Transparency and accountability: they are popular buzzwords but they are largely intangible goals, because while everyone talks about it, how are transparent, accountable practices implemented?
Well, SPEAR - the society for the promotion of education and research may have it down; in fact, along with two partner organizations, they've issued a manual on it.
It's an initiative by the commonwealth foundation, one world trust, and SPEAR. These 3 groups teamed up together in an effort to promote transparency and accountability in organizations not only in Belize, but also in Uganda, the Pacific Region, Cameroon, and India.
Why? - well thats what they told us today as they launched the toolkit specially made for Belizean businesses who wish to practice accountability.
Nicole Haylock, SPEAR
"One World Trust took the lead in strengthening the capacity for civil societies in Commonwealth countries to internally govern themselves so the objective of this project which is phase 2, is to acknowledge the importance of civil society in Belize on a whole. We are continually becoming more effective in national policy in working with the government and for social development. Also we want to highlight the significance of accountability, what that means; we want to clear all doubts of how to achieve accountability and most importantly we want to encourage civil society in Belize to join in the debate of reform and accountability in Belize."
Robert Lloyd, Project Manager of One World Trust
"It strengthens their credibility; second one, it strengthens their legitimacy; and the third, it strengthens their effectiveness. The NGOs and civil society organizations are able to show how they are representing the voices of the communities that they are working with and they are able to show to government how they are representing these voices. That's going to strengthen their position and its going to strengthen their leverage."
There will be an all day workshop tomorrow and the toolkit is available at SPEAR.
