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Overview

Improving Governance

Improving the governance of an organisation is about making an organisation more effective, resilient and strengthening its purpose.

For an organisation, good governance arrangements can contribute to its overall success. In the longer term, good governance can contribute to enabling the group to take on new challenges, meet community needs and grow and develop into a valuable resource for local people.

Developing good governance practices is often misunderstood, hurried or worse still ignored until matters start going wrong for the organisation. That's usually when the organisation seeks professional advice about establishing good governance practices.

Advice on good governance can be hard to find and is often particular to the culture and legal form of the organisation. For development workers on the ground, it can be difficult to access and tailor advice and support for the range of groups in the sector that is appropriate and useful.

The G&P Project has produced a Development Toolkit that guides you through choosing the most appropriate legal form and organisational type, along with a FAQ section on governance and participation issues. All development professionals attending any one of the free workshops received a Toolkit. To learn more about the free Development Toolkit, click here . An onlive version of the select-a-structure interactive questionnaire is available by clicking here.

Enabling Participation

Good governance of an organisation can be greatly enhanced by the active participation and democratic involvement of users, members and wider stakeholder interests.

The extent to which an organisation involves its users, members or wider stakeholders varies from organisation to organisation. Issues relating to who owns and controls an organisation, if considered early in the groups development, can help inform the structure the group adopts and the level of participation that it encourages from members.

An involved and informed membership helps an organisation remain accountable, responsive and can empower members to own and control the organisation through effective governance.

For some groups the type of legal form it chooses can shape the level and type of participation. For others, active user and member involvement is a core value and determines the legal form and governance arrangements the group chooses to adopt at an early stage.

Information for options on how to involve users, members or wider stakeholder groups can be difficult to obtain and confusing when considered alongside the organisation's legal form and governing document.

The Development Toolkit enables developemnt professionals to advise and support community groups wishing to imporve the level and types of particiaption within their groups. 

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