Non-Profit Accountability in Least Developed Nations: Lessons Learned from West Africa

In least developed countries, nonprofit organizations play a critical role in ensuring the wellbeing of the populations they serve. However, despite their importance, the body of literature examining the performance of nonprofit organizations in such contexts is underdeveloped. This research seeks to address this dearth in the nonprofit literature, focusing in particular upon the role of accountability in such organizations. We do so by discussing the bases for accountability arrangements in these organizations and how they relate to performance management practices. As such, the objective of this study is to discuss how accountability is incorporated into the performance management practices in nonprofit organizations in least developed contexts. We address this research objective based upon insights drawn over the course of a weeklong intensive training session that was delivered by the author to senior level managers of nonprofits dealing with water and sanitation services located in Ghana, Niger and Burkina Faso. Findings suggest that the chief barrier to implementing effective accountability based management regimes relates to a lack of organizational capacity.