Internal governance: Responding to the challenge of civil society legitimacy, accountability and transparency
Release Date: 28 February, 2005
By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary General
I write this amidst energetic preparation for the next meeting of the CIVICUS Board of Directors, which starts on 2 March here in Johannesburg. The CIVICUS Board is elected by a unique process seeking to ensure maximum ownership and direction exerted by CIVICUS members and partners. Any citizen on the planet can nominate candidates for the CIVICUS Board. Last year’s election drew close to 100 candidates from 65 countries.
An independent nominations panel made up of two outgoing Board members, who are not eligible for election, and three others drawn from the CIVICUS family, reviewed these candidates and developed a slate of 26 candidates that were then put to the CIVICUS members via a postal ballot. CIVICUS, as a membership-based organisation, has to place a very high importance on the role of the Board as its principle governance structure. While we have made many positive improvements in Board governance over the last three years, we are constantly looking at how to improve the internal governance of CIVICUS.
This is an important issue for all of civil society, particularly at a moment when civil society is under threat from certain quarters which argue that while governments derive their mandate through elections to make and implement policies, civil society organisations (CSOs) are ‘self-appointed do-gooders’ who have no mandate to represent the voices of marginalised citizens. What this critique ignores is the deepening democratic deficit in most countries around the world, even where elections are held, and even in long-standing democratic countries.
Some features of this democratic deficit include: (1) fewer citizens feeling motivated to vote in elections; (2) the inaccessibility of political office, for example in the United States, where it has become prohibitively expensive to run for national political office, thus ruling out many good candidates; (3) the continuing gender imbalance in parliamentary and government institutions; (4) the skewed media environment in several countries that do not allow equitable access to the media; (5) the lack of internal democracy in political parties; and, (6) the high return rate of incumbent candidates, suggesting that those that hold political office are able to exploit their position to seek re-election.
On the other hand, it is a fallacy to suggest that there are no accountability mechanisms built into the system for CSOs. Unlike governments, which even if they perform with mediocrity are guaranteed a revenue flow from obligatory taxation, not a single cent raised by CSOs is based on obligation. We thus have a ‘perform or perish’ principle built into the system. Essentially, as a CSO, if you do not perform on the basis of your vision, mission and objectives, you will not attract the resources needed, whether from individuals, governments, businesses or foundations, and thus perish.
One of CIVICUS’ ongoing programme activities is promoting civil society legitimacy, transparency and accountability. There are many countries around the world now where there exist Ethical Codes of Conducts developed by CSOs themselves. There are several attempts at developing self-regulation frameworks to ensure the public trust in CSOs is maintained.
It is important to note that public opinion surveys, even those conducted by mainstream institutions such as the World Economic Forum, have shown repeatedly that citizens trust CSOs more than they trust government or business. Should this reality be a reason for us to say that this issue does not require our attention? On the contrary, it is critically important that CSOs recognise that with increasing influence, presence, and command of publicly raised resources comes also the burden of greater public accountability.
Essentially, while on the one hand improving the internal governance of individual CSOs is critically important, it is equally important that we encourage the positive efforts that are underway already to develop national NGO codes of ethical conduct, as well as the efforts by human rights organisations working trans-nationally to develop a sector-wide code of conduct. Just because there is a legitimacy deficit within governments, intergovernmental bodies such as the World Bank or the World Trade Organisation, or businesses, is no justification for us not to strive to improve our internal governance, which is a crucial element of maintaining the public trust that we have all worked so hard to achieve.
Essentially, this has become an ethical imperative now for CSOs around the world.
Should you wish to know about our work in this area, please feel free to contact David Kalete (kalete@civicus.org) who takes the lead for CIVICUS on this programme, or visit our website: www.civicus.org.
More importantly, we would love to hear from you both about attempts to improve the internal governance of individual civil CSOs, as well as attempts to develop self-regulation efforts by civil society networks and sectors.
If you have a board meeting coming up, we wish you good luck and hope that it will take the work of your organisation forward. Whether your board is elected or appointed, it is equally important that we do our best to ensure effective governance of our activities, despite sometimes severe resource limitations, especially when board members are not all based in the same town, city or village, but are dispersed across the world. Notwithstanding these limitations, there are many positive ways in which we can improve communication with board members.
In our next edition of e-CIVICUS we will share with you one tool we have discovered to make inexpensive international telephone calls to enhance communication with board members and others with whom we work in-between board meetings. Until then, best of luck in the important work you are doing to make the world more just, safe and democratic.
Warmest regards,
Kumi Naidoo
Please send your comments and suggestions to e-mail kumi@civicus.org.
