New International Survey Rates CWS

["Lesley Crosson" <lcrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

March 15, 2011 

New international report: global south partners rate CWS performance
Survey part of broader NGO initiative to improve quality,
accountability

In a landmark new international survey, organizations across the global
south who partner with humanitarian agency Church World Service
(www.churchworldservice.org) have given CWS a reality-based,
ground-level view of how they experience the agency’s performance. 

The findings rated the humanitarian agency highly in some areas and, in
others, offered what CWS Deputy Director and Head of Programs Maurice A.
Bloem sees as “a learning opportunity and guideposts for
improvements.

“Our partners rated us well in such areas as our flexibility and
responsiveness and our helping them reach shared program goals. “But
some of the feedback definitely identifies areas we need to work on,”
says Bloem.

The unique 2010 Partner Surveys by the Keystone Accountability
organization (http://www.keystoneaccountability.org/) were designed to
help CWS and other participating international nongovernmental
organizations take a hard look at what they do and set benchmarks to
improve their performance, based on feedback from their local partners.
The benchmarks also reflect how CWS compares to other agencies who
participated in the survey.

The survey, conducted on behalf of 25 participating INGOs, gathered
dynamic data and perspectives from some 1,067 of those agencies’ local
partners and have been published in one comprehensive report, followed
by specific findings and reports for CWS and the other participating
INGOs. 
 Church World Service strives to adhere to quality, accountability and
transparency standards established internationally by the Sphere project
and the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership. But, says Bloem, “We
know providing true quality and effective assistance in this work
requires constant improvements, change, and raising the bar. And who
better to assess the quality of the work we do than those very partners
we support in countries and who then do a great deal of the direct,
hands-on assistance to families and communities.” 

CWS says the performance feedback from its partners - on issues ranging
from leadership in sectors like clean water and sanitation, to financial
support and including the partners in planning program strategies --
delivers a vital mirror and map towards the agency’s increased
effectiveness, accountability and transparency, and in turn to the
empowerment of its partners and, ultimately, to the people they both
serve. 

“The Keystone findings show us that our partners view us as
experienced in understanding their working environments, cultural
contexts and their own strategies, and they say they would maintain a
partnership with us even if funding wasn’t part of the
relationship,” Bloem said.

“But at the same time, they tell us they want us to provide more and
better of what we NGOs like to call capacity-building support. Capacity
building is the kind of assistance that helps people and organizations
develop enduring strength and resilience. 

“The survey also found that our partners want to be treated as full
and true partners, not like subcontractors.”
Call for partnership with parity

The call for partnership with parity was also a major finding in
Keystone’s complete international Partner Survey for all 25
participating INGOs. As Keystone’s summary comment noted,
community-based partner organizations tell the aid agencies, “They
want help to become independent and influential organizations in their
own right.”

Reflective of the challenges that community-based partner organizations
face in the global south and how important the NGO relationship is, one
partner comment in the CWS survey report said the agency’s “moral,
spiritual and institutional support was vital to overcome a difficult
period at our organization. We are now much advanced due to this
suppor
t.”

The agency is now rolling out the survey’s findings to its regional
offices worldwide, along with plans for deeper exploration of the
findings by staff and their respective local partners, as a first step
in generating organizational improvements.  

CWS is making the complete Keystone Performance Surveys Church World
Service Partner Feedback Report available publicly, posted on its
website, along with a summary of the report and a series of audio
podcast interviews that are also being provided to CWS Regional Offices.


“From families in Cambodia who now have clean water thanks to a CWS
biosand filter, to our donors in the U.S., it’s vital for everyone
engaged with us to see what we’re doing, how we’re doing and how we
may be adjusting our course or our methods, with a constant eye to the
goal: ending poverty and hunger,” said Bloem. 

CWS is making the complete Keystone Performance Survey's Church World
Service Partner Feedback Report available publicly, along with a summary
of the report.

Quick links:
●       Summary of CWS survey
findingshttp://www.churchworldservice.org/site/DocServer/CWS-Keystone_Partner_Brief.pdf?docID=4642

●       CWS Keystone Partner Feedback report
http://www.churchworldservice.org/site/DocServer/CWS-Keystone_Partner_Report.pdf?docID=4641


Media Contact: 
Lesley Crosson, 212-870-2676, media@churchworldservice.org 
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526, jdragin@gis.net 

Church World Service
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New York, NY 1011`5