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Improving Impact: Do Accountability Mechanisms Deliver Results?
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Download document HOLDING AID AGENCIES TO ACCOUNT IMPROVES VALUE FOR MONEY
Opportunities for local people to hold NGO’s to account for their actions have improved in recent years, but there has been little evidence to suggest that they can actually influence the quality and results of aid itself - until now.
A new report by Christian Aid, the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) and Save the Children UK, ‘Improving Impact: do accountability mechanisms deliver results?’ for the first time provides concrete evidence of the way accountability mechanisms improve the value for money, effectiveness, relevance, and sustainability of humanitarian and development projects.
Drawing on the experiences of communities assisted by Christian Aid partner Ukamba Christian Community Services (UCCS) in eastern Kenya, and Save the Children in central Myanmar, the report illustrates how measures such as formal complaints procedures, budget transparency, regular village-level meetings, and community procurement of local builders and other contractors, greatly improve both aid delivery and impact.
‘Accountability matters because we are morally obliged to use the resources held in trust for other people according to the wishes and best interests of those people. We are also morally obliged to show that we have done so,’ explains Paul Knox-Clarke of ALNAP (Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action).
‘We could stop there, but accountability also improves effectiveness and sustainability by ensuring that goods and services are relevant to peoples’ needs. It can make programmes more efficient by allowing people to identify and correct waste mismanagement, and it can even contribute to political and social empowerment as people are made aware that they can challenge other duty-bearers like government and councils.’
In contrast, the absence of official accountability systems can also result in a significant loss of trust between aid agencies and the people they are there to help.
A 2012 survey by ALNAP conducted during recent humanitarian emergencies in Haiti, DRC, Pakistan and Uganda, found that more than 50 per cent of aid recipients reported that there were no formal systems in place for them to offer opinions about charity projects set up in their community, air any grievances, or suggest necessary changes.
‘This kind of approach leads to an overall lack of confidence in aid organisations,’ says report author Andy Featherstone.
‘Enabling aid agency staff to listen and respond to affected communities through formal mechanisms can only help increase the relevance and usefulness of international assistance.’
The full report can be found at:
www.hapinternational.org/projects/research/hap-research.aspx
www.christianaid.org.uk/resources/policy/programme-practice.aspx
Notes to editors:
In London, the report launch event will be hosted by ALNAP on Friday 21 June at 2pm at the Overseas Development Institute, 203 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8NJ. It will also be streamed globally. You can register for the event by emailing alnap@alnap.org or visit the ODI website to register to listen online.
In Geneva, the report launch event will take place on Monday 24 June at 12.30 and will be hosted by the European Union Delegation in Geneva, Rue du Grand-Pré 64, 1211 Geneva. You can register for the event by emailing mgarrard@hapinternational.org