of the book focus on the accountability for human rights violations attributable to international organisations in four areas: (i) peace and humanitarian operations; (ii) international civil administration; (iii) economic governance; and (iv) staff of international organisations

A Practical Guide to Planning and Executing and Impactful Exit

The first objective of this manual is to provide Venture Philanthropy/Social Investment practitioners with an important tool to assist them in their daily activities and thus enhance the effectiveness of their work. The second objective is to increase the transparency and accountability of the Venture Philanthropy/Social Investment sector. This manual should be useful for both experienced Venture Philanthropy Organisations that want to reflect on how to exit their investments while maximising and sustaining the impact achieved, and for organisations approaching VP, which can learn from the experience of VP/SI practitioners

Pathways to Accountability II

This report summarises the results of the 2009-2010 review process on the One World Trust Global Accountability Framework and the piloting of the draft framework during 2011, and presents the full One World Trust Pathways to Accountability II indicator framework. Our work in this field work is motivated by a concern about the persisting weakness and insufficient effectiveness of global organisations from all sectors in responding to the challenge of delivering global public goods to citizens and communities, the very people whom they claim to serve and benefit, and who are most often dependent on them

Participation of civil society in new modes of governance: the case of the new EU member states. Part 2: Questions of accountability

"This working paper is part of a series presenting the results of a research team examining theimpact of the 2004 EU enlargement on governance structures involving the participation of civilsociety organisations. The working paper starts with a contribution by David Lane summarizing the state of civil society organisations in the post-socialist EU member states and their potential for an active role in new modes of governance. He offers a quantitative and qualitative assessment and discusses the implications for questions of accountability. The following two articles by Zdenka Mansfeldová and Micha? Federowicz and Micha? Sitek go on to elaborate on civil society organisations holding state actors accountable. Mansfeldová examines the societal context for political and administrative accountability in the Czech Republic, while Federowicz and Sitek examine the political accountability of the Polish government. The next two contributions focus on state actors holding civil society organisations accountable. As argued above, the focus here is on legal accountability. Marcin Wiszowaty offers an overview of national legal regulations of lobbyism and related involvement in political governance in the new EU member states. As only two of these states have passed a law on lobbyism so far (the others are still in the process of drafting relevant legislation), his focus is on its legal regulation in Lithuania and Poland. Jakub P?a?ynski then analyses the realization of legal accountability in practice, comparing different cases of legally questionable actions by Polish civil society organisations. The final article by Martin Kay develops a highly refined theoretical perspective of legitimacy and accountability. Drawing on the Irish example, he shows the theoretical implications of the issues discussed in the preceding contributions and offers guiding questions for future research." (excerpt). Contents: David Lane: Civil society formation and accountabilityin the new post-socialist EU member states (7-21); Zdenka Mansfeldová: Political and administrative accountability in the Czech Republic (22-34); Michal Federowicz, Michal Sitek: Accountability to the forum: the case of civil society interacting with political institutions (35-45); Marcin Michal Wiszowaty: Legal regulation of lobbying in new member states of the European Union (46-56); Jakub Plazynski: Public protests in Poland. Legal regulation and legal accountability (57-76); Martin Kay: A new approach to legitimacy and accountability. Limitations and possibilities in the context of the enlarged EU (77-100); Aleksandra Lis: Bibliography: Political activities and accountability of civil society organisations in the new EU member states (101-114)

Accountability Work: Examining the Values, Technologies and Work Practices that Facilitate Transparency in Charities

Charities are subject to stringent transparency and accountability requirements from government and funders to ensure that they are conducting work and spending money appropriately. Charities are increasingly important to civic life and have unique characteristics as organisations. This provides a rich space in which HCI researchers may learn from and affect both held notions of transparency and accountability, and the relationships between these organisations and their stakeholders. We conducted ethnographic fieldwork and workshops over a seven month period at a charity. We aimed to understand how the transparency obligations of a charity manifest through work and how the workers of a charity reason about transparency and accountability as an everyday practice. Our findings highlight how organisations engage in presenting different accounts of their work; how workers view their legal transparency obligations in contrast with their accountability to their everyday community; and how their labour does not translate well to outcome measures or metrics. We discuss implications for the design of future systems that support organisations to produce accounts of their work as part of everyday practice

Complaint and grievance mechanisms in international law: one piece of the accountability jigsaw?

In the rules and principles that guide and regulate international organisations, there has been a gradual, yet noticeable, transformation from a model premised upon a narrow conception of inter-governmentalism and formal legalism to one that is increasingly receptive to broader constitutional notions, including ideals such as enhancing legitimacy and promoting good governance.1 In this process, concepts such as accountability, transparency, public participation and due administration have become prevalent both in the rhetoric and everyday reality of international organisations. This article focuses upon one element of this wider discourse, namely the increased adoption within the international community of complaint and grievance mechanisms that operate outside the traditional legal framework

Accountability Work: Examining the Values, Technologies and Work Practices that Facilitate Transparency in Charities

Charities are subject to stringent transparency and accountability requirements from government and funders to ensure that they are conducting work and spending money appropriately. Charities are increasingly important to civic life and have unique characteristics as organisations. This provides a rich space in which HCI researchers may learn from and affect both held notions of transparency and accountability, and the relationships between these organisations and their stakeholders. We conducted ethnographic fieldwork and workshops over a seven month period at a charity. We aimed to understand how the transparency obligations of a charity manifest through work and how the workers of a charity reason about transparency and accountability as an everyday practice. Our findings highlight how organisations engage in presenting different accounts of their work; how workers view their legal transparency obligations in contrast with their accountability to their everyday community; and how their labour does not translate well to outcome measures or metrics. We discuss implications for the design of future systems that support organisations to produce accounts of their work as part of everyday practice