GRI Sustainability Reporting by INGOs: A Way Forward for Improving Accountability?

Albert Anton Traxler,Hannah Hebesberger,Dorothea Greiling

doi:10.1007/s11266-018-9976-z

Abstract

Considering that the members of the International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGO) Accountability Charter played a prominent role in initiating the first sector supplement of the Global Reporting Initiative for non-governmental organizations (NGO), the purpose of the paper is to investigate their sustainability reporting (SR) practices in order to evaluate to what extent INGO Charter members comply with this voluntary accountability standard for SR. The empirical analysis is based on a content analysis of sustainability reports. The findings indicate that most of the INGO Charter members are far away from a comprehensive reporting practice. Hence, critical voices could assert that their reporting behavior seems to be more in line with facade building than the idea of providing a comprehensive account. By adapting a multiperspective theoretical discourse about the potential and shortcomings of SR to the NGO context, the study contributes to a field-specific theory-based pluralistic critical evaluation of SR as a major cross-sectoral innovation in voluntary accountability initiatives.

Highlights

Introduction and Research QuestionIn the past decades, accountability pressure on non-governmental organizations (NGO) has increased considerably
Considering that the members of the International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGO) Accountability Charter played a prominent role in initiating the first sector supplement of the Global Reporting Initiative for non-governmental organizations (NGO), the purpose of the paper is to investigate their sustainability reporting (SR) practices in order to evaluate to what extent INGO Charter members comply with this voluntary accountability standard for SR
In contrast to Clark’s study which evaluates the effectiveness of a sector-specific voluntary accountability club, this paper focuses on the compliance of INGO Charter members with another, much more known voluntary accountability standard, namely the compliance with the SR guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

Summary

Introduction

Introduction and Research QuestionIn the past decades, accountability pressure on non-governmental organizations (NGO) has increased considerably. NGOs are no longer obviously regarded as trustworthy. Rendering account has become a highly salient issue for most NGOs including the necessity to become more transparent for their own social and environmental performance (Crespy and Miller 2011; Gugerty 2009; Manetti and Toccafondi 2014; Unerman and O’Dwyer 2010). NGOs have been quite active in lobbying for an improved social and environmental accountability of for-profits. Nowadays, they are confronted with the demand to account for their own sustainability performance (Crespy and Miller 2011; Simaens and Koster 2013)

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Conclusion