OWT's Christmas present

One World Trust today published its 2007 Global Accountability Report. It compares 30 intergovernmental, non-governmental and corporate bodies on measures of transparency, participation, evaluation and complaint handling.

The international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) under study (in order of best to worst performing) are:

• Christian Aid
• International Accounting Standards Board
• International Save the Children Alliance
• Aga Khan Foundation
• Human Rights Watch
• International Organization for Standardization
• Medecins Sans Frontiers International
• MERCY Malaysia
• Greenpeace International
• Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)

The headline findings are:

• Only 3 INGOs have transparency policies and two lack readily-accessible ‘contact us’ functions
• All the examined INGOs make commitments to engage external stakeholders but only four have organisation-wide guidelines in this regard
• Over half the INGOs have evaluation policies but only two commit to being open with evaluation results.
• The overall quality of INGO internal complain handling is high but external complain procedures are where the sector’s accountability capabilities are least developed.

One World Trust are now carrying out their survey of 30 organisations every year. One suggestion: why don't they also include a review of a selection of previous years' organisations to see if they've improved or not?