Accountability and Transparency

Accountability is at the core of Oxfam Canada’s values and principles, informing the work we do both in Canada and in solidarity with our partners in the South.

Being accountable to our multiple stakeholders is central to Oxfam Canada's commitment to openness and transparency, and to our aspiration as a learning organization. This means holding ourselves openly responsible for what we believe and what we say we will do. It also means meeting the highest standards of reporting.

Oxfam Canada’s accountability commitments include its adherence to a number of external standards, codes and charters as well as key internal policies. Our accountability commitments are listed in Codes of Conduct. Central among these are the “International Non-Governmental Organizations Accountability Charter and the Oxfam Canada Complaints Policy.

We continue to work to strengthen our commitment to accountability in the following ways:

Improving our Social Accountability Mechanisms

Oxfam Canada strives to be accountable to its multiple stakeholders. We have begun to explore ways of strengthening social accountability mechanisms with a key set of stakeholders – our partners in developing countries.

Oxfam Canada is the first Canadian non-governmental organization and first among Oxfam’s around the world to participate in a constituency voice survey conducted by the highly respected and independent firm, Keystone Accountability. Oxfam Canada partners participated in a confidential survey through which they were asked to rate and comment on different aspects of Oxfam Canada’s performance. The responses were benchmarked in reference to other international non-governmental organizations that have carried out the survey with their partner organizations.

Check out the survey results

Istanbul Principle 5: Practice transparency and accountability

Because of this forward-looking initiative, Oxfam Canada was recognized by the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC) for its transparency and accountability in one of a series of case studies highlighting the best practices of the Istanbul Principles in the humanitarian and development sector.

Is Oxfam Canada walking the talk on our gender policy commitment

Our commitment is to allocate at least 50% of resources to women’s organizations, networks and movements. We asked ourselves how well are we doing in translating this organizational commitment to action. Read the results.

Program Evaluations

Oxfam Canada subscribes to the understanding of the relationship between evaluation and accountability put forward by One World Trust in their Pathways to Accountability GAP Framework which is meant to complement legal and regulatory frameworks for sector-wide accountability.

“Evaluation ensures that an organization both learns from, and is accountable for, its performance; that is achieving goals and objectives and meeting agreed standards. Evaluation allows an organization to give an account of performance and impact, enabling stakeholders to hold it to account for what it said it would achieve.

The relationship between evaluation and accountability centres on learning. The evaluation process and the results that emerge from it can inform ongoing activities and future decision-making, providing information that will allow an organization to improve its performance, thus making it more accountable to its goals and objectives.”

Oxfam Canada also adheres to Oxfam International’s Policy on Program Evaluation. This requires Confederation members to act on the commitment to transparency by making public the Executive Summary and a Management Response to all final evaluations. In addition, full final evaluations of all major program efforts are to be made public.