Transparency of aid and donations From your pocket to the world
D
onating for charity and helping the needy is a good deed. but there is always this nagging sense that the donated money does not reach its original destination. People are aware of organisations that collect money for charity purposes. They collect funds through the internet, on the streets or via fundraising galas. But an important question remains: How can donors be sure their money reaches its destination and does not go up in smoke? The interest in the transparency of allocating aid funds has been growing over the past years. Stakeholders who are active in this field have developed their own specific information needs. Governments,
By Olga Ostapenko
for example, are mostly interested in data for providing effective services and macroeconomic management. Non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) require information about each other’s current and future activities to ensure a smoother cooperation process. Civil society and the media need information to hold governments accountable for the use of donations.
Following the money trail To show how money reaches its destination, analysis of a concrete example is necessary. In this context one can focus on the International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). The United Nations’ programme
Photo: Olga Ostapenko
Photo: Olga Ostapenko
“It is always good when an external independent international body can control your work as a nongovernmental organisation.” Marianne Schütterle
To find out more,check UNICEF ’ s official homepage: http://www.unicef.org/
Illustrated by Olga Ostapenko
provides long-term humanitarian and development assistance to children and mothers in developing countries. It was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1946 and has since been collecting donations and contributions from governments and private donors from all around the world According to a UN report, the money collected by the organisation in 2011 amounted to 3.7 billion dollars. Since UNICEF is active worldwide it has established a system to prevent embezzlement and other ways of corruption as the funds are transferred to UNICEF headquarters in New York. As stated by Marianne Schütterle, head of the UNICEF working group Bonn, in every country where UNICEF is present, the organisation consists of a central office and usually many smaller working units. The financial departments of each of the units from the local level up the headquarters are obliged to register the exact amount of donations collected for every project separately. These amounts are then transferred to the main office, where they are added up and handed over to UNICEF’s headquarters. In New York the total amount received for all projects worldwide is then distributed to individual UNICEF projects. An additional way of maintaining transparency are the annual reports that have to be made by each and every one of UNICEF’s units. Every cent collected and spent has to be included into this report. But not only the internal control is a very strong one, every UNICEF unit is also being monitored by independent financial controlling institutions thus increasing the transparency of the process. It is exactly this system of “triple control” - from the local up to the global level - that helps maintain the transparency of UNICEF. It also ensures that every cent people donate reaches its destination.
On the graph left we can see the „triple control „ system (on the exaple of Germany) that explains how the money gets from a small UNICEF unit to the headquarter in New York.
Interesting fa c •
ts about UN
ICEF
The first big success of en gaging com groups and munity citizens to d o n ate started w a simple po ith stcard draw n by a 7-year She was will o ld girl. ing to thank the UNICEF for restoring m is si on her devasta ted village in Afterwards, 1949. the organisat ion started spreading p ost cards mad e by childre all over the n from world and d onating 75 p of the incom er cent e for charity. • Nine ou t of 20 of UN ICEF’s top su countries ar pplier e developin g countries, UNICEF sup where ports progra mmes for ch In fact,nearl ildren. y half of UN ICEF’s global curement is p rodone in dev eloping cou n tr ies. • UNICEF ’s Copenhag en Warehou the size of 3 se , which has football pitch es, contains tory of abou invent 900 comm only-needed plies. Annual supwarenhouse turover is ar 61 million d ound ollars. •
On 7 Septem ber 2006, an agreement b tween UNIC eEF and Barce lona Footbal was reached l Club whereby the club would 1.5 million eu donate ros per year to the organ for five year ization s. As part of the contract, ended in 20 which 11, Barcelon a wore the UN logo on thei ICEF r shirts. It was the first case a football cl of ub sponsori ng an organ instead of th isation e other way around. Source: UN ICEF