Activity Reporting
Annex A - Organisation annual reports
Organisation annual reports are required when the NZAID-funded Activity is in the “organisational support / strategic partnership” modality with a priority government, multilateral or regional agency, or an NGO. They may also be required from a range of partner government agencies as part of the reporting under a “national poverty reduction support” modality.
Annual reports will generally be guided by legislation, regulations or guidelines in the partner country and these must always be followed. The minimum requirements for annual reports of organisations core-funded by NZAID will often be covered by such partner country guidelines. NZAID’s minimum requirements are:
- A description of the key changes over the past year in the context the organisation is operating in
- A description of key activities, achievements and challenges for the organisation of the past year, including at least basic performance information
- Audited financial statements and the audit report.
NZAID should also work with organisations to help them strengthen annual reports so they can further include the following desirable elements:
- An executive summary, Chief Executive’s overview, or equivalent
- A description of the organisation’s mission, goals, objectives, strategic plan and key activities, or reference to where this description is available elsewhere
- A clear description of the accountability arrangements of the organisation e.g.:
- - membership and powers of board or other governing body;
- - (for government agencies) functional relationship to Minister and Parliament
- - (for non-government bodies) membership rules and who the ultimate “owners” of the organisation are;
- - how policies are set and decisions made;
- - how clients/stakeholders can contact the organisation, access information about the organisation and have complaints addressed
- Rigorous performance information (quantitative and/or qualitative as appropriate and realistic) showing progress towards the organisation’s goals and objectives and the quantity and quality of the organisation’s outputs (including e.g. information on the quality of services)
- Performance information on the overall health of the organisation e.g. human resources strategy, overall cost-effectiveness, assets, approach to learning, etc.
- Reports from reviews, evaluations and systems or performance audits.
It is also often helpful for annual reports to include:
- Glossary and acronym list
- Organisational chart.
The level of sophistication needed for each of these requirements will vary according to the type and size of organisation, context, amount of funding, and other risk factors. In some situations, good quality information that is described above as “desirable” (e.g. performance information on progress towards objectives) may be necessary before large scale funding can be agreed.