Organisations have to become more transparent and need to improve their response to complaints if they wish to build trust in the communities in which they operate. This was the conclusion of the Global Accountability Report 2006, which was launched by the One World Trust on December 4.
The report rates 30 global organisations across four dimensions – transparency, participation, evaluation and complaint and response. It found that scores were better on evaluation and participation than on the other dimensions.
None of the organisations did exceptionally well. However, seven did score above 50% in three of the dimensions. They are: ActionAid, Anglo American, the Global Environmental Facility, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Pfizer, the World Bank and World Vision International.
Monica Blagescu, accountability programme manager at the One World Trust, told Briefing that the research will be continued with a further 30 organisations assessed in 2007. This year’s group will be assessed again in 2008. So, eventually, the research will include a set of 60 organisations and “from this one can draw broader conclusions about global accountability”.
At the launch, the Rt. Hon. Hilary Benn, secretary of state for international development, described accountability as fundamental to the fight against corruption. He added that the best way to ensure accountability is to have a transparent political system and to encourage a global culture of accountability through tools such as the Global Accountability Index.
It is the first report to compare the accountability of inter-governmental organisations (IGOs), international NGOs (INGOs) and transnational corporations (TNC).
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