In a world where billionaires are calling the shots with zero accountability and full impunity and CSOs are struggling to find funding and civic space for their work, it can be easy to set aside commitments and practices that keep your own organization accountable. It can be frustrating, lonely, and severely under-resourced, even in the best of times. The current climate may even make intentional review and diagnosis of organizational failures, gaps, and values mismatches in a time when civil society is facing existential crisis and concentrated attacks. So, why should we even bother? 

Panelists will lay the groundwork for a virtual conversation to explore the role of trust and accountability in civil society’s important work ahead. And, even though resourcing CSO accountability may need to be scrappier than it’s been before, why we absolutely cannot lift our commitment to checking our work and receipts today. Alongside our brilliant panelists, we expect the wider discussion during the event to tackle burning questions, like:

• If societal and institutional trust are at an all time low, how is this impacting civil society, both formal and informal?
• What are the ways that civil society has contributed to the trustless world we find ourselves in today? And what can we do to rebuild trust?
• Even when no one is looking or asking, why should civil society care about our own accountability?  
• What does it mean to be accountable when others aren’t?
• How can we reclaim accountability as a bottom-up, people-centered practice – rather than a top-down compliance exercise?
• How can accountability become a tool to strengthen relationships especially in environments where trust in institutions is low or fragmented?
• In a context where resources and capacity in civil society are tighter than ever, why is it a mistake to skip, pause, or deprioritize dynamic accountability?
• In an era of growing inequality and unchecked power, how can civil society hold itself to a higher standard and ensure it serves the communities it represents?

Join Accountable Now and Rendir Cuentas for this virtual discussion and exploration, where leaders will reflect on the importance of and challenges ahead for CSO accountability in light of the global funding crisis, historic concentration of wealth, and backsliding for democracy and human rights. Together, we’ll break down what meaningful CSO accountability looks like today, why it matters, and how we can ensure it is more than just a buzzword. There will also be time for an open Q &A – because this conversation needs all of us!