Dear Friends,
Greetings from VANI!
Since its beginning VANI had been active on the issue of good
internal governance of voluntary organizations. Along with raising
the issue of democratic space for action and right to association, it
is important that the internal governance of the voluntary
organizations is accountable and transparent. From the very
beginning of VANI, it started the movement for printing of annual
reports and audited statement of accounts for public consumption.
Since last few years VANI organized many regional meetings across
India with small and medium sized organizations to discuss and
disseminate the salient features of good governance, like active
governing boards, participation and accountability toward
stakeholders, transparent and accountable human resource and
financial policies.
During the last few years the government of India has initiated
major poverty reduction programmes at national levels as well as
proposed 12th Five Year Plan also visualized engagement of
voluntary organizations. Equally, the government as well as
voluntary sector is concerned about the lack of capacity inputs for
small and medium sized organizations about their internal
governance. During the first phase of the intervention, VANI
conducted series of regional workshops to identify the gaps and
disseminate the latest input. One of the outputs is “Hand Book on
Governing Board”. These issues were also discussed during the
22nd National Convention of VANI during February 22-23, 2011.
Some of the crucial gaps which have been identified by the number
of voluntary organizations are absence of guidance and support to
develop institutional policies like Financial Management, Human
Resource, Policy on Conflict of Interest, Policy against Sexual
Harassment, inclusion and Child Protection and Diversity
Policy. Some of these policies are not only mandatory but also
prerequisite for good and accountable governance of any institution.
In order to address this gap, VANI and Child Fund jointly started an
initiative to develop model policies, which could be adapted by the
voluntary sector. These mandatory policies kept flexible to suit the
need and the scope of the organizations. On August 19, 2011 we
organized a consultation with the people to implement these policies
to solicit their practical advice.
I am writing this letter to invite you to a very important national
event on September 28, 2011, where not only these policies will
be released but will also next steps in making voluntary sector more
effective and efficient will be discussed. As we know in today’s’
world some visible signs of good internal governance are very
important. They are important not only to project ourselves in front
of regulatory agencies but also showcase ourselves while generating
resources. There has been a never ending debate between
Accreditation and Self Regulations. Few months’ back a task force of
planning Commission came proposed a mechanism for “National
Accreditation Authority of India’.
VANI along with many
organizations found it not only impractical but also one side heavy
with least space for representation of voluntary sector. All over the
world various methods, methodologies, and systems exist for
Accreditations and self-Regulation of voluntary organizations. Some
of them are operationalised by Humanitarian Accountability
partnership (HAP), Interaction (US), BOND (UK), etc. VANI believes
that what ever system we as a sector adopt must be developed
from within the sector and must be own by the sector. This meeting
will also focus on the process of developing self-certification system
or propose more holistic accreditation system.
We are pleased to inform you that the internal policies will be
released by Dr. Syeda Hameed – Member, Planning
Commission, Ms. Anne Lynam Goddard - President and CEO
of ChildFund and Dr. Rajesh Tandon- President-PRIA on
September 28, 2011.
On behalf of VANI and ChildFund I invite you to be part of this event
and provide your valuable views and suggestions.
Regards
Harsh Jaitli
CEO, VANI