Social Sector Organizations in Pakistan and Assessment of their E- Accountability Practices

Abstract

Social sector organizations can play an important role in meeting the development goals of a country; their true potential can be optimized if there is no trust deficit between all the stakeholders of the social sector. Social sector organizations should focus both on offline and online disclosures, according to international best practices; however, the importance of online disclosure carries more weight owing to the reliance of stakeholders on the internet. This study is an effort to start the debate pertaining to best practices about E-Accountability measures that social sector organizations should follow. For the case of Pakistan, there exist a schism between public, social sector organizations, and the government; the government of Pakistan revoked the licenses of many social sector organizations in 2016. It is important to note that positive contributions of social sector organization can be aptly highlighted if there is a third-party evaluation of their accountability mechanism. This study focused on the social sector organizations working in Pakistan; websites of 199 randomly sampled social sector organizations are analyzed by using a new E-Accountability index. Post-Stratification is used for the sampling of social sector organizations working in various service areas, such as education, and health. Due to the unavailability of a holistic directory of social sector organizations in Pakistan, we have developed a directory by using researching on multiple websites mentioned in detail in the main body of this study. The proposed E-Accountability index is defined according to three dimensions: usability, content, and communication, each of which contains different elements of downward, upward and functional accountability. The websites were coded in 2016. International social sector organizations performed better than the local ones. The contribution of print media is evident from the fact that those organizations that were featured in newspapers showed a better E-Accountability score. Size of the organization also played an important rule; social sector organizations with at least two branches score better on the E-Accountability index. Application of binary logistic regression on the proposed E-Accountability index showed that the odds of having a better E-Accountability score are 1.76 times higher for social sector organizations with branches. Odds of a better E-Accountability score for international social sector organizations are twice the odds for the local ones. The odds of a better E-Accountability score are 1.57 times higher for social sector organizations featured in newspapers as compared to the ones that are not featured. The proposed E-Accountability index can be used as a tool to issue ratings xx to social sector organization; these ratings can be further used by the government of Pakistan before issuing or renewing the license of these organizations. Better disclosures are observed about “Feedback Mechanism”, “Use of Other Media”, “List of Programs”, Clickability”, “Perceivabilty”, “Operability”, and link to “Social Networking Sites”. The worst disclosures are about “NGO Bylaws”, “Privacy Policy”, “Board of Directors Minutes”, Site in More than One Language”, “External Links to Local Organizations”, “Site Map”, Employee or Beneficiary Surveys”. The second contribution of this study is to evaluate a new model of social work i.e., Community Development Park Model, which is similar to themed science park except for the fact that instead of scientific discoveries these parks focus on solving social issues in an area by engaging multiple social sector organizations. Apparently, this seems unrelated to the proposed accountability framework; however, it must be kept in mind that the purpose of this research is to provide guidelines for best practices to SSOs working in Pakistan. Consequently, we presented the case of best practices followed by SSOs working in a Community Development Park Model. Rashidabad city in Tando Allahyar town of Sindh is using the Community Development Park Model to solve health, education, social inclusion, and employment issues of the local communities. Rashidabad offers an avenue of circumventing rural-urban integration; this park offers benefits of urban lifestyle with the serenity typical to rural areas. This park offers rural communities to feel connected with the urban lifestyles, hence shaping a common national identity. For comparison of education services, data were collected from 142 students enrolled at schools in Rashidbadad and 195 students enrolled at schools outside Rashidabad, 59 teachers from various schools within Rashidabad, and 28 teachers from various schools outside Rashidbabad. For comparison of health services, data were collected from 100 patients seeking health services from hospitals within Rashidabad, and 50 patients seeking health services from the District Headquarter Hospital, Tando Allahyar. Data collected from schools and hospitals inside and outside Rashidabad shows that schools and hospitals within Rashidabad outperform the ones outside Rashidabad. Within Rashidabad, perceptions of teachers are more positive, as compared to teachers of schools outside Rashidabad, about decision-making abilities of teachers, curriculum, collaboration between teachers & parents/students, financial resources, and human capital. Within Rashidabad, perceptions of students are more positive, as compared to students of schools outside Rashidabad, about quality of curriculum, exposure to IT skills, co-curricular activities, teaching standards, and medical-care. Assessment according to SAFED (2015) report card shows that the schools within Rashidabad possess all the facilities mentioned in xxi SAFED (2015) report i.e., usable toilet, safe drinking water, cleanliness of toilets, boundary wall, playground, computer lab, electricity connection, and library. Schools outside Rashidabad are worst in availability of playground, toilet cleanliness, and computer lab facility. Hospitals within Rashidabad are compared with District headquarter hospital, Tando Allahyar, using a total of 14 criterions: criterion 1 to 4 are about hospital staff, criterion 3 to 9 are about quality of arrangements for inpatients, criterion 10 to 11 are about pain management, criterion 12 to 14 are about hygiene & quality of food. Performance of District headquarter hospital remains invariably below the hospitals within Rashidabad; District headquarter hospital performs worst on the indicators pertaining to quality of food, theatre experience, staff identification, and bathroom facilities.