Factors and barriers to the implementation of the values of transparency and accountability in socially oriented non-profit organizations in the regions of Russia
On April 24, 2023, the Laboratory hosted a seminar on the topic "Factors and barriers to the implementation of the values of transparency and accountability in socially oriented non-profit organizations of the regions of Russia".
.jpg "Factors and barriers to the implementation of the values of transparency and accountability in socially oriented non-profit organizations in the regions of Russia")
Konstantin Obukhov, a Senior Research Fellow at the ILSIR, made a report at the seminar.
Also at the seminar there was a speech by PhD in Sociological Sciences, Leading Research Fellow of the ILSIR Victoria Antonova.
The seminar focused on the draft article "Factors and barriers to the implementation of the values of transparency and accountability in socially oriented non-profit organizations of the regions of Russia". This article is devoted to the consideration of the practices of disclosure of information about the activities of the socially oriented non-profit sector of the regions of Russia. Socially-oriented non-profit organizations are considered through the prism of social capital theories, which allows us to turn to the analysis of the totality of social relations that develop around Socially-oriented non-profit organizations and support them. Transparency and accountability are analyzed as closely interrelated processes that provide clarification of the content of the activities of Socially-oriented non-profit organizations to the social environment. From this point of view, the issues of openness of the organization and its accountability are closely related to the involvement of interested social agents in the communication of information, which ensures the formation of trust and guarantees greater stability of Socially-oriented non-profit organizations.
Despite the normative consolidation of the principles of accountability, the analysis of practice shows that the values of transparency and accountability remain declarative to a greater extent, and the situation with openness with non-profit organizations is largely heterogeneous. The purpose of this article is to clarify the existing obstacles and opportunities in the implementation of transparency and accountability in the environment of regional socially-oriented non-profit organizations in Russia. For this purpose, a series of semi-structured interviews (N=29) was organized with the heads of socially oriented non-profit organizations. Based on the results of the analysis of the information received, the following accountability strategies can be distinguished: formal accountability, targeted accountability, expanded accountability strategy. The main barriers to the implementation of the principles of openness are: the limited resources of the organization, the basic competencies of employees, the instability of Russian legislation, the specifics of the organization's activities, the unprofessional activities of other socially oriented non-profit organizations, technological problems, competition for the audience.
The heads of socially-oriented non-profit organizations have identified the following advantages of implementing an openness policy: expanding opportunities to attract resources and support networks, increasing the speed of response to social challenges, easier access to personnel and volunteer resources, forming a position of "expertise" in profile activities.
As a result of the discussion and discussion of the materials, the following issues were raised: the issues of distinguishing the concepts of accountability policy, the values of accountability and openness of socially oriented non-profit organizations, as well as strategies and logics for implementing accountability by the heads of regional socially oriented non-profit organizations. The need to include the practices of accountability and transparency of socially-oriented non-profit organizations in a broader context related to the transition of basic standards from the commercial sector and control over authorities to the non-profit sphere was outlined.
Victoria Antonova noted that the collected data allow to present in a new way the problem of differentiation of practices of accountability and openness in the regional socially oriented non-profit sector.