Shifting Accountability: Reflections from the RINGO Community Gathering on the PALM

For decades, account­abil­i­ty in the aid and devel­op­ment sys­tem has large­ly flowed in one direc­tion. Local and nation­al civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions (CSOs) are expect­ed to account to inter­na­tion­al NGOs (INGOs) and donors through report­ing sys­tems that pri­ori­tise com­pli­ance, upward data flows and exter­nal­ly defined indi­ca­tors of suc­cess. Rarely are INGOs or donors held account­able to the organ­i­sa­tions and com­mu­ni­ties they part­ner with. 

At the RINGO Com­mu­ni­ty Gath­er­ing in Novem­ber 2025, we shone a spot­light on the Pledge for Change Account­abil­i­ty and Learn­ing Mech­a­nism — oth­er­wise known as the PALM — an inno­va­tion which aims to rebal­ance pow­er dynam­ics with­in the sec­tor by shift­ing the cen­tre of account­abil­i­ty towards peo­ple in the Major­i­ty World. 

The con­ver­sa­tion was both reflec­tive and prac­ti­cal. Rather than revis­it­ing famil­iar cri­tiques of the sys­tem, par­tic­i­pants explored what the PALM has begun to demon­strate in prac­tice: that shift­ing account­abil­i­ty is pos­si­ble, but it requires changes not only to tools and process­es, but to mind­sets, rela­tion­ships and courage across the sec­tor.

Background 

In the first phase of the RINGO Project, we con­vened a Social Lab of glob­al change mak­ers to devel­op and test inno­va­tions which chal­lenge some of the major struc­tur­al bar­ri­ers to change in the sec­tor and demon­strate new ways of work­ing. The Lab went through an ini­tial inquiry process which sought to under­stand how the project can con­tribute towards sys­tems change, and iden­ti­fy the key areas we would like to reimag­ine — includ­ing a focus on Account­abil­i­ty, Impact and Mea­sure­ment. Start­ing with the ques­tion ‘How might we design a sys­tem that also holds INGOs and donors account­able to the local/national CSOs they sup­port or part­ner with?’, mem­bers of the RINGO Social Lab came togeth­er to devel­op an idea for a South­ern-led mech­a­nism that shifts the account­abil­i­ty equa­tion and redress­es pow­er imbal­ances in the sec­tor. RINGO joined forces with the Pledge for Change, and the PALM was born. 

The Pledge for Change is a series of three com­mit­ments — Equi­table Part­ner­ships, Authen­tic Sto­ry­telling, and Influ­enc­ing Wider Change — aimed at re-imag­in­ing the role of INGOs in the glob­al human­i­tar­i­an aid and devel­op­ment sys­tem. Organ­i­sa­tions can sign on to the Pledge for Change as a Sig­na­to­ry (INGOs) or Sup­port­er with a shared goal to shift the pow­er more direct­ly to local organ­i­sa­tions in the Major­i­ty World while build­ing a stronger aid ecosys­tem based on the prin­ci­ples of sol­i­dar­i­ty, humil­i­ty, self-deter­mi­na­tion and equal­i­ty. 

Over the past two years, PALM has been pilot­ed as a liv­ing mech­a­nism with­in the Pledge for Change com­mu­ni­ty, offer­ing both a space for reflec­tion and a struc­ture for mutu­al learn­ing. The RINGO Com­mu­ni­ty Gath­er­ing pro­vid­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to take stock of what has been learned so far. Charles Kojo Vandy­ck (RINGO / WACSI) led a can­did dis­cus­sion with some of the actors who have par­tic­i­pat­ed in the first cycle of test­ing this approach: Hil­da van ‘t Riet (Cor­po­rate MEL Expert from Cor­daid and Pledge Sig­na­to­ry); Com­fort Attah (Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Attah Sis­ters Help­ing Hand Foun­da­tion (ASHH Foun­da­tion)) and Part­ner Sur­vey par­tic­i­pant); and Marie-Rose Romain Mur­phy (Romain Mur­phy Con­sult­ing and mem­ber of the Pledge for Change Glob­al Advi­so­ry Review Pan­el). 

