AF initiated the NGO-TI as an attempt to address the declining public trust on NGOs by distinguishing legitimate NGOs from the bogus NGOs implicated in corruption cases. While these cases involved bogus NGOs, they nonetheless erode public trust on the entire NGO sector, which could impact on the sector’s credibility to effectively fulfill its mandate.
Transparency, a good governance principle, is seen as a means of setting apart legitimate NGOs from these bogus NGOs. Through NGO-TI, AF is encouraging NGOs to demonstrate transparency by voluntarily making key information available to the public. This platform also serves as a building block to enhance accountability of the NGO sector.
In response to this initiative, AF member organizations voluntarily made accessible to the public the information that indicates their compliance with the regulatory requirements as non-stock, not-for-profit organizations. In this initial phase, the platform contains the following information:
AF has adopted CODE-NGO’s Covenant on Philippine Development and Code of Conduct in its guiding principles in development work and the code of ethics that ought to be observed by its own members. View the Code of Conduct here. A check (✔) mark indicates that the organization pledged commitment to the Code of Conduct.
The information is continuously populated and updated when mandatory requirements with a “received” stamp from the concerned government agency are forwarded to the AF Secretariat. Options to further enhance the platform, including possibly expanding the information made available, is also being explored. Changes will be instituted once assessed feasible.
