Mango counting

Finance | 1 Jun 2005

Mango is launching a campaign pushing NGOs to provide financial reports to their beneficiaries. New research by Mango, which provides finance and accounting services to agencies working overseas, shows that many NGOs are committed to improving their accountability to beneficiaries, but find it hard to deliver in practice. The Who Counts? initiative is directly targeted at NGO staff, in response to these difficulties.

Evidence from case studies shows how fraud can be reduced, impact improved and beneficiaries empowered. For example, publishing financial information in local newspapers reduced fraud from 76 per cent to 18 per cent in grants to schools in Uganda.

Mango also regards the campaign as important for following the tsunami appeal, with NGOs handling unprecedented amounts of funds and facing questions about their transparency, accountability and effectiveness.

Mango's director, Alex Jacobs, said: "Financial reporting to beneficiaries can generate a step change in how they engage in projects, and that has a huge impact in making sure that projects meet beneficiaries' real needs. The evidence proves it. But pressures of work, often driven by donors' conditions, get in the way of actually doing it in practice. We hope that Who Counts? will help NGO staff put this into practice in the field."

For more information see www.whocounts.org

Directory: e-mango

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