We are accountable

Plan is first and foremost responsible to the children and their communities and to all our supporters, sponsors and funding bodies.

The core foundation of all of Plan’s projects is a deep understanding of the communities we work with. Our local workers and volunteers learn by listening to and involving all members of the communities: children, families, and community leaders. Through this active participation, a community identifies its needs, collaborates with us to design a solution to meet them, and gains the skills and confidence to sustain that solution in the long term without further support from Plan.

It is for this reason and as part of our commitment to the future of the communities and the effective use of the funds entrusted to us, that Plan has established a system to monitor our work and to assess our effect on communities’ development. Through this system – which we call Corporate Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (CPME) – Plan gathers, analyses and reports data about community needs and programme impact. This information serves as the basis for providing quality and effectiveness throughout all stages of our projects, from planning through to implementation and reporting, always in collaboration with the community.

We audit our programmes

At Plan we audit our programmes as well as our finances. This is to assess whether we are using best practice when we design projects with communities, to help us learn from experience and from others, and to see whether we are meeting the expectations of the communities with whom we work. Our projects are evaluated and monitored regularly to assess just how effective they are in meeting children’s needs and in effectively using the funds entrusted to us by our sponsors, supporters and donors.

On their visits to our field offices worldwide, Plan’s internal auditors look at the systems in place for controlling and accounting for funds and validate that our programmes contribute to our overall objectives of achieving results in the lives of children. They test that proper financial controls are in place to safeguard Plan’s funds; they inspect the accuracy of the reports prepared for individual sponsors and the progress of their sponsored child. They test a sample of such sponsorship documents for consistency and accuracy. In addition they visit projects Plan collaborates with. This work is tailored for each country to reflect the particular risks faced in each country.

The programme auditors look at both the local strategic plans and how they have been put into practice. They also visit some communities. Sitting down with them for a few days they can then discuss the communities’ expectations of Plan’s work and how these have been met. They look at a range of projects: evaluate their quality and whether Plan was as effective as it could be. At the end of each visit, auditors report what they have found, together with their recommendations and suggestions to management.

he findings, suggestions and recommendations of both financial and programme audit are summarised for Plan’s Board. Following an audit, management at the audited office prepares an action list detailing how and when each of the recommendations raised by the report will be addressed.