David Nussbaum was a leading participant in the development of and a founding signatory of the INGO Accountability Charter, now Accountable Now.
I was the Chief Executive of Transparency International, and in discussions with fellow CEOs of International Advocacy NGOs (IANGOs) in the early 2000s, we identified the need for greater public accountability for our own organisations. After all, we were calling for greater transparency and accountability from others – what about ourselves?
Many of us were familiar with Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (‘HAP’) International, which was developing standards and reporting which demonstrated accountability to people affected by disasters and other crises. We could see that comparable principles could apply more widely across our sector.
Having an accounting background myself, I was conscious of the potential power of public reporting. Large businesses have to report publicly on their financial and other results, and that influences what they do and how they do it. I thought that reporting against an accountability standard would influence INGOs, and could make them perform and operate better.
We were concerned about the prospect of civil society coming under greater pressure, from governments and others. How imminently that would happen seemed uncertain in 2005, but we anticipated that it was likely, and that demand for accountability from INGOs was going to grow. And we wanted to get ahead of those prospective demands.
The INGO Accountability Charter, which the leaders of ten other INGOs and I helped develop, accelerated the journey of INGOs to become more externally accountable: not just to our governance bodies, our staff or our donors, but more widely, and publicly.
The work we undertook together also helped to build understanding between the leaders of these various INGOs, developing a greater collaborative spirit, and recognition that our organisations would all benefit from each of us demonstrating more explicitly the way we held ourselves publicly accountable – under a common framework.
I imagined that it was possible that internationally standardised accountability reporting by INGOs would become widely adopted. If so, it would happen better and quicker if it came about through self-regulation by the sector. I also imagined that there would be demands for assurance from independent providers of what was reported.
What surprises me today is the continuing fragmentation of reporting across the world, the limited comparable data there is.
But I’m encouraged that Accountable Now is continuing to support and press civil society on its accountability journey.
Accountability to me is about being prepared to accept responsibility, and enabling those affected by what you do – your stakeholders – see how you have discharged those responsibilities.
Trust is valuable, and is today under considerable pressure; reporting against standards to which an organisation holds itself accountable can help to build trust.
Today’s technology, and even more so tomorrow’s, results in huge quantities of data being available. On the other hand, AI is going to make it possible for such enormous quantities of data to be reviewed by an AI agent – and we have no control of what instructions the agent may be given about what to look for, or how fair it will be in evaluating all that it finds.
So looking ahead, accountability is going to mean discerning what is significant, what matters, to a wide range of stakeholders.
Looking ahead, I think the deployment of AI in producing, reviewing, and using accountability data and information is both scary and an extraordinary opportunity.
Celebrating our 20 Years in Focus Anniversary Campaign, these reflections are part of our “20 Reflections From 20 Years” Series. This series gathers perspective from folks across AN’s two decades to reflect on Accountable Now then, now, and tomorrow.
Explore our 20 Years Library for other reflections, new resources, and upcoming events.
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