Email
Print
Executive Director Andrew Hewett
Oxfam News – September 2007
From the Executive Director
Accountability — it’s become a contemporary buzzword. Every organisation aims to be accountable; community leaders are accountable to their constituents and stakeholders.
Indeed, a commitment to enhance accountability is one of the central propositions of the new Oxfam Australia strategic plan For a just world without poverty.
Oxfam is accountable to multiple stakeholders — the people who we seek to assist, our partner community-based organisations, our donors and supporters and our funders.
Sometimes, for effective accountability, we may have to amplify the voices of those who are less powerful or have limited access to our decision-making forums. Sometimes we need to recognise that different stakeholders have different interests.
Communities that we seek to assist may have particularly strong views about our work. Ensuring that we hear and listen to these voices — and act upon their views — is critical if we’re going to be an effective force for social justice.
Ultimately, it’s also recognising that donors and local communities have much the same interest — to ensure that our work is effective, that we operate in line with our stated values and that we’re efficient in how we go about it.
As well as ensuring our own house is in order, we also have a role in assisting communities to hold others accountable. Governments have the duty to deliver appropriate and accessible services and corporations must ensure that their operations enhance people’s basic rights, not undermine them.
Andrew Hewett
Executive Director