Since 2004, through its Legitimacy, Transparency and Accountability (LTA) programme, CIVICUS has been working to improve public trust and the credibility of civil society organisations (CSOs) and their activities through the enhancement of their accountability systems and structures.
Although much work has been done in recent years in terms of developing principles and toolkits on how to improve CSOs’ transparency and accountability standards, it remains a challenge for CSOs to translate such principles into concrete initiatives and work together towards better sectoral practices. However in Latin America and the Caribbean, the platform Rendir Cuentas (www.rendircuentas.org) has been working successfully for the last three years to bridge, connect and convene CSO practitioners to conceptualise transparency and accountability principles, map best practices and translate principles into concrete and shared initiatives.
Rendir Cuentas is a group of Latin American and Caribbean CSOs which have collectively assumed an ethical commitment in their organisational practice, working together to be transparent and accountable to their stakeholders and society in general. The Rendir Cuentas platform convenes a network of 25 focal organisations and networks in six countries (Argentina, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay), which together represent over 900 organisations. The platform is a space for peer to peer learning and reflection and the building of alliances. A distinctive feature of the platform is its profound conviction of the need and power of self-regulation initiatives, rather than the usual dynamic of CSOs reacting to external regulation attempts. All Rendir Cuentas’ members make their actions public, guided by the aim of increasing trust and gaining credibility and support amongst citizens and different social actors.Rendir Cuentas’ pro-active approach has translated into the generation of several national transparency and accountability reports, launched at public events. Some recent and future activities are:
- 91 Uruguayan CSOs launched a collective transparency and accountability report in December 2011, during a public event attended by international donor representatives, government officials and civil society actors (more information).
- 39 CSOs from Argentina launched a transparency and accountability report in April 2012, leading a national debate on the need to improve CSOs’ transparency and accountability practices.
- In February 2012 the Nicaraguan Alliance for NGO Transparency (Alianza de ONG por la Transparencia), which convenes more than 20 CSOs in Nicaragua, joined Rendir Cuentas and made public its commitment to work towards more transparent and accountable practices (more information).
- Later in April 2012 organisations working in Ecuador and Peru will also be launching their transparency and accountability reports.
- Rendir Cuentas hosts a virtual centre, where it convenes practitioners and specialists to generate papers and promote debate. It has also organised online capacity building workshops. For the first of these, more than 400 organisations were interested in attending, although due to a limited number of slots only 60 organisations could be selected to participate. Rendir Cuentas will be running more online workshops during 2012: please check its activity calendar.
Rendir Cuentas’ track record to date is impressive and the CIVICUS secretariat has been striving to support this valuable initiative since its inception: CIVIVUS was one of Rendir Cuentas’ founding partners. Today, given global trends of scarce funding and of increasing questioning of CSOs’ effectiveness and legitimacy, the need to improve CSOs’ legitimacy, transparency and accountability practices is a matter of survival.
Since 2009 this initiative has been growing fast under the leadership of Anabel Cruz of ICD Uruguay, and former chair of the CIVICUS board, and Rosa Inés Ospina, Transparency International Colombia’s chapter board member.
We invite organisations or individuals interested in learning more about or joining this initiative to contact the Rendir Cuentas coordinators: Rosa Inés Ospina, Transparencia por Colombia, Colombia, ; Anabel Cruz, ICD, Uruguay, .