Overview: Pledge For Change Accountability and Learning Mechanism 

Bless­ing Osagie Christo­pher (MEAL Coor­di­na­tor, Pledge for Change Sec­re­tari­at / Adeso) pro­vid­ed a com­pre­hen­sive overview of the PALM — click here to access the pre­sen­ta­tion. The PALM offers a mutu­al process where data col­lec­tion is inclu­sive and par­tic­i­pa­to­ry, col­lect­ed from all stake­hold­ers and pri­ori­tis­es the needs of the local part­ners and com­mu­ni­ties.

• INGO Self-Report­ing: INGOs are required to annu­al­ly com­plete a co-designed self-report­ing tem­plate which shares how they think they have pro­gressed against their Pledges over the last year, and where they need to make improve­ments.
• Part­ner Sur­vey: Inde­pen­dent­ly facil­i­tat­ed by the West Africa Civ­il Soci­ety Insti­tute (WACSI), the feed­back sur­vey cen­tres the voic­es of organ­i­sa­tions part­ner­ing with Pledge Sig­na­to­ries. This data is used to tri­an­gu­late what the INGOs are say­ing they are doing in their self-reports.
• South­ern-Led Assess­ments: This aspect focus­es on the Authen­tic Sto­ry­telling Pledge and com­pris­es an inde­pen­dent review pan­el of experts who are work­ing with decolonised approach­es. The pan­el reviews mate­ri­als such as donor reports, cam­paigns and videos, and offers feed­back on eth­i­cal prac­tice, inclu­sion and nar­ra­tive pow­er. 

These strands are brought togeth­er by the Pledge for Change Glob­al Advi­so­ry Review Pan­el, made up of lead­ing civ­il soci­ety actors from the Major­i­ty World. Through dia­logue with the glob­al lead­er­ship teams of the Sig­na­to­ries, the Review Pan­el explores what the evi­dence sug­gests, where progress is being made, and what sup­port is need­ed to go fur­ther.

PALM at the national level

To ensure the Pledge for Change is prac­ticed where it mat­ters most — in nation­al con­texts — a new iter­a­tion of the PALM is being devel­oped. The Local­ly-Led Imple­men­ta­tion for Trans­for­ma­tion (LIFT) aims to be a resourced, coun­try-lev­el ini­tia­tive based on joint polit­i­cal com­mit­ments between local and nation­al actors and Pledge Sig­na­to­ries. Cur­rent­ly, the progress on the com­mit­ments being made by Sig­na­to­ries is pre­dom­i­nant­ly HQ-focussed, mean­ing that coun­try offices are often bypassed and local actors are not aware of the com­mit­ments. LIFT is a boost­er ini­tia­tive to refo­cus the Pledge’s resources, ener­gy and pri­or­i­ties towards local­ly-led change. By 2027, LIFT seeks to sup­port change in mul­ti­ple con­texts, includ­ing increased voice and resources for local actors, stronger coor­di­na­tion between INGOs, and mea­sur­able progress on Pledge com­mit­ments.

Insights from the PALM participants

WACSI facil­i­tat­ed the Part­ner Sur­vey, which was co-cre­at­ed by part­ners in the Major­i­ty World, five Pledge Sig­na­to­ries and the Pledge MEAL group. Nan­cy Kankum Kusi (RINGO / WACSI) shared the impor­tance of the process being South­ern-led, with the local part­ners tak­ing the lead in decid­ing which ques­tions were impor­tant to them. WACSI adopt­ed an adapt­able and flex­i­ble approach to the process to ensure that they were as inclu­sive and reached as many part­ners as pos­si­ble, involv­ing quan­ti­ta­tive and qual­i­ta­tive feed­back options and a series of focus groups. Each Sig­na­to­ry received a report that pro­vid­ed anony­mous feed­back and rec­om­men­da­tions from their own part­ners. Click here for the con­sol­i­dat­ed report: 2024 Part­ners Sur­vey: Key Find­ings and Rec­om­men­da­tions and the Part­ners Sur­vey Report Launch Event. 

