CSO self-regulation: emerging
patterns and trends
Robert Lloyd
One World Trust
Issues to cover
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The benefits of CSO self-regulation
Overview of the CSO self-regulation project
Patterns of self-regulation worldwide
Typology of CSO self-regulatory
Approaches to ensuring compliance
Weaknesses and challenges to CSO selfregulation
What the benefits of CSOs selfregulation?
• Builds public trust
– Identifies to stakeholders what the sector collectively standards for and
provides a basis for accountability
– Helps weed out rogue CSOs
• Signals quality and professionalism to donors
– Helps organisations stand out in an increasingly competitive and crowded field
• Protects the political space for CSOs to operate
– Allows the sector to define what it means by accountability rather than have
others defined it for them
– Increases the leverage of the sector vis-a-vis government by enabling it to
speak with one voice and indicate collective efforts
• Facilitates the sharing of good practice and learning on
accountability and quality
Aim and objectives of the CSO
self-regulation project
Aim: Strengthen and protect the credibility and
legitimacy of CSOs as actors in governance and
public policy by encouraging the development
and implementation of sector level self-regulation
Objectives:
• Raise awareness of existing self-regulatory initiatives
worldwide
• Facilitate the sharing of experiences and learning on selfregulation, internationally
• Identify and increase understanding of best practice
• Increase understanding of complementarities, overlaps
and tensions between initiatives
Outputs from the CSO selfregulation project
• Online database of CSO self-regulatory initiatives
• Interactive map indicating levels of CSO selfregulation worldwide
• Thematic and issue specific briefing papers
• Future plans:
– Toolkit for CSOs on how to develop self-regulatory initiatives with
examples of best practice, compliance mechanisms, institutional
structures etc
– Methodology for assessing the implementation / impact of selfregulation on the sector and individual organisations
How the online database
works
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
http://www.oneworldtrust.org
/csoproject/
A picture of CSO self-regulation
worldwide
Levels of CSO selfregulation worldwide
CSO self-regulation is more widespread
than we previously thought
•Past studies only looked at particular
sectors or regions
343 initiatives identified worldwide
•309 at the national level
•34 at international and regional level
…..and we know there is more out there!
http://www.oneworldtrust.org/c
soproject/
CSO self-regulation in
Europe and Central Asia
144 initiatives identified within the
region
Austrian Seal of Quality for
Donations
Ethical Guidelines for North /
South Information in Norway
Le Comite de la Charte –
France
Trademark of Trust – Hungry
Guidestar Netherlands
NCO Coorinates – Russia
Social Actions Commitment to
Quality in the Third Sector –
Spain
http://www.oneworldtrust.org/csoproject/
CSO self-regulation in
the Americas
85 initiatives identified within the
region, including:
Transparency Standards for NGOs Chile
NGOs for Transparency Network Colombia
Evaluation of Organisational
Development System - Paraguay
Interaction PVO Standards - USA
Governance & Transparency
Indicators - Mexican Center for
Philanthropy
Code of Ethics of CSOs - Honduras
Letter of Principles Brazilian NGO
Association
http://www.oneworldtrust.org/csoproject/
CSO self-regulation in
Asia and the Pacific
37 initiatives identified within the region,
including:
NPO Certification - Pakistan
PCNC NGO certification Philippines
GuideStar Korea
10 Point Accountability Agenda –
Bangladesh
Credibility Alliance Norms and
Good Standards– India
ACFID Code of Conduct –
Australia
NGO Good Practice Project
Certification System – Cambodia
http://www.oneworldtrust.org/csoproject/
CSO self-regulation in the
Africa and the Middle East
43 initiatives identified within the
region, including:
Palestinian NGO Code of Conduct
NGO Quality Assurance Mechanism - Uganda
GuideStar Israel
NGO Code of Ethics Self-Assessment Program
- Tanzania
Greater Good South Africa
Code of Conduct for NGOs in Nigeria
Database of Malian CSOs
Ghana CSO/NGO Standards for Excellence
Project
http://www.oneworldtrust.org/csoproject/
Types of CSO self-regulation
Formalised structure
Third party
certification
Awards schemes
Information services
Light
compliance
Working groups
Codes of conduct /
ethics
Peer
certification
Self
certification
Informal structure
Heavy
compliance
Approaches to compliance
Monitoring mechanism
Proactive
Self assessment
Third party assessment
Reactive
Complaints procedures
•Desk
assessment
•Field
assessment
•Both
Recommendations for
corrective action (confidential)
Recommendations for
corrective action (made public)
Financial penalty
Membership suspension /
Removal from initiative
Strength
Peer assessment
Sanctioning mechanism
Benefits and challenges of different monitoring mechanisms
Type
Self-assessment
Benefits


Peer-assessment


Challenges
Encourages ownership of the
assessment process
Less costly than peer and third party
assessments.

More independent process than selfassessment
Encourages organisations to share their
experiences and learning with each
other





Third-party
assessment



Greater credibility from an independent
assessment
External assessment can identify issues
that are difficult for those internal to an
organisation to see
Complaints procedure

Relatively low cost to set up and run



Ensuring that organisations are truthful
about themselves
Integrity of assessment may be
questioned by external stakeholders
Members may be reluctant to criticise
their peers
Assessing organisations need to be
willing to commit the necessary time and
resources
Requires strong foundation of trust
between organisations.
Assessment is only meaningful between
similar organisations
The process of assessment can be
costly
Being granted a certificate can lull an
organisation into a false sense of
security
Only reveals cases of non-compliance
when reported
Public/stakeholders need to be aware of
complaints procedure
Benefits and challenges of different sanctioning mechanisms
Type
Benefits
Challenges
Confidential
recommendati
ons

Allows member to rectify
mistakes, build on learning
process

Members may ignore
recommendations
Recommendations
made and
disclosed
publicly

Encourages members to act
on recommendations by
creating public pressure

May undermine public
confidence in the sector
Financial penalty

Acts as a strong deterrent to
non-compliance

Will only be effective if penalty
cost exceeds benefits of freeriding
Membership
suspension /
expulsion

Acts as a deterrent to free
riding
Removes poor performing
members from initiative

Seen as too extreme by
member organisations
Expulsion
publicised

Demonstrates stringency of the
initiative to the public

May undermine public
confidence in the sector

Diagram 1: Key factors shaping a compliance system
Nature of state – civil society
relations
Level of Public
trust in the CSO
sector
CSO self-regulation
Resources available to the
sector
Level of trust &
collaboration between
CSOs
Have we missed an initiative in your country?
Let us know!
csosr@oneworldtrust.org