AccountAbility is an independent, global, not-for-profit organisation promoting accountability, sustainable business practices and corporate responsibility. It is a self-managed partnership, governed by its multi-stakeholder network.[3]
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AccountAbility was established in London, United Kingdom in 1995 with the stated aim to “develop new tools, thinking and connections that enable individuals, institutions and alliances to respond better to global challenges” [1]. The organization now has offices in London, New York, Washington D.C., Johannesburg, São Paulo and Beijing. [4]
AccountAbility's work is closely related but not limited to the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)[2] field. The organisation is often labelled as a global think-tank, and has undertaken work in the areas of Responsible Competitiveness, Partnership Effectiveness, Collaborative Governance, Stakeholder Engagement and Sustainability Assurance and Reporting.
AccountAbility is a global network of leading business, public and civil institutions "working to build and demonstrate the possibilities for tomorrow’s global markets and governance through thought leadership and advisory services".[3] They work to:
AccountAbility’s parent company is registered in the UK as a Company Limited by Guarantee. It’s three legal Directors, Sunil A. Misser, Claire Head and Steven Rochlin, hold fiduciary responsibilities and lead the organisation according to its strategy and mission.
AccountAbility’s core principles derive from the flagship AA1000 principles of inclusivity, materiality and responsiveness. Staying true to these principles, a multi-stakeholder governance structure provides guidance and advice to the Directors by way of specific governing bodies.
AccountAbility is currently in the process of comprehensively overhauling its governance and oversight structure. The new structure and process is designed to provide broader, more senior-level stakeholder representation from the public and private sectors, civil society, and the standards community.
The role of the new governance structure will be threefold:
AccountAbility works with partners ranging from government and intergovernment bodies to individual local initiatives to improve the governance and accountability of partnerships.
AccountAbility has endeavoured over the past 5 years to understand how multi-sector development partnerships work, how they perform and under what conditions they are able to function as viable alternatives to existing development systems.
AccountAbility Work:[5]
At the core of the organizations work is the AA1000 Series [6]; recognised principle based standards for helping organisations become more accountable, responsible and sustainable. They are open source frameworks developed through a multi-stakeholder consultation and review process. The standards are designed to be compatible with other key standards in this area, including the GRI Guidelines, SIGMA Guidelines [7][5], SA8000, the ISO Series and financial accounting standards.
The AA1000 Series consists of: the AA1000 AccountAbility Principles Standard (2008)(AA1000APS) , the AA1000 Assurance Standard (2008) (AA1000AS) and AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard (2005) (AA1000SES).
The revised AA1000 Accountability Principles Standard (2008) draws the principles from the original 2003 edition of the AA1000AS and clarifies the roles of the assurance provider and organization. Organizations use the AccountAbility Principles to develop a strategic response to sustainability. They are also central to the other standards in the AA1000 Series; the AA1000AS and the AA1000SES. The Standard focuses on the principles of Inclusivity, Materiality and Responsiveness.
The AA1000 Assurance Standard (2008), was developed following a comprehensive multi-stakeholder revision of the 2003 standard. It provides a comprehensive method of holding an organization to account for its management performance and reporting on sustainability issues by evaluating the adherence of an organisation to the AccountAbility Principles and the reliability of associated performance information.
AA1000AS (2008) requires the assurance provider to look at underlying management approaches, systems and processes and how stakeholders have participated. This enables the assurance provider to evaluate the nature and extent to which an organisation adheres to the AccountAbility Principles. The assurance providers use the Principles as criteria when evaluating an organisation. It provides findings and conclusions on the current status of an organisation's sustainability performance and provides recommendations to encourage continuous improvement.
The AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard, launched in 2005, aims to secure the quality of organizations' engagement with their stakeholders in the context of learning, governance and accountability. The AA1000SES can be used as a stand-alone standard or in collaboration with other standards (e.g. AA1000 Assurance Standard, Global Reporting Initiative, ISO).
The AA1000SES was published in draft form in 2005 and a substantial revision process began in early 2009. The AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard Draft provides a basis for designing, implementing, evaluating and assuring the quality of stakeholder engagement.
The standard provides guidance for continuous improvement, recognizing different levels of practice and can be used as a stand-alone standard or as an integral element of other standards (e.g. AA1000AS, GRI, ISO). The AA1000SES is relevant to micro-level engagements and macro-level engagements on major societal concerns and applies to businesses, civil society, public bodies and multi-stakeholder networks and partnerships.
The term responsible competitiveness stands for markets that reward business practices that deliver improved social, environmental and economic outcomes. Responsible competitiveness also means economic success for nations that encourage such business practices through public policies, societal norms and citizen actions.[6]
AccountAbility works with regional and national governments, and with multi-sector alliances to help reshape markets. Some of the partners of the Responsible Competitiveness work are Fundação Dom Cabral, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, London Development Agency, Authentix, BT, FUNDEMAS, Yorkshire Forward and SAGIA. The goal of this work is to build social and environmental innovation into the core of competitiveness strategies.
The Responsible Competitiveness Series of AccountAbility include the reports:
The State of Responsible Competitiveness 2007: Making Sustainability Count in Global Markets is a report on countries’ efforts to become more competitive through enhancement of responsible business practices. The report suggests what each country can do to perform better in global trade and pinpoints the winners in the competition for implementing more responsible business practices.
According to The Responsible Competitiveness Index, covering 108 countries accounting for 96% of global economic activity, Sweden is the world's most responsibly competitive nation, followed by Denmark, Finland, Iceland and UK. Strong performers outside the European Union include Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Japan, Estonia, Slovenia, Chile and the Republic of Korea.
The report includes a foreword from Al Gore and a dozen essays on responsible competitiveness from experts such as Sir Nicholas Stern (climate change), Laura Tyson (the gender gap), Jean-Philippe Courtois (ICT, social inclusion and competitiveness), Nick Butler (energy security), Peter Eigen (corruption) and Jonathan Lash [18] (preparing for a carbon-constrained future).
The Saudi Responsible Competitiveness Index Report sets out the progress made towards Responsible Competitiveness in Saudi Arabia and suggests responsible competitiveness is the leadership, policies and practices that build sustainable development. The report introduces the Saudi Responsible Competitiveness Index.
The core of the Saudi Responsible Competitiveness Index is an annual assessment of leading businesses in Saudi Arabia. Eligible businesses are large or small, public or private, Saudi or foreign, from any sector. Businesses which participate have had an in-depth discussion of their performance with analysts, based on AccountAbility's global Responsible Competitiveness Index (RCI) framework.
The Saudir Responsible Competitiveness Index Report shows how 40 Saudi businesses are contributing to responsible competitiveness in the Kingdom. The report was launched at the Middle Eastern equivalent of Davos - the Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF)[19] in Riyadh, January 2009.
Responsible Competitiveness in the Arab World 2009 is the first systematic assessment of regional progress towards sustainable economies and prosperous societies. It provides regional pathways, practical case studies and policy recommendations to outline how the Arab World can convert societies’ existing and emerging challenges into profitable opportunities. The report analyses progress through three elements: