The Pacific Islands Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (PIANGO) is a regional platform of National Umbrella Civil Society Organisations present in 24 Pacific countries and territories - that exist to facilitate communication, provide a common voice at regional and international forums, strengthen Pacific forms of social development to effectively promote and advance the interests and well-being of the Pacific people.

To deliver such ambitious mandate, PIANGO has been representing the Pacific voices in promoting the decolonizing development paradigm to reflect the realities of our communal settings and our traditional values that are embedded on relationships between people and the environment. While we celebrated the recognition of civil society as development actors in our own rights at the global level in the Busan Partnership for Development Effectiveness, civil society made a commitment to live up to the same accountability principles that we expected from our national governments and development partners. Our long term partnership with Bread for the World has allowed PIANGO to explore and experiment what accountability should look like in our Pacific context through programme funding of the organization. This is the story of our accountability journey.

Our voyage on accountability has been enriching because translating global standards to our Pacific realities and local perspective, meant going deeper on the practical applications of our Pacific principles and values. As interrogators of accountability, realising the need to first be accountable to ourselves was integral to the whole process. The gaps we knew existed indicated this and it was time to not only review our whole accountability processes but look at accountability from a development effectiveness lens that zoomed in on Pacific cultural perspectives that manifest CSO accountability at organizational levels.

It is typical in our community setting that when we need something done, we know exactly who in our kainga/family has the skills and resources to support us so we will ask for their help. We knew that our kainga in Australia – Australia Council for International Development (ACFID) has invested in developing the ACFID Code so we are grateful for their support that links us to the global standard for CSO accountability. While deep-diving in the conversation facilitated by ACFID, our engagement with our global community of CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) continued promoting the Istanbul Principles for Development Effectiveness. Our ability to mobilize our Pacific CSOs to work remotely online to develop our Pacific CSO accountability framework at the time of Covid 19 that closed many of our Pacific borders and restricted civic spaces further, had tested our commitment for better accountability.

CSOs in the Pacific are walking the talk of accountability and have self-assessed using their own self – inspirational toolkit. The PIANGO kainga/family Institutional, Assessment & Mapping toolkit (IAM) self-assessment tool was designed as an accompaniment of the Pacific Regional CSO Accountability Framework (PRCSOAF). Developed in 2021, through the support of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), the regional framework was created using the global standards of accountability as reference point and adapting to fit the Pacific context. It describes a clear vision for what accountable Pacific civil society organisations look like and is an invitation to development stakeholders, funders and governments to “accept a Pacific driven model and vision of accountability, that reflects the values, strengths and diversity of Pacific civil society”.

As usual the “self-assessment” route faced some resistance from some whilst the exercise proved to be a difficult and time-consuming one for others, despite the provision of financial resources. Nevertheless, in navigating through the tides of challenges, fifty percent of PIANGO members conducted their self-assessment and PIANGO kainga were able to come to an agreement during its Planning, Implementation, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (PIMER) workshop and Council, themed “Civil Society Currents of Change: People Leading Transformative Partnership for a United Pacific” in Nadi, November 2022. Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Tonga and Marshall Islands, through Forus’ support, have socialised the framework by covering the commitments of the regional framework. They have also identified practical steps to strengthen their accountability.

Overall, there has been a great satisfaction and a significant increasing ownership of PIANGO members around the principles and tools. According to Civil Society Forum of Tonga (CSFT) Board Chair, Drew Havea, the initiative has encouraged them to review some policies that may exist but are not practiced. He stated “the IAM tool will support us as an independent development actor and help us track how we are demonstrating our Pacific principles and the progress of our 2010 Pacific commitment to the Istanbul principles”.

Similarly, the Kiribati Association of NGO’s (KANGO) reflected on how IAM creates a platform to learn & relearn by evaluating experiences. “It is a learning tool to assess ourselves in terms of accountability & transparency and adoption of human rights & SDG implementation,” said a Board member of KANGO. He added that the assessment questions helped them realise that certain policies are shelved while some current practices reflect their commitments to accountable approaches but with no policy in place. “Safeguarding isn’t something new, we don’t have a policy and might not know the 6 core principles but it is embedded in our cultural practices. It takes a village to raise a child and so our cultural values embed safeguarding. Every member of our communities has a responsibility to ensure children's safety and well-being. If a mother is not able to care for her children, other members step up to take on that role, particularly the grandparents,"– Amon, KANGO Board Director. 

Part of the IAM consolidated findings discussed and agreed during Council is to increase capacity support that specifically align with and embed Pacific principles of development effectiveness - the overarching values and principles for PIANGO.