Accountability

With over 50 years of experience facilitating development projects, we understand the importance of being responsible stewards of the funds and initiatives entrusted to us by our donors. We keep ourselves accountable to the millions of people still living in poverty and benefit from our work in more than 20 countries in Africa and Asia.

Transparency

We are committed to transparency and accountability in our work and have procedures and guidelines in place for all critical processes. This ensures that we meet and exceed the expectations of our donors in relation to project management, monitoring, performance management and quality assurance. A full overview of our work, its impact and overall organisation performance is detailed in our annual reports.

The SNV Annual Report 2023 can be downloaded here.

Previous Annual Reports:

• Annual Report 2022

• Annual Report 2021

• Annual Report 2020

• Annual Report 2019

• Annual Report 2018

• Annual Report 2017

• Annual Report 2016

SNV has been an official signatory to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) since 7 November 2017. The UNGC is a principle-based initiative that aims to influence the creation of a more sustainable and inclusive global economy. It is a voluntary framework for businesses to align their operations and strategies with ten principles covering human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption. SNV supports public accountability and transparency, and we report on our progress every year. Our latest report is available here.

Governance

SNV’s operations are overseen by a Supervisory Board. Comprising members from varied and complementary backgrounds, including the financial, corporate and development sectors, the Supervisory Board supervises the management carried out by the Executive Team while also providing advice and guidance based on the Supervisory Board’s expertise in areas such as auditing, finance and social affairs. The Supervisory Board includes a Selection and Remuneration Committee, which is responsible for recommendations to the full Supervisory Board regarding the appointment, evaluation and remuneration of the Chief Executive and Executive Team members. An Audit and Risk Committee monitors finance, risk and compliance and advises the Supervisory Board on finance, control and risk management issues.

ANBI

Click here to download our SNV ANBI Form.

Quality assurance

SNV focuses on achieving the greatest possible impact in line with our mission in the most efficient, effective and sustainable way possible. To ensure this, SNV makes planning, monitoring and evaluation (PME) and learning a key part of its work. The basis for our PME approach is a series of clearly articulated steps. By following these steps, project staff can understand what is working and why and use monitoring and evaluation information to improve the effectiveness of their work and reporting. In practice, PME means constant analysis, reflection and iteration of our work – enabling successful tailoring of approaches to local problems and contexts and full transparency for our donors and partners.

SNV’s PME approach is guided by quality criteria. For each step in the PME cycle, a set of quality criteria are defined, which summarise the minimum requirements for an adequate PME system. These quality criteria are a must for all SNV projects. Together, they promote the participation of development stakeholders in planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning; underscore the importance of recognising complexity and being flexible in planning processes; and strongly support reflection, learning and steering based on collected data on the project’s progress.

SNV commits itself to the concept of open data. As a part of this commitment, SNV publishes project data in a lATl-compliant way. For more information, please see SNV's Exclusion Policy For IATI.

Find out more about SNV’s approach to Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation. 

Ethical behaviour and safeguarding

SNV implements a range of policies and procedures to ensure that team members and organisational initiatives meet the highest standards of ethical conduct. All staff are required to adhere to the SNV Code of Conduct/Ethical Standards Policy and related procedures, which provide the guidelines for good conduct and directions on ethical matters and in situations of conflict of interest.

We have several procedures in place to supplement the SNV Code of Conduct, outlining our specific values and detailed steps to be taken in cases of breaches of the Code.

We consider it the responsibility of all SNV team members and partners to be familiar with the SNV Code of Conduct and remain vigilant about situations that may lead to actions and incidents deemed unethical.

SNV enforces a strict zero-tolerance policy for any case of harassment, violence that puts a person’s life, heath, and well-being at risk, as well as for cases of theft, fraud and misuse of resources. The SNV Fraud Response Procedure sets out the course of action that must be taken when fraudulent activity is suspected or has taken place.

SNV commits to protecting whistle-blowers and any person who reports misconduct, at a personal or structural level, and we ensure that fact finding processes are carried out confidentially and without fear of prejudice, while providing clear steps and measures to resolve the issue.

