NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICAN RED CROSS

1
NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICAN RED CROSS RED
CRESCENT SOCIETIES NOUVEAU PARTENARIAT DES
SOCIÉTÉS AFRICAINES DE LA CROIX ROUGE ET DU
CROISSANT ROUGE
Distr. General

Doc. No. NEPARC/GA/07/03 1 August
2007 Original English
NEPARC GENERAL ASSEMBLY 3rd General Assembly
Meeting 2007 Novotel, Abidjan, Côte dIvoire
August 10-11, 2007
2006 SGS NGO BENCHMARKING AUDIT Uganda Red
Cross Society Experience
August 2007
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Objectives of the SGS Audit

• To assess the extent to which the URCS policies,
  procedures conform to the best management
  Practices outlined in the NGO Benchmarking
  Standard.
• To quantify URCS performance against the best
  management practices.
• To provide URCS with Specific recommendations
  towards continuous improvement.

3
Some findings as per 2nd Audit

• URCS has solid strengths under the dimensions of
  Operations and Outcomes with scores of 100
• Because of having a good Strategic Plan
• Monitoring Mechanism
• Standard Operating Procedures
• Stakeholders were identified and participated in
  URCS programmes basing on projects
• Established procurement procedure, leading to a
  transparent, competitive and orderly procurement
  process.
• Good housekeeping.

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Reasons for a big leap in Scores

• Pro-activeness of the Senior leadership
• With zeal for continuous improvement.
• Commitment to compliance with best practices.
• Succession planned recruitment enabling for
  institutional memory.
• Adequate internal professional support.
• High desire for compliance with best practices
  consolidated into the NGO BA

5
Tangible improvements from SGS1 SGS2

• Approved Fraud policy in place operational
• Approved Conflict of interest policy
• Seeing gaps as opportunities for improvement
• Areas of weaknesses are owned and steps taken to
  address them are involving.

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Tangible improvements ...

• Comprehensive code of conduct policy addressing
• Board management relations
• Bribery
• Corruption
• Theft Misuse of property
• protection of whistle blowers
• Nepotism
• Sexual harassment
• Conduct of dis repute
• Any form of violence e.t.c

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Tangible improvements

• A fundraising policy in place.
• Developed policies are shared.
• Considerable improvement in the score for
  Continuous Improvement Previous year 75.0 and
  now Score of 95.8
• More keen interest in unintended outcomes of
  Program interventions.

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Tangible improvements

• Revised Constitution with SGS inputs.
• Revised and improved election guidelines
• Now have a communication policy
• Developed staff competence profiles
• Have in place staff development plan

9
Tangible improvements

• URCS has continued to monitor its various aspects
  of operations for continuous improvement.
• URCS has found it very important to implement all
  other aspects as observed not only for audit
  purposes but also to improve its own systems.

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Have we reached yet? The Last S!(Surveillance)
shows a large room for improvement.

• Document Procedures to identify and prevent
  any stakeholders from having a significant
  influence over the organization.
• Have documented procedures to involve
  stakeholders in determination of project
  goals and outputs.
• Carry out impact assessment for projects prior to
  implementation of projects.
• Check compliance against occupational health and
  safety standards.

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More room to improve

• Policy of phasing out programs/projects.
• Policy on register of trustees interests
• More neutral evaluation of board gt Self
  assessment
• Rotation of board on Batch basis
• Volunteers signing the code.

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Lessons Learnt

• Commitment and leadership is the key
• Improvement is the largest room
• Own up recommendations
• Consider gaps as an opportunity
• There can be overall change in score without
  change in a given critical area.
• It is better to have benchmarks than just work
  hard for measuring and celebrating success, or
• Step by step approach is better, so take a step
  into SGS.