ABSTRACT
Social Accountability International (SAI) has been fortunate to partner with two other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in social standards focusing on issues beyond human rights in the supply chain. This chapter is a report on SAI's work with InterAction to conduct a ground-breaking certification project. InterAction is the largest alliance of US-based NGOs that operate in developing countries, principally in the areas of relief and development. InterAction's Private Voluntary Organization (PVO) standards strive to define good practice in the areas of international NGO governance and financial management, human resource policies, and program design and implementation, and the members strive to meet them and build on them. After these PVO standards were well established, five member organizations that provide child sponsorship services undertook a pilot program for third-party certification of their compliance with the standards. Each agency conducted a self-assessment and submitted that extensive documentation and a certification application to InterAction. InterAction assigned the auditing companies to the participants.