SNV supports the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and through the SNV Safeguarding, Child Protection Procedure and Protection from Sexual Abuse, Exploitation and Harassment (SEAH) Procedure, we commit to protecting all those who SNV works with and for (including children) from abuse, discrimination and harm in the implementation of our activities.

All cases of misconduct that are reported are anonymised and reported in the annual report – not as individual cases, but in the form of a global analysis. No identifying information about any of the parties involved can be found in any public document and even within the organisation, sensitive information has very restricted access.

SNV is fully committed to tackling Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in all forms and wherever risks of occurrences appear in the course of our work. To achieve this, SNV will continue strengthening its policies and procedures to mitigate the risk of occurrences of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in our supply chains and the risk of such offences being perpetrated by any SNV employees. Furthermore, both the Ethical Standards e-course (which is mandatory for all team members) and the Inclusion and Safeguarding course have dedicated sections about Modern Slavery. Our aim is to sensitize team members and empower them to report on this safely and accurately if they identify any potential risk.

Find out more about SNV’s actions to tackle Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking via our Modern Slavery and Anti Human Trafficking statement. This statement is made pursuant of section 54(1) of the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our Modern Slavery and Anti Human Trafficking statement for the financial year ending December 2021. The statement is also published on the UK Government registry of Modern Slavery statements. You can find it here.

Preventive and corrective actions

All team members are required to be familiar with and adhere to the SNV Code of Conduct and the related procedures. This set of documents defines the Ethical Standards SNV lives by and outlines preventive action to avert discrimination, harassment, any safeguarding incident, and fraud, as well as the corrective measures SNV will adopt in case of breaches of the Code of Conduct.

The Ethical Standards Policy/Code of Conduct is integrated by the SNV Safeguarding, Child Protection and protection from sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (PSEAH) procedure and the SNV Inclusion and Elimination of Workplace Harassment and Discrimination Procedure.

SNV has a zero-tolerance policy against misconduct and operates with a survivor-centred approach. Therefore every incident is treated with utmost confidentiality, impartiality, and empathy. To foster transparency, the SNV Annual Report has an overview of the cases investigated during the year. Still, the data is clustered and anonymised to provide the necessary information to the public while protecting everyone's privacy.

SNV's zero tolerance policy also applies to cases of theft, fraud and misuse of resources. SNV's Fraud Response Procedure sets out the course of action that has to be taken when fraudulent activity is suspected or has taken place. SNV also has a Whistleblower protection statement that allows people within SNV to report alleged irregularities for investigation confidentially and without fear of prejudice while providing clear steps and measures to resolve the issue.

We urge anyone with a concern about any case of potential misconduct, whether financial or relating to safeguarding,  to consult our policies and procedures. If they feel comfortable, discuss with the country Inclusion and Safeguarding Focal Person, and, if appropriate, make a report using the online reporting mechanism. 

As part of its extensive promotion of safeguarding practices, SNV is fully committed to tackling Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in all forms and wherever risks of occurrences appear in the course of our work. To achieve this, SNV will continue strengthening its instruments to mitigate the risks in our supply chains and the risk of such offences being perpetrated by SNV team members and any third party directly associated with SNV. Furthermore, the Ethical Standards e-course (mandatory for all team members) and the Inclusion and Safeguarding course have dedicated sections about Modern Slavery.

SNV values privacy and transparency and recognises the importance of protecting all information we collect about our site visitors. For more information, please see  SNV's Privacy Policy.

SNV’s privacy policy applies to our corporate website and other online services. If you are applying for a job at SNV, please see our privacy policy for applicants.

Financial and resource management

The complex nature of SNV’s global activities requires a robust management and controls system which SNV provides at country and corporate levels. SNV uses the Enterprise Resource Planning software application SAP Business By Design for its financial, time and human resources administration. Data quality control mechanisms are applied.

Audit and risk management

The quality of SNV’s work, from internal processes to client services, is ensured by both internal and external auditing and evaluation. SNV’s financial statements are audited annually by an independent external auditor. This external auditor performs their audit and issues their opinion on the annual accounts of SNV as a whole and incorporates country and corporate financial information. Audit work is carried out in the Netherlands as well as in SNV countries as appropriate to enable the external auditor to form their opinion. The external auditor reports to the SNV Supervisory Board and Audit and Risk Committee. SNV has received an unqualified opinion each year since becoming a fully independent organisation in 2002.

