A network about compliance for international non-governmental organisations has been set up to help learn about sector best practice, with other INGOs encouraged to join.
The INGO Compliance Network was first set last year up by the head of regulatory compliance of Oxfam GB, and now includes 23 charities, including Plan International, Save the Children, and WaterAid. Its founder Sophie Walsh said that the group aims to allow members to share best practice, and optimise opportunities for collaboration.
The network has quarterly meetings, with members taking it in turns to host the meeting. As the group has members across Europe, not all meetings will be in the UK.
Walsh said the aim is for the meetings abroad to be full day meetings so the majority of people attending that will travel from the UK can make the most of the travel. Meetings held in the UK will be morning or afternoon meetings.
The group has had three meetings so far. The first meeting took place in December 2016 in WaterAid’s offices in London, the second at Plan International in London and the third at Save the Children in London. The next meeting will take place at Action Against Hunger in Paris in September, at Oxfam GB in Oxford in December and at Goal I.E. in Dublin in March.
Walsh said she decided to set the group up after moving back into the charity sector from the corporate sector, having previously worked with charities but never in international development. She said that this was a huge “learning curve” for her.
She said: “I assumed there would be a network of this nature, set up already, that I would be able to join and through which I would be able to learn about sector best practice. I had a look around and there wasn't one focused on compliance in this sector. Therefore I decided to set one up because I believe there is a lot that each INGO can learn from one another.
“I also believe there is benefit to be had from working together. Therefore, the two aims of the network are to share best practice and optimise opportunity for collaboration. When I started reaching out to counterparts in INGOs, there was clear appetite for such a network, which confirmed to me that I should set it up.”
She said she has “received very positive feedback so far and it seems to be really useful for people to hear of the similarities in experiences and challenges we're experiencing in our roles and to help each other with those”.
Topics discussed at these meetings have included: compliance training, responsibilities of compliance departments within INGOs, anti-fraud policies and field humanitarian practices, terrorism financing, and global risks and horizon scanning which looks at what the impact of these global risks on compliance are.
Membership now includes:
1. Action Against Hunger
2. ActionAid UK
3. Amnesty International
4. British Council
5. CAFOD
6. Care International
7. Christian Aid
8. Concern Worldwide UK
9. Goal I.E.
10. Greenpeace International
11. Islamic Relief Worldwide
12. Mercy Corps
13. Oxfam GB
14. Plan International Inc
15. Plan International UK
16. Save the Children International
17. Save the Children UK
18. SOS Children's Villages International
19. Tearfund
20. War on Want
21. WaterAid UK
22. World Vision UK
23. WWF
Anyone interested in finding out more about the the INGO Compliance Network should contact Walsh by email.
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