How Northern Ngos Measure the Performance of and Impact Southern Ngos: an Examination of Unequal Development Partnerships

The key factors which influence SNGOs? performance are the regulatory environment, their governance mechanisms, their management and their rank on the partnership development ladder. On NGO governance, the board should represent the key stakeholders, be distinct from management to provide oversight, relate well professionally with management and key stakeholders, constitute functional subcommittees, have the skills required, and have a clear succession mechanism for its members. Regarding financial management, assessments pay special attention to ensure there is a clear accountability mechanism to all key stakeholders, there is sufficient transparency, integrity is pervasive in the SNGO, there are documented and enforced policies to ensure consistency, sufficient disclosure, and the SNGOs demonstrate in practice their custodial role to their funders and beneficiaries. The "focus SNGO performance model" resulting from this study represents an important contribution to the theoretical understanding of the performance relationships between funder NNGOs and SNGOs. It uses empirical findings to address six limitations inherent in the existing performance measurement frameworks.