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Accountability, Strategy, and International Non-Governmental Organizations (L. David Brown and Mark H. Moore, The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, The Kennedy School of Government)

This paper is presented on the site of the Ash Institute for democratic governance and innovation http://www.innovations.harvard.edu

By Martin Vielajus

Increased prominence and greater influence expose international

non-governmental development and environmental organizations (INGOs) to increased demands for accountability from a wide variety of stakeholders--donors, beneficiaries, staffs, and partners among others. This paper focuses on developing the concept of INGO accountability, first as an abstract concept and then as a strategic idea with very different implications for different INGO strategies. We examine those implications for INGOs that emphasize service delivery, capacity-building, and policy influence. We propose that INGOs committed to service delivery may owe more accountability to donors and service regulators; capacity-building INGOs may be particularly obligated to clients whose capacities are being enhanced; and policy influence INGOs may be especially accountable to political constituencies and to influence targets. INGOs that are expanding their activities to include new initiatives may need to reorganize their accountability systems to implement their strategies effectively.

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L. David Brown is the Associate Director of International Programs at the Hauser Center and a Visiting Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government.

Mark H. Moore is the Director of the Hauser Center and the Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy and Management at the Kennedy School. H. Moore is the Director of the Hauser Center and the Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy and Management at the Kennedy School.

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