EXPECTATIONS AND CAPACITY OF PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT IN NGOs IN THE DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT

There are many obstacles to promoting learning as an outcome of performance measurement in non‐governmental organizations (NGO) social service providers, especially in less developed countries. Building upon a conceptualization of accountability as a multifaceted set of relationships through which funders, or principals, and non‐profit providers, or agents, jointly shape organizational learning, and performance, this study expands our understanding of how accountability mechanisms affect learning within service providers. This paper explores the role that funders play in shaping performance measurement, or monitoring, practices within NGOs serving disadvantaged children in developing countries. We examined the experience of service providers in Egypt and Colombia to assess how the barriers to use of performance data and learning may be addressed. We conducted interviews using the same protocols with program managers in six non‐profit providers in each country that provide services to children, and we also interviewed major donors in the arena of children's services in the USA. We probed the NGO managers' experiences with performance measurement to identify obstacles and potential solutions to improve the use of the data to promote learning. Our findings support previous research about the potential for upward accountability mechanisms to influence internal learning. We suggest that funders should be held accountable for how the incentives and disincentives they provide to grantees affect their internal learning about how to improve their services. This notion of ‘reverse accountability’ means that funders need to be strategic and intentional when they design reporting mechanisms that affect the learning behaviours within their grantees. In line with our call for reverse accountability, we offer a model demonstrating our notion of the two‐way flow of accountability and we offer recommendations to help improve the performance reporting environment for NGOs who are addressing complex problems with less than adequate capacity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Examination of Oversight and Review in the Child Welfare System

Abstract

Child welfare agencies are accountable to the community not only because they spend public dollars, but also, most critically, because they are charged with protecting vulnerable children. Over the past three decades multiple oversight processes have been initiated as part of an effort to improve accountability in public child welfare. In agencies around the country an array of advocates and monitors regularly review the performance of individual caseworkers. While caseloads grow in number and complexity the ranks of the workforce have not kept pace. The result is too many people watching too few workers serve too many vulnerable children and families.

This paper examines the cumulative effect of five groups of “watchers” that oversee child welfare services. It suggests that every group of watchers should be able to demonstrate that their activities contribute directly to the achievement of system goals.     

The effects of circulatory capitalism on democratization: Observations from South Africa and Brazil

This article argues that the democratization processes taking place in South Africa and elsewhere in emerging market economies cannot be separated from the global economic context within which these processes are taking place. The article illustrates that the mainstream political economy literature has not paid sufficient attention to the issue of the limits and constraints placed upon these newly emerging democracies by the new financial architecture, particularly the derivatives market, which now determines the value and price of emerging market currencies. The article concludes that the workings of this market not only heavily favour the interests of developed countries but that they deeply question the accountability of politicians in those emerging markets and thereby endanger the legitimacy of the democratic project in large parts of the post-colonial world. The article is divided into three sections: first, a critique of some of the leading political economy analyses and their position on the relationship between open-economy policies and democracy; second, an account of the development of the derivatives market since 1973 and a theorization of its implications for currency movements, particularly monetary volatility, of emerging market currencies; third, an illustration by way of the South African and Brazilian cases of the policy implications of currency volatility for creating improved social and economic conditions.     

Democracy's Quality and Breakdown: New Lessons from Thailand

In what may amount to a new phase in the study of democratization, assessments of democracy's quality have become quite common. This article attempts to assess democracy's quality in Thailand under the recent Thai Rak Thai government. It begins by enumerating some of the conceptual difficulties that bedevil these measuring exercises. The account makes use of a ‘sequenced’ framework involving electoral mandates, policy responsiveness, and accountability. Analysis reveals a ‘mixed’ record under Thai Rak Thai, one in which the government's strong mandates and high levels of responsiveness were offset by executive abuses, corrupt practices, limits on civil liberties, and gross violations of human rights, behaviours in which many elites and mass-level constituents acquiesced. It shows also, however, that when these elites and constituents sought later to impose accountability, they resorted to direct action, further eroding the quality of democracy. Thus, the article demonstrates too that democracy's quality can be diminished in ways that, far from placating rival elites, so inflame tensions that it can finally break down.     

