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Best Practice Model: The Philippines Council for NGO Certification

The Philippines Council for NGO Certification (PCNC) is one of the most interesting developments in NGO regulation in recent years. Innovative and far sighted, it is proof that developing countries can be world-leaders in regulation.

The role of the PCNC is not that unusual. It is an accreditation body, established to identify those NGOs that meet best practice standards. Those that achieve these standards are eligible for additional tax benefits beyond those automatically given to all NGOs. This model is found in many other countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.

What makes PCNC such an interesting model is that the PCNC is itself an NGO. It is authorised by the Department of Finance to certify NGOs which then receive additional tax benefits.

PCNC's NGO status brings many significant advantages which government run accreditation bodies lack. The most important of these advantages is credibility. Governments do not understand best practice in NGOs as well as NGOs themselves do. An accreditation system designed and implemented by NGOs is more effective, and therefore more credible to all stakeholders.

Furthermore, all government operated accreditation systems are open to criticism, often well-founded, that they institutionalise government favouritism. In other words, accredited NGOs receive special benefits not on merit, but because they are of a type which is politically favoured or, even worse, are well-connected. This criticism has undermined the credibility of a number of accreditation systems worldwide.

As a result it is the opinion of many international experts on NGO law and regulation that the NGO-led model as pioneered in the Philippines is the best model for an NGO accreditation agency.

The PCNC model has generated much global interest and has been discussed in numerous academic journals. It has prompted at least one imitator in the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy, and a number of other countries are known to be considering the model.

More information on how the PCNC operates and its relationship with government can be found at www.pcnc.com.ph.

 

Please note: we are in the process of collating brief summaries of regulatory systems and contact details for NGO regulators in different countries around the world. If you can provide information on the system in your country it would be very helpful if you could complete this template. Please email us or call +44 (0) 207 674 2419 for further details.

A lot of information on NGO laws and regulation in countries around the world is already available on the International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law website, the United States International Grantmaking website, the UNDP Programme on Governance in the Arab Region and Philanthropy and the Third Sector in Asia and the Pacific.