Seanad Éireann debates Ireland’s development policy

On 9 May, exactly one week after the Government launched its new “Policy for International Development”, the Seanad debated the new policy with Minister Joe Costello.

Rate this:

NGO Transparency in Action

On 2 May, Dóchas hosted a conference entitled “Initiate – Transparency In Action” to bring NGOs, academia, and Irish Aid representatives together to learn how the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) could help further strengthen transparency and Accountability in the sector.

Rate this:

Ireland’s new Development Policy – A word count analysis

A quick word count analysis of Ireland’s new Development Policy.

Rate this:

Charities, NGOs, Active Citizenship and the Government

A blog post reflecting on the need for greater charity regulation in Ireland, and looking at the reasons why the EU and the OECD come out strongly in favour of a greater role for civil society in sustainable development processes.

Rate this:

NGOs and Accountability: What it says in the Papers

Irish NGOs are clearly very aware of the challenges and opportunities for greater NGO Accountability. But a research sample suggests they have failed to harness the power of the media to educate the Irish public about the issue.

Rate this:

Why NOT to use overhead ratios as a way to compare NGOs

We would like everybody to support high quality NGOs. And that is why we are promoting standards of Quality in the Development NGO world. But we keep coming up against the fact that most ordinary people think that the easiest way to judge the quality of an NGO is the amount it spends on administration and overheads. In this blog post, we list a few reasons why that is NOT a good idea.

Rate this:

Charities and Financial Transparency

A short note on the importance of transparency and clarity when it comes to aid data – for Governments as well as for NGOs.

Rate this:

Reviewing Ireland’s development policy – the major issues

The review of the Government White Paper on Irish Aid is getting into full swing. Irish Aid has recently added some information on the review to its website and they also plan to publish a Review discussion document by December.

Rate this:

NGO overhead costs

We encourage anyone to ask critical questions of NGOs. Just make sure your questions focus on the quality of the work of the organisation – The ever-popular measure of the level of overheads is about the worst place to start. This article attempts to show why.

Rate this:

Discuss: What makes a good NGO?

An invitation to debate: What are the key characteristics of “an effective Development NGO”?
Please comment.

Rate this: