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http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/31597| Title: | Turning to Religion: NGO Accountability in a faith-based development organisation |
| Authors: | Owusu, CA Agyemang, G |
| Keywords: | holistic accountability;identity accountability;religion;faith-based NGO |
| Issue Date: | 5-Jun-2025 |
| Publisher: | Routledge (Taylor and Francis Group) |
| Citation: | Owusu, C.A. and Agyemang, G. (2025) 'Turning to Religion: NGO Accountability in a faith-based development organisation', Accounting Forum, 0 (ahead of print), pp. 1 - 25. doi: 10.1080/01559982.2025.2505810. |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether NGO accountability processes are influenced by religion. To achieve its aim, the paper draws on interview data from officers working in a faith-based NGO in Ghana. The officers describe their work as a commission to God and argue that they are be accountable to God. Religion is employed instrumentally to gain positive beneficiary testimonies that are drawn upon for accountability purposes. Because of their faith identity, NGO officers do not negatively experience hierarchical accountability processes but rather work towards holistic accountability. Our analyses show that the NGO officers utilise religion as a strategic resource that they draw upon to gain funding. Recently some funders have turned to religious and faith-based NGOs because they believe such organisations employ a more effective approach to aid work. The work of these faith-based organisations is important as it can contribute significantly to development. |
| Description: | Acknowledgements: Earlier versions of the paper were presented at the Economics & Finance Department Advisory Board meeting, Brunel University London, 19th May 2022; British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA) Conference, Birmingham, April 2019; 9th Doctoral and Early Career Researchers Summer School in Management Accounting, Certosa di Pontignano – Siena, Italy, 15th – 18th July 2018. We are grateful for the valuable feedback received from three anonymous reviewers. Their suggestions helped shaped the paper. Finally, we would like to acknowledge our interviewees for their time and cooperation. Usual disclaimer applies. Data availability statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. |
| URI: | https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/31597 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1080/01559982.2025.2505810 |
| ISSN: | 0155-9982 |
| Other Identifiers: | ORCiD: Charles Antwi Owusu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5703-2693 |
| Appears in Collections: | Dept of Economics and Finance Research Papers |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| FullText.pdf | Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. | 929.51 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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