what is social audit

8/10/2019 What is Social Audit

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Social audit - conductedjointlyby the

government and the people, especially by those

people who are affected by, or are the intendedbeneficiaries of, the scheme being audited.

Social audit conducted in addition for certain

types of schemes and activities, especially thoseinvolving huge and/or disaggregated

expenditure.


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The Scope of a Social AuditSA is a management tool and accountability mechanismwhich can enhance an organizations capacity to:

Evaluate their impact on stakeholders A social audit is conducted over the life span of a scheme

or programme, and not just in one go or at one stage.

It audits the process, the outputs and the outcome It audits planning, implementation, monitoring and

evaluation.

Determine how well they are living up to the values they

Improve their strategic planning process by identifyingpotential problems before they come up; and

Increase their accountability to the groups they serve anddepend on.


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Elements of a Social Audit1. Raising awareness of rights, entitlements and

obligations under a scheme.

2. Specifically, about the right to participate in a socialaudit.3. Ensuring that all forms and documents are user

friendly.

4. Ensuring all relevant information is accessible,displayed and read out.

5. Ensuring that the decision making process istransparent, participatory and, as far as possible,carried out in the presence of the affected persons.

6. Ensuring that all decisions, and their rationale, aremade public as soon as they are made.

7. Ensuring that measurements, certification andinspection involves the affected people on a randomand rotational basis.


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8. Ensuring that there are regular (six monthly)

public hearings (jan audit manch) where the

scheme and the process of social auditing ispublicly analyzed.

9. Ensuring that the findings of social audits are

immediately acted upon.10. Also ensuring that these findings result in the

required systemic changes.


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8 Steps in conducting SA

Assemble organization and secure agreement and

commitment. Define and prioritize the organizations objectives

and establish the action it intends to perform tomeet them.

Identify the organizations stakeholders

Agree upon indicators, information, benchmarksand targets.

Data gathering systems put in place. Collating, analyzing and interpreting results

External verification process

Disclosure and act on results


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6 Reasons to conduct a SA

Know what is happening

Understand what people think and want

Tell people what you are achieving

Strengthen loyalty / commitment Enhance decision-making

Improve overall performance


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Benefits OF SA:

Quality Management. Recruitment and Retention of Employees.

Promote Genuine Partnerships w/ Suppliers.

Risk Management.

Better Governance.

Improved Accountability.

Member / Stakeholder Engagement.

Increased Investor Trust.

Brand Equity


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Limitation

They are difficult to measure how much of the

benefit is caused by this programme.

Their classification under good or bad is not

universally accepted.

Most of them occur outside the organization

making it difficult for the organization to secure

data from these outside sources.

what is social audit

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