Christian Aid accountability framework

Christian Aid’s Essential Purpose is to expose the scandal of poverty, to help in practical ways to root it out from the world, and to challenge and change the systems that favour the rich and powerful over the poor and marginalised. We are an agency of 41 churches in Britain and Ireland and are mandated to work on relief, development and advocacy for poverty eradication. We work with and through partners overseas:  churches, ecumenical bodies, local NGOs and movements who have common values and who we recognise to be in the best position to identify and deliver support and assistance to the communities that they work with. 

Accountability is vital to upholding our Christian based values and for maintaining our legitimacy and credibility to speak out so that it fully supports our Essential Purpose. We aim to hold ourselves openly responsible, in ways that involve our key stakeholders, for what we believe, what we do and say we will do – and for showing what we have done compared to what we said we would do. Doing this enables us to get feedback on what works and what doesn’t, and what we need to improve. This increases the likelihood of success in our work with poor communities and enhances a sense of ownership among all our stakeholders. It also reduces the potential for inefficient use or misuse of the resources entrusted to us.