What
is a Social Audit?
A social audit
is a systematic means of measuring the social performance of an organization.
It can be compared to the way financial auditing provides the means
to account for an organization's financial performance. While we have
centuries of experience of financial accounting, the science of social
accounting is young.
A social audit
is like an organizational Swiss Army knife. It is a planning tool,
a management tool, and a communication tool for an organization. Essentially,
it is a dialogue designed to find out what is important to the organization
and its stakeholders, to measure what is important and then to report
on both the dialogue and the measurement. The social audit creates
a conversation between an organization and its constituents or stakeholders.
WHAT DIFFERENCE
DOES A SOCIAL AUDIT MAKE?
A social audit heightens an organization's accountability and transparency.
PLAN's social audit is intended to inform our stakeholders how well
PLAN is living its values and serving its members. It addresses shortcomings
and identifies those areas where more work or a different focus is
required to secure success or continued success.
SOCIAL AUDIT
CYCLE
Social auditing guides an organization's strategic directions. It
is a cyclical process that sets targets and benchmarks that become
embedded in the planning process.
One
of the biggest problems with evaluations in general is that they are
not used. Our hope is that the social audit cycle along with the
key
element framework will help us to develop a vibrant
social audit report that will be accessible to all. Our commitment
is to be an informed membership. Our vision is that at the end of
a social audit cycle each of our lifetime members and other stakeholders
will be able to identify how well we are performing on any of the
key elements.
HOW IS A SOCIAL
AUDIT CONDUCTED?
PLAN used a step-by-step approach for its social
audit that was developed by the Institute for Social and Ethical Accountability,
www.accountability.org.uk.
The process is
inclusive and participatory. It relies on honest communication to
strengthen relationships with stakeholders. PLAN's social audit involved
key stakeholders across the organization in the social audit design,
direction, analysis of data and target setting. PLAN's social audit
was guided by a steering committee composed of representatives from
the key stakeholder groups across the organization. The process PLAN
used for this Accountability Report has been reviewed by an independent
external consultant who is a member of the Institute for Social
and Ethical Accountability. Click here for the Independent
Reviewer's Report.
HOW THIS ACCOUNTABILITY
REPORT IS STRUCTURED
This Accountability Report contains a description of the goals and
framework for measurement used by PLAN in conducting its social audit
which will provide the reader with and overview of the design and
purpose of the audit.
The bulk of this
Accountability Report is structured around nine
key elements. For each element
there are four sections: a description of the element, details of
the findings, analysis of the findings and targets for 2004.
For
a more concise overview there is an Executive
Summary and
Table of Targets.
Click
here for a Glossary.
Terms and
phrases explained in the Glossary appear in bold letters the first
time they appear in this Accountability Report.
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