Date: 2024-05-14 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00003123
ATCnet
The Accountability Project
Overview ... Background
The Accountability Project
Overview ... Background
Original article:
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
Overview
Background
The ATCnet Accountability Project has been developed in response to the powerful impression that performance in development has been inadequate, and that there is an important need for good information about performance in development and in humanitarian and emergency interventions. The program responds to the need for objective and independent and meaningful and universal reporting on the use of scarce resources.
The information easily available about the performance of major organizations involved with development and humanitarian and emergency interventions is not sufficient to inform people about performance in a meaningful way, and dialog about ways to be successful are severely constrained. Up to now the discussion has been within separate groups and dominated almost exclusively by the rich and educated.
Where Amnesty International has a focus on human rights, and GreenPeace on environment and peace, and Transparency International on corruption, and UNICEF on children ....... ATCnet has a focus on accountability.
Accountability is a key to effective change. Not the type of accountability that has dominated recent discussion of accountability and transparency but independent accountability by the PUBLIC and for the PUBLIC.
The ATCnet Accountability Project
The ATCnet Accountability Project is more than an accounting for the money, and an audit of the accounts to check vouchers and to validate the internal control systems. It empowers the PUBLIC to address the question of value adding in their communities and the use of scarce resources and makes it imperative for organizations to take responsibility for performance.
ATCnet and ATCnet Accountability Analysis does for decision making and performance what auditors and audit do for accounts. Organizations that make use of ATCnet Accountability Analysis are in a position to respond to questions about their accountability in the same way that organizations refer to their audit report and audited accounts for matters relating to their accounts.
Under the ATCnet Accountability Project, the public will be able to see basic critical information about resource flows and results achieved. The public will be able to draw their own conclusions about resources flows that produce good results and resource flows that are ineffective. Some resource flows will result in demonstrated excellence. Other resource flows will reflect poor performance and it will be clear what were the causal factors for this poor performance.
This program opens the dialog about accountability to individuals and families and communities that are (supposedly) the intended beneficiaries and expands accountability to be an “end-to-end” analysis rather than an internal exercise dominated by procedural considerations.
Under the ATCnet Accountability Project, the public will be able to see which organizations practice transparency and are willing to participate and cooperate in the ATCnet accountability analysis initiative, and which organizations have not. The public can draw their own conclusions about why organizations are not willing to participate and cooperate.
But just as important, the public will be able to include their input into the dialog about performance in development.
Under the ATCnet Accountability Project excellence will be highlighted. The goal is to have all development resources used in a way that delivers excellence.
But there will be performance that is less than excellent and with the ATCnet Accountability Project reasons for poor performance will be visible, and lessons can be learned.
But most important, individuals and organizations in positions of fiduciary trust and managing resources will be accountable to the public for the results derived from these resources. People within organizations make decisions and should be accountable and be made to take responsibility.
ATCnet Accountability Analysis is not just about official development assistance, but extends to private capital flows and to the funds of government in both NORTH and SOUTH. The challenge for the ATCnet Accountability Project is to highlight all ineffective use of material and financial resources and help to get decision makers to divert resources flows to works that are value adding and serve the interests and priorities of the intended beneficiaries. Corporate organizations and capital markets must be brought into the process so that damaging strategies are documented and the implicated organizations and individuals should be made to take responsibility.
Technology and Methodology
An Internet enabled relational database is the core foundation for the ATCnet Accountability Project. The database technology being used is a mature and reliable technology. The Internet has become an incredibly powerful new medium for communications and the rapid collection of information. At the technical level ATCnet is using modern ICT in the best possible way.
But ATCnet’s Accountability Project goes beyond the limits of technology to incorporate the massive power of human intervention and a global volunteer movement. People know a lot about the problems that are constraining socioeconomic progress, but have had no vehicle up to now to get their knowledge included in an effective analytical process.
However, technology and volunteers cannot be successful and make a difference unless there is a process to move from identification of the problem to solution and to progress. In this regard, the value systems of both the NORTH and the SOUTH, the rich and the poor, the educated and the not so educated, ALL have to be taken into consideration. This is a big undertaking. The ATCnet Accountability Project makes it possible because of technology’s ability to manage and analyze enormous quantities of information in a meaningful manner, and to improve understanding of multiple priorities and multiple options. The ATCnet Accountability Project helps to manage resources so that results are understood where there should be benefit and not merely at the level of the global average or at allocation or disbursement of funds.
ATCnet volunteers are part of a network that encourages self-improvement and learning and excellence. The work of the volunteers is subject to internal quality control and active supervision and monitoring.
Funding and Sustainability
The ATCnet Accountability Project is an independent initiative. It will be funded in part by organizations that may be subject to negative accountability reports. But no organization will fund the project to the extent that it will be able to influence the objectivity of the process and the reports.
Join the Program
Organizations wanting to be part of the program are asked to contact ATCnet. It is preferable for basic information about the organization to be entered into the ATCnet database, and unlimited additional information can be sent to ATCnet in text or HTML format.
Individuals wanting to be part of the program are also asked to contact ATCnet. It is preferable for basic information about the individual to be entered into the ATCnet database, and additional information can be sent to ATCnet in text or HTML format.
Organizations or individuals wanting to support this program can contact ATCnet. The ATCnet Foundation has applied for US IRS Tax Exempt Status and is providing financial support to launch this ATCnet initiative. Funds raised by ATCnet Foundation are used entirely for the purposes specifically identified.