External Accountability: A Neglected Dimension?

Abstract

The term ‘accountability’ increasingly is used in the context of NGOs. However, rarely is it defined. This could be mere oversight, but we would suggest that it is more likely due to the difficulty of locating NGOs within the normal paradigms of accountability. For example, it is a basic expectation that all governments should be accountable to their electorate. Similarly, it is expected that private-for-profit organizations should be accountable to their share-holders. In these situations the various actors are clearly identified and common to all governments or for-profit organizations. By contrast, NGOs as organizations have no inherent requirement to be accountable either within a political or a market environment, and have no common or obvious external stakeholder. Whatever requirements do exist for NGOs to be externally accountable are usually situationallyspecific and involve a variety of different stakeholders. Donors, clients or consumers, governments and the public can all claim to be NGO stakeholders. These various differences have two main consequences: first, a very loose usage of the term ‘accountability’ and, second, an inability to use the term consistently between dissimilar organizations.