International Needs Ghana receives accreditation into AfCAA

International Needs Ghana, an international non-governmental organisation, on Friday received a certificate of accreditation and membership from the African Council for Accreditation and Accountability (AfCAA), an international NGO with a focus on advancing biblical standards in organisations.

The certificate was awarded to the NGO for its accomplishment of the seven standards set by the AfCAA.

These are Doctrinal Foundation, Talent Management, Cultural Differences, Resource Mobilisation, Leadership and Governance, Learning and Innovation and Financial Management and Disclosure.

Being an accredited member of the AfCAA, International Needs Ghana would be more visible to international donor organisations and seen as more credible and eligible for support.

It would also be connected to other member organisations across the continent to capacity building and support.

Mrs Emily Chengo, the Executive Director of AfCAA, said the Council only gave accreditation to Christian NGOs, Churches and Christian-owned Businesses based on seven standards and International Needs Ghana was able to meet those standards.

The first standard, she said was, ‘Doctrinal Foundation’ to serve as a check on churches to subscribe to biblical standards, and the second was to assess the ‘Governance and Leadership’ standard of organisations to ensure that they had proper board and structures that were effective and transparent to be tested professionally.

The third standard was ‘Talent Management’ for the Council to assess how organisations accessed their staff, how well they treated them and how they were developing their capacities.

Mrs Chengo said the standard of ‘Learning and Innovation’ would ensure that organisations adapted new tools, especially on technology to deliver their mandate and explained that the ‘Cultural Differences and Interdependence’ standard would ensure that members brought communities together even in the midst of cultural differences to prevent tribalism.

On the tenet of Financial Management and Disclosure, she called on the Council to check organisations’ audited accounts, how organisations had addressed management issues raised and whether there was compliance in tax and legal issues.

She noted that there was also the standard of ‘Resources Mobilisation’ to ascertain how members raised funds from donor organisations and to find out how members communicated with the donor organisations as well as if funds were used for their rightful purposes.

Mrs Chengo said the accreditation would be renewed annually to serve as a check on the operations of members to enable them to maintain the standards.

Mr Edmond Vanderpuye, the Executive Director of International Needs Ghana, said having gone through rigorous assessment complying to the standards, it was worth receiving the certificate as an endorsement of their commitment and practice with professionalism and integrity.

He said the honour done them would encourage the NGO to continue to enhance and promote accountability and integrity in their works.

Mr Vanderpuye said there was a huge gap between what was professed as Christians and what they really practiced, adding that, the works of NGOs were some of the things individuals, societies and organisations looked out for in NGOs as well as how trustworthy they were to support them with public resources.

AfCAA was launched on August 27, 2016, in Nairobi, Kenya, born out of a conviction that Christians in Africa must live out of their faith and maturity through distinctive and accountable behaviours in personal life and the practice of biblical principles in ministry and business.

The focus of the AfCAA is to advance Biblical standards of accountability in all sectors of life across the continent using a three-pronged approach.

International Needs Ghana is an NGO with focus on advocating for child rights, improved education, health, gender and empowerment and Christian witnesses for the welfare of the vulnerable and less-privileged in the society.