Com­fort Attah (ASHH Foun­da­tion) shared insights from the per­spec­tive of one of the respon­dents to the Part­ner Sur­vey. The process pro­voked crit­i­cal dis­cus­sion with­in the organ­i­sa­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly when reflect­ing on equi­table part­ner­ships with INGOs in terms of bud­get allo­ca­tion, flex­i­bil­i­ty, co-cre­ation, deci­sion mak­ing, risk and organ­i­sa­tion­al sup­port. 

“What hap­pens in Com­mu­ni­ty A could be dif­fer­ent from what hap­pens in Com­mu­ni­ty B, so hav­ing peo­ple at the grass­roots lev­el par­tic­i­pate in the co-cre­ation of a project, and define the scope and indi­ca­tors, is very very impor­tant.” Com­fort Attah (ASHH Foun­da­tion)

Com­fort acknowl­edged that while part­ner organ­i­sa­tions are often proud to speak about the INGOs that sup­port them, the INGOs could do more to ele­vate the pro­file of the part­ner organ­i­sa­tions. This helps to cre­ate a net­work and to reach oth­er part­ner­ships and oppor­tu­ni­ties. 

Hil­da (Cor­daid) agrees with Comfort’s reflec­tions and recog­nis­es sim­i­lar feed­back from their part­ners. PALM has added val­ue to their exist­ing account­abil­i­ty mech­a­nisms and inter­nal poli­cies to put more focus on local lead­er­ship. 

“The feed­back both from the part­ner sur­vey and from the glob­al advi­so­ry review pan­el real­ly helps us to reflect crit­i­cal­ly on what we are doing and see where we can take steps to improve on these process­es, because we real­ly want these equi­table part­ner­ships — and we may feel there is open space for dia­logue, but our part­ners in the glob­al south may not feel safe to share what is work­ing and what isn’t work­ing.” Hil­da van ‘t Riet (Cor­daid)

Hil­da also reflect­ed on the impor­tance of the third Pledge, Influ­enc­ing Wider Change. She spoke of the val­ue of talk­ing to the donors and mak­ing them aware that their require­ments some­times hin­der equi­table part­ner­ships.

Now is the time for courage

Mem­bers of the Glob­al Advi­so­ry Pan­el Marie-Rose Romain Mur­phy (Romain Mur­phy Con­sult­ing) and Charles dis­cussed how they sup­port­ed the Sig­na­to­ries to engage with the feed­back and explore the shifts they could make in their con­text — and pushed them to go fur­ther:  

“We are at an incred­i­ble junc­ture… With LIFT at the region­al lev­els, this is where we need to get seri­ous with our engage­ment… As much as we under­stand INGOs strug­gles and chal­lenges, we need to go beyond incre­men­tal change — now is the time for courage.” Marie-Rose Romain Mur­phy (Romain Mur­phy Con­sult­ing)

For more infor­ma­tion on the PALM and LIFT, please con­tact Bless­ing Osagie : bosagie@adesoafrica.org

Resources we shared dur­ing the ses­sion:

• PALM web page on the Pledge for Change web­site and PALM Frame­work
• Pre­sen­ta­tion : Overview of the PALM
• RINGO Case Study on the PALM: A Sum­ma­ry of Learn­ings from the Pro­to­typ­ing Phase 
• 2024 Part­ners Sur­vey: Key Find­ings and Rec­om­men­da­tions
• Part­ners Sur­vey Report Launch Event
• Blog: Pow­er in Prac­tice: Reflec­tions from the Pledge for Change Dia­logue on Why South­ern-led Account­abil­i­ty Can­not Be Option­al 
• Con­cept note on the LIFT: Local­ly Led Imple­men­ta­tion for Trans­for­ma­tion (LIFT)