WHAT IS AN INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR?

Governance should be and should perceive to be an independent process. It implies that the Board member of all organizations should be independent. Having Board Members who have an interest within the organization or relationship which tends to or appears to compromise their independence can in effect compromise the independence and overall accountability of the organization.

It is also seen that even though organizations have a desire to appoint an independent Board, in practice they find it difficult to identify competent people who understand ‘Governance’ and are available to provide oversight functions as independent Board members.

CPA provides training and capacity building on governance issues as well as runs a four months online Certificate programme, “NPO Governance”. Through these processes, CPA identifies competent and committed persons who are willing and available to serve as independent Board member. As a part of the due diligence process, they are asked to provide necessary background information and sign a declaration signifying their intent to serve as a Board member and to declare their conflict of interest.

To start with, we recommend that at least 40% of the Board members of every organization should consist of Independent Board members.

On the basis of the above, we have a pool of independent Board members available to serve in your organization. They are categorized on the basis of regions. We encourage you to make use of this pool which would bring in greater transparency, credibility, trust and overall accountability for organizations in the voluntary sector.