On The Outside Looking In: Reflections on the Role of Inspection in Driving Up Quality in the Criminal Justice System

This article examines the role of external inspection in enhancing the quality of a criminal justice system. It seeks to answer six foundational questions: how should we understand the nature and purposes of criminal justice inspection? what methodologies ought it to employ? who should do it? what values should it respect? how much does it cost? and does it ‘work'? The article reveals that the difference between inspection and other forms of scrutiny activity is largely a matter of emphasis; that the same is true of the difference between inspection and research; that ‘lay’ involvement in inspection can be beneficial; that independence is a core value for inspection, albeit one that is best understood as independence of judgement; that transparency is a further key value but not always honoured; and that evidence that inspection improves service delivery and hence justifies its costs is weak and further research is needed.     

论问责官员复出机制的构建——兼谈《关于实行党政领导干部问责的暂行规定》

伴随着问责制的常态化,问责官员的复出成为一个不可回避的问题。目前,我国问责官员复出的两大特点就是无序性和隐秘性,严重损害了问责制的严肃性和权威性,究其原因,主要是法制的缺位。《关于实行党政领导干部问责的暂行规定》的出台,在一定程度上弥补了之前的不足,但仍然不够健全和完善,应构建问责官员复出的科学机制:一是对问责官员进行分类管理;二是健全问责官员的跟踪、考评机制;三是完善公开、公正的官员复出程序;四是建立违规复出责任追究机制。     

行政问责制的法制构建

行政问责制是政府官员向社会公众和民意机关承担政治责任的一种政治法律制度。我国现行的行政问责制存在问责事由狭窄、对象不清、主体越位与缺位并存,责任不明、落实不力和程序不规范等问题。为此,我们需要明确行政问责制的要素构造与运行机制,加强人大的问责职能,完善政府绩效评估、行政公开、新闻监督等配套制度,同时要壮大第三部门,强化社会监督。     

Achieving and Managing Equality in the Criminal Justice Process: Do the New Equality Measures Go Far Enough?

Abstract: This article will explore some of the legal and organisational challenges facing the various agencies involved in the delivery of criminal justice, in the UK, in adhering to the Equality Act 2006, Equality Duties and the forthcoming Single Equality Act (which, proposes a Single Equality Duty). We will consider the impact of these changes with reference to European legislation. Of particular interest will be the themes of effective implementation of the current Duties, equality of access and equality of outcome for both victims and offenders to appropriate services to tackle offending behaviour and the prevention of crime. This article will highlight issues surrounding impact assessment and the role of agency discretion and regulation. We offer some comments on future directions and the role of the regulatory bodies including the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).     

浅谈我国行政问责的对象

2008年,伴随着一系列重大公共安全事故的发生,风暴般的行政问责再次进入人们的视线,公众一方面因雷厉风行的行政问责而欣慰,同时开始质疑：被问责的领导人是否真正做到了职责相当？问责程序不公开是否存在暗箱操作？为此,正在进行制度化建设的行政问责,必须在明确问责对象的基础上,确立清晰的职责权限范围,完善问责对象的责任认定与追究。     

The Balanced Approach [Revisited]

The authors of the original Balanced Approach, Dennis Maloney, Dennis Romig, and Troy Armstrong, outlined a philosophy of balanced attention to the principles of community protection/public safety, youth accountability, and competency development through individualized assessment and treatment and holding the system accountable to the community and the youth served. A majority of states’ juvenile code purpose clauses reflect this approach, later known as Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ). Presented here are excerpts from the 1988 Juvenile & Family Court Journal issue 39 (3) that first presented the Balanced Approach and a brief overview of key features of juvenile justice at the time to lay a foundation for the other articles in this special issue.