SNV also has an Internal Audit function with a reporting line to the Chief Executive Officer and the Supervisory Board’s Audit and Risk Committee. Internal Audit executes internal audits based on a risk-based audit plan. These audits provide SNV’s Executive Team with independent and objective information on the degree of control of SNV’s primary processes, supporting processes and projects. They support SNV in accomplishing its objectives by assessing the organisation’s processes as a means to identify good practices, possible weaknesses and risks. Based on the information provided, SNV’s Executive Team takes measures where needed to improve organisational practice and stimulate learning. Internal Audit monitors the follow-up of the audit recommendations and reports to the Executive Team and Audit and Risk Committee on progress. Internal Audit applies and upholds the Institute of Internal Auditors’ Code of Ethics.

Carbon reduction plan

SNV is committed to achieving Net Zero by 2050. SNV’s 2030 Strategy commitment is to reach a 50% reduction in carbon emissions against its baseline year (now 2022) by 2030.

In 2021, SNV established a baseline year and follow-up year carbon footprint assessment according to ISO14064, the GHG protocol corporate standard, and the UK Government's Carbon Reduction Plan in PPN 0621. This assessment included only emissions for the Global Office, based in the Netherlands, and its operations. The baseline year was set to 2019, the first follow-up reporting year as 2020.  

From reporting year 2022, SNV expanded the scope to include emissions from all permanent SNV offices globally. Reporting year 2022 is therefore now SNV’s baseline year and hence also SNV’s first reporting year. The reports for 2019, 2020 and 2021 and 2022 remain available upon request for information purposes.   

From reporting year 2023, SNV has further increased the scope of its carbon footprint assessment to include emissions from its project offices (non-permanent offices) in all its countries of operation.

The following factors led to an increase (35.4%) in global emissions in 2023 versus 2022: 

• Emissions from project office activities were not accounted for in 2022. Emissions from project office activities account for 31% of the increase in global emissions reported in 2023 versus 2022. Eight percent (436t CO2) of global emissions reported in 2023 are directly from project office activities.

• The absence of COVID restrictions during 2023 versus 2022, as follows:

  • 64% of SNV locations had international travel restrictions in place during 2022, versus 0% by the beginning of 2023 .

  • Many SNV countries had work at home orders in place at various points during 2022, versus none by the beginning of 2023.

    The absence of COVID restrictions led to an increase in emissions reported across several categories in 2023 versus 2022 e.g. business travel (most significantly international flights), employee commuting and office energy consumption due to increased office occupancy, etc.

• A 4% increase in total employees globally between the end of 2022 and the end of 2023.

This information is presented in the FCDO Carbon Reduction Plan. The plan is updated annually with the details of the latest full reporting year. The current Carbon Reduction Plan contains:

• The details of the baseline year for global emissions reporting of SNV (2022).

• The details of the first follow up reporting year for global emissions reporting (2023).

• One possible emissions reduction scenario towards Net Zero by 2050.

• Details of carbon reduction measures already being implemented by SNV since the baseline year.

To reduce SNV’s scope 1 and scope 2 emissions and scope 3 activities, SNV will implement a series of carbon reduction initiatives based on a fully developed Carbon Reduction Strategy which is expected to be established during Q4 2024.

End of SNV affiliation with DevWorks, previously known as SNV USA

Between 2008 and 2019 SNV Netherlands Development Organisation invested in the establishment and growth of SNV USA, a District of Columbia USA not-for-profit corporation (501c3) in order to access US government financing to increase our impact in fighting poverty. Our close affiliation with SNV USA was based on an agreement that SNV USA worked exclusively in partnership with SNV. In our intertwined modus operandi, SNV country teams had full responsibility for technical performance and SNV USA focused on contract administration. The exclusive partnership came to an end when SNV USA rebranded itself to DevWorks in February 2020. DevWorks/SNV USA is not a representative of SNV. DevWorks will not use any SNV branding. It will not be able to use project references from SNV Netherlands Development Organisation.

SNV is now pursuing USAID and other USG financing through sub-contracts with various US-based organisations and as a prime contractor.