Reputation risk and human risk management

Non-governmental organisations are, due to their funding and operational methods, almost entirely dependant on public and private subsidies. They must therefore ensure that they appropriately protect their own reputation, but also that of their donors and collaborators. In doing so, they will ensure that they can better serve and protect the populations that they wish to help.

The reputation of an organisation being particularly linked to that of its representatives, the related risks can be managed through a pragmatic, coherent and efficient human risk management policy. This will ensure the sustainability of the organisation in the long term, its performance in the short and medium term, as well as stabilise funding.

Several measures can be implemented to manage human risk: codes of conduct, devices to facilitate alerting, power distribution (double signatures for decisions), disciplinary measures in case of violations, training and awareness raising focused on the above measures, and obviously the assurance of hiring only the collaborators whose level of integrity will protect the interests of the organisation.

Die Hintergrundsüberprüfung von Personen welche bei Nichtregierungsorganisationen angestellt sind. (NGO)

In practice, we find that organisations perform or commission background checks on the people that they hire for different reasons:

  • Security: To protect against internal threats (abuse, theft, fraud, etc.).
  • Reputation: In order to protect the reputation of the organisation and to avoid potential public scandals.
  • Culture and duty to set an example: NGO members maintain high moral and ethical standards.
  • Reduced recruitment costs: Effective background checks avoid costly casting errors.
  • Compliance – Financial base: Scandals related to the actions of a few individuals can cause the withdrawal of certain funding, jeopardising the functioning of the organisation.

Concrete examples

Oxfam – Sex scandals

In 2018, a first scandal revealed the actions of employees and managers of the organisation “including the use of prostitutes.” [1]

Following these revelations, four employees, including the director for Haiti, are dismissed or forced to resign. According to Penny Lawrence, Oxfam’s second-in-command at the time, the problematic behaviour of the director, as well as members of his team “had been raised before he moved to Haiti.” Moreover, it appears that Oxfam had neglected to warn other humanitarian actors about the actions of these employees, allowing them to obtain assignments with other NGOs.

After this first scandal, …

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    [1] Le Monde; 12 February 2018: https://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2018/02/12/haiti-l-ong-oxfam-accusee-d-avoir-engage-des-prostituees-apres-le-seisme-en-2010_5255385_3214.html

    Date of publication : 22.04.2022

    Author : Marc Tinguely and Michael Platen