Although I don't see anything terrible about more disclosure by NGOs. NGOs are already "credentialed" in an informal way; a few more standards are actually more likely to question the corporate sponsorship of some "respectable" NGOs. Unions live with certain standards of accountability and democratic requirements, and those are generally rules that benefit a more open and ultimately more militant union movement. Abit more accountability might decrease the "one dollar one vote" fundraising-based decisionamking that motivates a lot of NGOs, or at least expose those too dependent on particular outside funding sources.
-- Nathan Newman
On Mon, 19 Jun 2000, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Financial Times - June 18, 2000
>
> Pressure groups warned on public scrutiny
> By Rosemary Bennett, Political Correspondent
>
> Greenpeace and other pressure groups must open up to public scrutiny
> or risk losing all credibility, a government-sponsored think tanks
> warns on Monday.
>
> The Foreign Policy Centre, whose president is Robin Cook, chief
> foreign minister, said that London's Mayday riots, the siege of
> Seattle and the row over Brent Spar have robbed many non-governmental
> organisations of their legitimacy.
>
> The report is published to mark the five year anniversary of the
> Brent Spar "fiasco" in which Greenpeace dramatically over-estimated
> the amount of hydrocarbons that could be expelled into the sea if the
> oil rig was scuppered.
>
> Michael Edwards, author of the report and former head of research at
> Save the Children, said NGOs that agree to minimum standards of
> accountability should be rewarded with a place at the negotiating
> table at IMF and other international con-ferences.
>
> He proposes a code of conduct for NGOs and a programme of
> self-regulation with independent verif-ication.
>
> A similar system exists in the Philippines where an umbrella body,
> the Philippine Council for NGO certification, can recommend
> withdrawal of recognition and tax privileges for those who fall short
> of minimum standards of conduct.
>
> Under the new regime, NGOs would be obliged to be certified by the
> regulatory body and sign up to standards of transparency,
> accountability, internal democracy and "helpful knowledge", a measure
> of its expertise.
>
> Once a certified system was up and running, the accredited
> organisations should have rights to sit at conferences.
>
> Mr Edwards said the World Bank had already accepted the principle of
> consulting pressure groups, but the next step would be giving
> relevant NGOs the right to monitor its Poverty Reduction Strategy
> Papers, country by country.
>
> However, the World Trade Organisation had further to go to reverse
> the "feelings of exclusion from processes and procedures" that
> contributed to the failure of the last round of talks in Seattle.
>
> He proposes a special, five-year meeting of the IMF with NGOs, and
> calls on Tony Blair, prime minister, to host the first "World
> Financial Forum" in Britain.
>
> "NGOs must put their house in order and prove they properly represent
> the people they claim to champion," said Mr Edwards.
>
> "Governments have responsibility to channel the energies of NGOs so
> that they don't have to use tear gas, pepper spray and batons to deal
> with the frustrations of those who feel excluded."
>