A report into the future of governance for New Zealand’s 114,000 (NGOs), produced by the Centre for Social Impact in partnership with the Superdiversity Institute for Law, Policy and Business, has identified a need for considerable investment into NGO governance capabilities.
The report, which drew on the experiences of fifteen NGO governance experts, identified a number of barriers to good governance including the low value and low profile of NGO governance, the behaviour of individual board members, the complexity of the NGO context and poor processes around decision-making.
“NGO’s in New Zealand generate an estimated $20 billion in annual income,” says researcher and report author, CSI associate, Dr Jo Cribb. “These NGOs touch the lives of New Zealanders in many ways. They provide services to the elderly, youth, and vulnerable families and whānau. They deliver much of what holds our communities together, such as sports, arts, environmental and cultural programmes. They employ around 100,000 people (nearly 5 percent of the workforce) and contribute nearly 3 percent to GDP. If the work of volunteers is included the contribution to GDP rises to 6 percent each year. It is in all our interests that they are well-governed.
“What our research found is that while NGO board members play important roles in helping organisations develop strategies and secure funding, few of them have had any formal governance training, and many receive limited support in these roles.”
Jo said the research aimed to identify good and emerging practice in NGO governance …
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Source: Centre for Social Impact, September 2019 (Copyright acknowledged)
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