With the aim of highlighting their transparent and reliable operation, more than 60 Civil Society organizations subscribe to a text of positions and principles.
“TRANSPARENCY INITIATIVE: Collaboration for the COMMON GOOD” publishes a text of positions and principles that aims to highlight their important contribution to Greek society, but also to highlight the general framework of their transparent and reliable operation. The text is signed by more than 60 Civil Society Organizations that are part of this initiative.
It is a text addressed initially to all Civil Society Organizations and then to the general public, to private sponsors and donors and to the State. It tries to contribute productively to the public debate and bears the signature of many organizations important for their social work. The ultimate goal is to be an essential resource in the effort to highlight the transparency that is already incorporated in their mode of operation as a basic value for the open and constructive relationship between organizations and citizens, restoring their credibility and also building cooperative relations with the State.
In this context, the text of positions and principles of the Initiative also includes a series of proposed measures in the direction of strengthening transparency concerning organizations. These include the obligation to publish the current Statute, as well as the Financial Statements on an annual basis, the implementation of transparent procedures for managing and allocating resources, the establishment of strict regulations and ethical codes, the constant informing of the public about their activities, the active participation of volunteers in internal procedures and decisions. At the same time, the text also includes considerations that create a closer interaction with the public and the State in order to ensure the application of existing legislation and transparency rules.
It is worth noting that the idea for this specific collaboration and the joint drafting of a text of positions with this aim arose from an informal initiative of people from the Civil Society whose aim was to propose ways of promoting transparency and avoiding the generalization of individual malfunctions. At the same time, it invites the State to help ensure transparency by protecting the public as well as the recognized organizations, which operate consistently and irreproachably, offering very important services, valuable and work of many years in Greek society.
In this direction, the joint effort of more than 60 organizations to contribute to the maintenance of trust through a framework of transparency and credibility, was transformed into the “TRANSPARENCY INITIATIVE: Collaboration for the COMMON GOOD”, an informal partnership of Civil Society Organizations that it consists of the collaboration of non-profit legal forms, the organizations that subscribe to it and the text of positions and principles that it publishes.
The initiators of the initiative were Ms. Alexandra Martinou (TOGETHER FOR THE CHILD), Mr. Sotiris Petropoulos (HIGGS), Ms. Valia Fragou (Philanthropy Advisor), Mr. Nikos Charalambidis (Greenpeace Greece), Mr. Dimitris Karavelas (WWF ), Ms. Sofia Kouvelaki (The HOME Project) and Ms. Elina Sbokou (HOPEgenesis).
Mr. Sotiris Petropoulos, co-founder of HIGGS and member of the “TRANSPARENCY INITIATIVE: Collaboration for the COMMON GOOD” noted in this regard: “Through our joint partnership we seek to ensure the transparent activity of Civil Society Οrganizations and the preservation of their reliability. The text of positions and principles that we created through a process of open, participatory and inclusive dialogue, aims to contribute so that transparency is a key parameter of the recognition and operation of organizations. In this effort, we call on all the involved publics, other organizations, the State, financiers, agencies and the general public to raise awareness, show vigilance and join forces with us in this effort”.
For more information about the participating organizations, as well as the conditions for joining the Initiative, you can find it at the following link: www.pgd.gr