Self-regulation Initiatives and the Raison D’etre of Non-governmental Organisations

Abstract

In recent years, development NGOs have been experiencing changes in circumstances and, as a result, have faced increased pressure from other development actors for increased accountability. This paper analyzes the self-regulation initiatives undertaken by NGOs, which have tried to accommodate the changing environment and demand.

The accountability of NGOs has come under increasing scrutiny since the 1990s. NGOs evolved with an expectation of proposing alternative ways in development in the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, NGOs have gained influence in service-provision and policy formulation processes, while donors have also expanded support to NGOs. However, structural changes in the development sector, including the emergence of new actors and fiercer competition over resources, have challenged NGOs to reconsider their role. Moreover,the growing political, economic, and social influence of NGOs has raised questions about their credibility and legitimacy from donors and those targeted by NGO programmes lacking adequate accountability mechanisms.

Under such circumstances, self-regulation initiatives have become a common tool for NGOs to be more accountable and to restore credibility and legitimacy, while redefining the role of NGOs. Self-regulation is defined as rules or procedures relating to the conduct of organizations in the sector/industry, and expected to work as signaling a commitment to standards of conduct. A number of self-regulation initiatives has been formed in various countries. While many self-regulation initiatives remain weak and loose, some NGOs have tried to strengthen self-regulation initiatives as a tool to secure accountability and define the role with the aim of restoring credibility and legitimacy.

The paper focuses on three self-regulation initiatives to analyze how NGOs have tried to improve their own accountability and redefine the role through self-regulation initiatives: International NGO Charter,Global Reporting Initiative and Istanbul Principles. These three cases are well-known across the world but varied in character. The paper examines them from two perspectives; one is rigor of initiatives’ components,and the other is their enforcement mechanism.

As a conclusion, this paper argues that NGOs’ self-regulation initiatives have been developed and enriched by some NGOs’ efforts in recent years, and, therefore, widely recognized among international and local NGOs as a means of restore credibility and legitimacy through strengthening organization accountability mechanism and redefining the role of NGOs. However, each initiative has advantages and disadvantages. Some are well-established initiatives, but face lacking participation because of high entry requirements for member organizations. Others attract wide participation while they have weak enforcement mechanisms. In addition, introducing and strengthening initiatives could lead to potential risk of screening NGOs and destroying diversity of NGOs if the initiatives are set as a condition for funding. There remain areas to be improved in NGO’s self-regulation initiatives in order for further effective initiatives.