Impact of non-profit organizations’ accountability: empirical evidence from the democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

Aid on health, education and economy provided by Small Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) in Africa should focus on transmitting transparency, responsibility and efficacy in their work concerning NPOs’ downward accountability for beneficiaries, as beneficiaries are one of the most important NPO stakeholders. This research focuses on NPOs’ downward accountability for beneficiaries, as beneficiaries are one of the most important NPO stakeholders where researchers have not focused thoroughly. A survey was designed and divided into various issues of accountability and their impact on the beneficiaries’ perception of economic improvement. The multivariate analysis obtained interesting results, showing that beneficiaries have a positive perception of NPOs’ aid to their families and village and find that the NPO discloses its objectives clearly and has high networking activity. However, they believe that the NPO should be more flexible and align its work more closely with local and public policy in the area. They also believe that the NPO should improve publication and dissemination of information on its objectives, activities and results. Based on these findings, small NPOs should receive more training in protocols about accountability issues to improve performance, as the majority of NPOs fail to use accountability outcomes to improve performance. Keywords: NPOs; Accountability; Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); Africa