Transparency enables accountability.

Innovative leaders in the focus groups and thought leadership forums repeatedly expressed the view that there was increasing accountability required of the sector.  They spoke of the need for better measures of impact.  And participants from foundations commented on the need for better processes for application and disbursement of funds that predicted greater social impact. Recent discussions within the Social Economy speak about the “rating of organisations  and benchmarking within (and perhaps across) the sector.

Hence, it may be asserted that with these comments above and what may be read in contemporary literature , a new wave of accountability will embrace many aspects of the operating environment of the Social Economy. This accountability will be about impact, performance, organisational quality, capability, and related issues. We suggest that accountability might be interpreted in the broader sense of systems accountability, organisational accountability and self-accountability. All forms are important but we consider the last mentioned, self-accountability might receive greater attention. Self-accountability challenges vested self-interest and misalignment of interests generally; and it places demands on the Social Economy to engage productively with itself. Whatever form of accountability is mooted for the social sector, the sector itself needs to participate actively to ensure that it directs its own future. This means that large corporate charities, private corporates, and other existing organisations with reputation and profile may take a lead but the process must be inclusive and not an exercise in power (as participants in our study indicated) of large over small organisations.

Furthermore when we speak about accountability, it is important to speak about the concept in an holistic sense, and not just nor only about social impact. Hence it appears to us that if such an approach were taken into account, a number of issues raised by participants in this study would be addressed. Any holistic approach might include :
•    Statements of an organization’s mission, its purpose, its design (grant to earned income ratios) and governance, alliances and partnership, codes of conduct and policies.
•    Statements of internal operations, employment and “discounted” wage structures, remuneration of directors and managers, sustainability strategies, performance indicators, program activities etc: and
•    Statements about impact and the effectiveness of projects and programs, public policy, reporting, representation and advocacy, etc.
All these three areas contribute in a systematic way to greater transparency in the sector.

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