Good Practice Library

Through our accountability reporting process, our Independent Review Panel identifies good practices from the reports sent by our members. Browse our library and get inspired by innovative CSO accountability practices!

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Sightsavers boosts its transparency by publishing its policy positions

Sightsavers publishes its policy positions on its website and intranet. In the UK, policy positions are disseminated to key targets in Westminster and Whitehall. They are used as a basis for additional briefings (for example to brief Members of Parliament or Peers in advance of relevant Parliamentary debates).

CARE’s comprehensive MEL system enhances performance and impact

CARE International (CI) is committed to adhering to international standards of quality and accountability, leading to the implementation of various standards and tools to continuously assess their program effectiveness and their contribution to impact, involving CARE staff and the communities they work with. The CARE International Secretariat maintains a leading coordination role in developing and implementing those standards and tools for assessing program effectiveness and impact.

Amnesty International engages with stakeholders in 79% of all its projects

A wide range of relationships are being managed across the movement, with the people whose rights AI seeks to advance – human rights defenders, affected rights-holders, and members of local partner organisations. The manner of engagement varies depending on the context and scale of the work, and takes place through online and offline meetings, project planning and project review discussions and – in the context of research – interviews.

Amnesty puts accountability high on their internal agenda

Amnesty International’s report submission to Accountable Now is based on analysis and inputs from International Secretariat staff and from their national entity reporting mechanisms (Standard Action Reports and Core Standards). One Senior Director is responsible for each key accountability area of improvement, as identified in the 2014 feedback from the Independent Review Panel (participation, gender, anti-corruption, governance). The Senior Directors discuss updates twice a year (linked to the Panel’s feedback and the analysis of internal global reporting).

ActionAid connects the dots when designing their campaigns

Based on consultations and research at local and national level, programme teams put together campaign proposals to submit to the International Leadership Team (ILT). These campaigns aim to best represent the interests of people living in poverty and exclusion, while also contributing towards achieving our strategic aims.

ActionAid adopts a comprehensive cross-functional accountability reporting process

To raise awareness and commitment across all functions, a template of the relevant section of the report was circulated to heads of team who oversee various functions of the organisation, along with the previous report entry and feedback, and a request for updated information.

ActionAid’s seven-year rule fosters “localisation” of staff

ActionAid operates through its national offices worldwide and through the IS hubs. In national offices, the majority of staff (at all levels) are local people. Members of the local National Boards are nationals of the respective country and take part in hiring the Country Directors. ActionAid commits to hiring local people for local jobs.

World Vision’s workshop strengthening accountability at the national level

In 2014, World Vision initiated accountability reporting at national offices, encouraging different offices to include an accountability component in their annual external reports, without having to write a separate report. This effort commenced with an accountability workshop for 29 staff members, organised in Swaziland, where a template and guide were developed.

World Vision embeds risk management in all their regions

World Vision’s focus in 2014 has been on embedding risk management globally – making it part of normal business – in all regions and offices across the World Vision International Partnership. All seven regions appointed the senior director of operations as the regional risk management champion, established risk management committees comprising senior management, and completed an introductory enterprise risk management (ERM) workshop. These regional risk committees provide oversight to the ERM process and support in rolling out basic risk management practices to the national offices.

Transparency International’s board members are mutually and externally accountable

Transparency International (TI) Board members are subject to the TI Board Code of Conduct and the TI Conflict of Interest policy. As such candidates for Board election are required to compile a register of interests which is circulated to the electorate along their biography and election statement. As a matter of fact, candidates for election on the Board are occasionally subject to questions from the voters on potential conflicts of interests during TI election hearings.

Transparency International boosts its performance and impact

In 2014 Transparency International (TI) developed a movement-wide approach to monitoring impact. The approach aims to build a more robust body of evidence regarding what works in the fight against corruption, why and how it works. The Impact Monitoring Approach (IMA) is designed to be broad and flexible enough to capture the different change processes that the TI movement and more broadly the anti-corruption community are contributing to and achieving.

SOS Children’s Villages engages in a dialogue between employees and management

SOS Children’s Villages uses online communications forums that not only serve to inform stakeholders about the actions performed by legal bodies, but focus lies on creating a two-way communication and fostering dialogue and engagement of stakeholders.

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