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| RECOGNITIONS SYSTEM FOCUSES ON FOUR QUESTIONS OF TRUST..... |
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Where does it come from? |
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Trust in INGOs comes from the historical context in which INGOs worked. They worked to care for those who were seen as not able to care for themselves. INGOs were created to care for the sick and wounded and to feed the hungry. This, as stated, is not always the case for today’s INGOs and INGOs have learned over the years that direct care is not always sustainable in the long term nor is it always beneficial in cases where dependency on INGOs may result.
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Trust should come from a thorough understanding of what an organization does, how it operates and the positive and negative results of its work.
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How does an organization obtain it? |
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According to many donors, organizations obtain their trust through proven track records. There are several problems associated with that. The first is that before measuring a track record for quality or effectiveness of work, we need to know what constitutes high quality or effective work. We have only a vague idea of this, and tentative early research has revealed little except the paucity of the data. As a result, donors tend to base their work on plausible assumptions rather than solid results.
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An organization should gain public and donor trust through transparency and accountability to various stakeholders including its beneficiaries and staff, loyalty to its mission, and open scrutiny of its effectiveness.
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How can an organization maintain it? |
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Organizations today maintain trust by hanging on to the aforementioned track record and through telling the world of its good work. The media plays a very big part in this. Unfortunately, the media portrayal of INGOs of saviours of helpless black women and children who do not have the wherewithal to swat at the swarming flies, has done much to raise money and profiles, but has done very little for the dignity, pride, and image of the beneficiaries they are intending to assist.
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An organization should be able to maintain trust by providing evidence that it will continue to operate according to how it obtained trust in the first place. This can equate to, for example, systems and tools in place to ensure accountability and transparency to various stakeholders mainstreamed policies; principles and procedures aligning organizational actions to its mission; critical disclosure of results and evaluations; and complaints mechanisms.
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Who needs to trust whom? |
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We all need to trust each other. That seems to be the most logical answer. However, in today’s foreign aid dynamics, the priority trust relationship is between the donor and the INGO. The trust the beneficiary has in the INGO or the donor appears to play little or no part in that relationship.
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Yes, we all need to trust each other; however, the most important trust dynamic should be between the INGO and the beneficiary. The INGO is taking on governing responsibilities for a group of people that did not elect them to do so. The INGO should be required to gain the trust of those they are working for through constant, transparent dialogue and citizen participation in decision-making. .
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