Civil society organisations across the world are being asked to be more and more transparent and demonstrate their accountability. The pressures come from multiple angles, from greater scrutiny over how public money is spent to more sophisticated impact analysis and to increasing demands to demonstrate ‘value for money’.
This guide is intended for reflection on CSOs’ accountability and self-regulation initiatives. It analyses whether self-regulation initiatives are one of the solutions to these concerns, expose the underlying challenges these initiatives are facing and present key innovations or recommendations for improvement. It builds on the three part concept of legitimacy, transparency and accountability.
The guide identifies the following ten key principles to guide the development of a strong, credible and sustainable self-regulation scheme:
1. Establishing the self-regulation initiative must be a civil society-led process.
2. Motivation and commitment of members are crucial.
3. All stakeholders must be involved in the process from the beginning.
4. A flexible self-regulation initiative will attract a diverse group of organisations, irrespective of size, focus and type.
5. Diversified resources are a prerequisite for the sustainability of a self-regulation initiative.
6. Using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can increase participation of stakeholders.
7. Working in networks facilitates and encourages the implementation of self-regulation mechanisms, mutual learning and problem solving.
8. Members must seek to provide high quality and accurate information during reporting to benefit from learning and recommendations.
9. A compliance system is needed for monitoring and enforcement of a self-regulation initiative.
10. A peer review mechanism can provide credible information about the implementation of the framework.
