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(H) Accountability Framework


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What might CARE International's Accountability Framework look like?


Once developed, the aim of CARE International's Accountability Framework will to pull together CARE's multiple commitments into one place to make it easier to understand and act upon our accountability commitments. These accountability commitments will encompass both CARE internal policies and also commitments that CARE has made to interagency standards and principles.

CARE defines accountability as the means by which we fulfill our responsibilites to our stakeholders and the ways in which they may hold us to account for our decisions, actions and impacts. We strive to be accountable to all our stakeholders, but first and foremost to the poor, vulnerable and disaster affected people and communities with whom we work, especially women and girls. Put simply, effective use of the Accountability Framework should help ensure that community-level perspectives are considered whenever key decisions are made within CARE that potentially impact their lives. It should also help to better understand what impacts our interventions are having.

Based on an accountability mapping study released in 2011, there could be 8 Accountability Benchmarks and Enablers in the framework:

Benchmarks

  1. Give stakeholders a voice in our decision making
  2. Actively seek feedback and complaint from others
  3. Demonstrate the impact, quality and effectiveness of our work
  4. Learn with and from others
  5. Communicate in an open and honest way


Enablers

  1. Demonstrate attitudes and behaviours that reflect our principles and values
  2. Develop appropriate systems to support accountability
  3. Encourage leadership at all levels.


Draft CARE Accountability Framework One-Pager (ver. July, 2012)





About the Development of an Accountability Framework


The development of a CARE-wide Accountability Framework reflects both strong internal calls and external factors that make it prudent and timely to move ahead with such an initiative. Its development will directly build on the experience and model of CARE’s Humanitarian Accountability Framework which is currently being piloted: please see the CI Secretariat Accountabilty page at http://www.care-international.org/Accountability/. Building on the Humanitarian Accountability Framework, we hope to work towards a single umbrella Accountability Framework for the whole organization, pulling together existing internal and external principles, standards and codes that we use in our operations into a single framework. This work is part of the mandate of the CARE International Program and Operations Committee which reports to the CARE International Executive Committee.
Accountability Framework is currently being developed by an Accountability Task Force (AFTF) under the guidance of CARE's Program & Operations Committee. In the meantime CARE continues to apply its Humanitarian Accountability Framework (HAF) to its emergency responses.To ensure that CARE's Accountabilty Framework can be applied to all aspects of CARE's work, draft versions will be tested and piloted by various functional units throughout CARE. Guidelines for CARE staff who will be facilitating tests and pilots of the Accountabilty Framework have been developed to help with this.



Accountability Framework Task Force (AFTF)


For a full mapping report with annexes and other AFTF resources, visit the Development of AF website.

Accountability Framework Task Force is a small group of representatives of CARE Lead Members, CARE Member Partners and Country Offices that collaborates to modify the current HAF, based on mapping of existing accountability initiatives within CARE, considering the appropriate scope of an Accountability Framework, and developing a draft outline of a framework, noting gaps that need to be addressed.
This work is also linked to the work of the CARE International Governance and Nominations Committee which is supporting the development of a CI-wide information disclosure and complaints policy. A mapping study was conducted as the critical first step in the Accountability Framework development process. The mapping study analyses current accountability thinking and approaches within CARE and proposes a draft framework.


Putting the Accountability Framework into Practice


Putting the AF into practice would include:

Accountability Processes that:

  • Give stakeholders a voice in decision making (Planning Phase)
  • Actively seeking feedback and complaint from others (Implementation Stage)
  • Demonstrate impact, quality and effectiveness (Review Stage)
  • Learn with and from others (Review Stage)
  • Communicating in an open and honest way (All stages)


Accountability enablers that:

  • Demonstrate attitudes and behaviors that reflect our principles and values
  • Develop appropriate systems to support accountability
  • Encourage leadership in accountability at all levels


For more guidelines regarding putting the Accountability Framework into Practice, please visit Support to CO Quality and Accountability Systems.

h_accountability_framework.txt · Last modified: 2018/12/11 21:09 (external edit)