NGO Accreditation Tech Solution to bring in greater trust , transparency & reduce TAT/ subjectivity ! GROUP 1

Problem Statement NGOs seek accreditation to seek trust and therefore funds to run their campaigns. Accreditation process presently is cumbersome , manual , human centric , highly subjective and time consuming. For instance , TISS which is a leading accreditation agency , takes sometimes many months to accredit NGOs , hampering fund raising capability of deserving NGOs doing good work at large. Reduction in TAT of accreditation process , involving tech to remove subjectivity/lower TAT , standardization and bringing more trust & transparency in the overall accreditation process , is therefore , the need of the hour.

Why NGOs seek Accreditation : Gain recognition as an accountable ,transparent and governance driven organization Enhance prospects of attracting financial and other forms of support from various stakeholders, including Government and other donors. Build professional capacity as an organization through networking opportunities within a large membership ( of Accreditation body) base. Have a sense of belonging to bring greater credibility to the Sector as a whole Third party evaluation of NGO’s existing systems , processes and books helps them evaluate and improve.

Scope : Rapidly growly number of NGOs : over 3 million presently , many unregistered. Govt provides on average 950 crores to NGOs every year. Foreign funds coming to ‘ Voluntary Sector’ is around 11000 crores. Many Corporates ‘trust’ NGOs to carry out their CSR activities. Overall , more than 18000 crores of funds come into Voluntary Sector every year. Growing role & influence of NGOs as ‘Legitimate’ Voice of Civil Society : - Service delivery to policy advocacy role. - Engaging with Govt and Corporate Houses. Data Source : Asian Center for Human Rights

Present accreditation process : Credibility Alliance (CA) is a consortium of Voluntary Organizations (VOs) committed towards enhancing Accountability and Transparency in the Voluntary Sector . It is India’s leading accreditation provider to NGOs. It’s accreditation process :

Existing Standards ( CA’s example..)

Accreditation Work Flow ( CAAC)

Standard documents required :

Technological approach to present Accreditation Process

Technologies to be involved : Accreditation AI : would be trained using data elements, evidence, rubrics and decisions made in the past/case studies. Machine Learning : computers learn from experience, adjust “behaviors” (outputs) to match new stimulus (inputs) and perform tasks of increasing complexity. NLP : is the art through which computers interpret sentences/phrases ( both what and how things are said) BoT/ChatBot : to replace humans (as interface) , 24/7. APIs : to communicate among software programmes and to fetch data on demand. Big Data : analysis is done to process large and varied data sets.

Use of Tech in Accreditation process : Form Submission : - NGO uploads Accreditation form & documents online. BoT ( AI & ML trained) scans (reads) and analyses documents and sends confirmation over email , if all documents are in place. NLP based ChatBot interacts with NGO over chat messenger , in case additional documents are required. Data Verification & initial assessment : Use of API calls to fetch relevant data from public/private domain. Historical data fed to train AI Algorithms helps identify anomalies/ML at play too. Use of AI to analyze diverse qualitative and quantitative data quickly. Big Data Analysis/AI based analytics is used to understand complex/large data. Initial computer based report is provided to auditors.

Use of Tech (continued..) In person meeting with NGO : - Using the initial ‘computer generated’ assessment report , the Field Officer/s meets the management and does ‘ second level of assessment’. Physical verification of premises , process , headcount etc is done. Field Officer assists NGO in providing additional documents/information. Accreditation Team : First level of human bias/subjectivity in analysis is removed using ‘computer generated’ report , which is referred by Accreditation Team. Field Officer’s report is evaluated along with ‘computer generated’ report. Using ML/AI techniques , initial assessment and field report is again analyzed and a ‘Third Computer Generated Report’ is generated.

Conclusion Accreditation : Conclusion : The Accreditation Team awards/does not award accreditation to the NGO basis all three reports and it’s own judgment. Conclusion : Using Technology will bring about the following much required changes in accreditation process : Reduce TAT in accreditation. Remove human biases/ errors in judgment/subjectivity to a large extend. Bring greater trust , transparency and credibility to NGOs Most importantly , the above will bring in more funds for the good work NGOs are doing.

Vision & Mission : Vision : Mission : A technology based accreditation organization which is ‘human at heart’ and is responsive ( & responsible) to the needs of the society. Mission : To provide worthy NGOs a faster , transparent and credible way of accreditation , to eventually help them garner funds to cater to needs of the society.

Thank You