FROM THE DESK OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

Who's accountable to who and why? 

Release Date: 12 April 2007

By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary-General

Dear e-CIVICUS Subscriber,

I am hoping that from the 23-25 May CIVICUS will have the honour of welcoming you as a delegate to CIVICUS main annual event, our World Assembly in Glasgow , Scotland . The World Assembly is a time for accountability of CIVICUS Board and Staff to our members, partners and supporters, a time for learning and development, a time for strengthening and consolidating networks and relationships, as well as pursuing joint ideas with those from other countries and regions., We have maintained the core theme which is Acting Together for a Just World. This years focused theme is: Accountability: Delivering Results.   

Accountability is concerned with the responsibility of powerful actors with regard to their decisions and actions. It is likely to become the new ‘guiding principle’ for public actors for this decade given that it cuts across all sectors. Indeed civil society, government and business are concerned with both their own and others’ accountability. Therefore, accountability is seen as the very core of the social and political power of public actors.  

Having such a timely and opportune focus theme is not so much the merit of CIVICUS, as it is that of last years delegates, as the issue of accountability resonated most among delegates to the 2006 World Assembly. The interest in the issue comes as no surprise as civil society and civil society organisations are often perceived as those holding business and government to account. However, the launch at the 2006 World Assembly of the International Advocacy NGO’s (IANGO’s) accountability charter, discussions during last year’s World Assembly underlined the need for Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s) to give greater emphasis to their own accountability. One of the long standing CIVICUS Programmes is called Strengthening the Legitimacy, Transparency and Accountability of civil society. We have long argued that with increasing influence, command of public and private resources and greater presence in public life, also comes the burden of public accountability. We have also cautioned that if civil society does not develop its own ethical standards, some governments might step in with very restrictive legislation as to how civil society organisations are regulated. Yet, there is a distinct set of institutional and technical issues around proving civil society’s accountability.  

Surely there are opportunities and dangers of self-regulation, but also that civil society’s accountability impacts its work. Associated with this are key points around developing clear terminology, particularly in the global context. Actions included establishing empirical evidence for accountability mechanisms, more work to review the IANGO charter, developing a framework to evaluate the real value of partnerships, sharing in successful adaptations of initiatives which have made a mark elsewhere, development of clear and agreed definitions of civil society terms, and changing the ‘frames’ within which people think through civil society issues. As was and still is clear, these same opportunities and dangers surround the accountability of other stakeholders such as donors and media. For, apparently there is a gap for all stakeholders between principles or standards and the implementation of those standards.  

By focussing the World Assembly on accountability CIVICUS feels it can assist in bridging the gap. More particularly it aims to assist in bringing key stakeholders together where they interface and encourage better engagement across sectors to achieve accountability. Because that is what the World Assembly is all about: bringing together actors who are traditionally more or less disconnected to act together. Encouragingly, while we already have a diverse number of civil society delegates, we also have delegates from governments, intergovernmental organisations, such as the United Nations and the World Bank, and representatives of business.   

Our intelligent funding track which looks at how donors can be more accountable as well as engaging in their work more innovatively and strategically has also attracted representatives of Foundations and several bilateral agencies. This also allows the opportunity for informal dialogue between grant makers and grant seekers, during which we hope there will be further discussion regarding mutual accountability.  

At CIVICUS we strongly believe that all stakeholders and their actions determine the fabric and the content of civil society. There is no one without the other. Ideally all are affected by all through their activities within the civil society. This I believe is the importance of an embedded society, a society where all guiding principles come together and work together. Indeed, without nesting the market, or better said business endeavours, in the social and cultural fabric of societies, we risk deranging our lives and livelihoods. Moreover, we risk deranging the future of our children. The world saw what happens when the market principles take over society when the Enron bubble burst and subsequently the dotcom bubble burst. Not for a moment do I mean to say that CSO’s task is thus rubbing the need for embeddedness in the faces of business leaders. Irrefutably the principle of embeddedness is just as pertinent for media, governments, religious institutions, the United Nations, donors and last but certainly not least for CSO’s. The only way to properly embed the different spheres and stakeholders actions in one another is by being accountable to the societies we work in and the people we work for.  

A sector essential in increasing accountability is the media. Hence we are pleased to have a track that focuses on media and their accountability. In the framework of efforts to build better communications channels for civil society, it is important to discuss initiatives to promote the necessary quality change and highlight some of the key direct and indirect actions towards media that civil society leaders have tried to carry out in the last years, e.g. the World Social Forum, the Global Call to Action against Poverty ( GCAP ) and the linked Stand Up Campaign. The next step is then to build a frank and effective dialogue among leaders of civil society and media. The aim is to increase understanding between mainstream media and civil society in order to improve both the quality and quantity of coverage that civil society issues receive in the mainstream media. The objective is to promote dialogue between mainstream media and civil society around the issue of ‘Holding the Media to Account’. The aim and objective will be met through four linked, sequential activities. Firstly, a key paper, commissioned through Inter Press Service ( IPS ), that will be made available to World Assembly delegates, as well as provided on-line for pre-Assembly web debates. This paper will form the basis for discussions.  

A Public Debate on media will take place on 24th May as part of the World Assembly programme. The discussion will address some of the following questions: Why civil society doesn’t get as much media attention as governments and the private sector? Is it due to civil society’s inability to convey its message? Is it the responsibility of media because journalists don’t know/understand civil society? Do they have ideological prejudices? Is it because the public is not interested?  

Apart from focusing on the accountability of media and donors, the World Assembly, will also celebrate the important role that civil society organisations play in public life.  To ensure that delegates are developing fresh and innovative ideas that can take their work to greater heights, the Nelson Mandela Graca Machel Innovation Awards, will be granted to organisations generating ideas and initiatives during the course of the World Assembly.    

Warmest regards,  

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