Argüden Governance Academy: A Change Agent to Build Trust for Institutions
It was such a beneficial experience for us to prepare the Argüden Governance Academy’s Annual Report for its first full year of operation, in line with the International <IR> Framework.
Institutions generally share their financials, operations, sustainability position in their annual reports in different sections, in a separate manner. However, an integrated report seeks the integrated thinking between all tasks and components of the institution to be set in terms of their business model, strategy, outcomes, impact, and value creation relevance. Even though it was a demanding process in which we had to review all our activities in different perspectives, we realised that this was also a very valuable process to clarify and prioritise our goals. Since the beginning of our operations, we put special emphasis on keeping the records of not only all our activities, but also economic costs and benefits in details. Through the process of Integrated Reporting we have analysed all this data, reviewed our Impact Report and had an independent audit of not only our financials but also the data that formed the basis of our Impact Report.
It was “a team work” for us
When we decided to prepare our annual report according to the International <IR> Framework, we realised that the Framework itself was easy to adopt and sufficient to lead one to create a unique integrated report.
We got together all the team members to analyse each sector, related functions, and connections with our mission, vision, and strategy. This led us to question the interconnections through the ‘value creation process’ which consists of inputs, outputs, outcomes, and values created for all stakeholders at the end.
The reporting process enabled us as a team to internalise our business model and our philosophy better than ever. We are pleased to hear that our Integrated Report received attention from other institutions and encouraged them to go ahead with adopting the Framework.
By becoming a founding member of the “Integrated Reporting Turkish Network (ERTA)”, we feel responsible to disseminate our experience through training programs for corporate sector and NGOs.
Good Governance and Integrated Reporting
We strongly believe that Integrated Reporting is a powerful tool to improve transparency and governance in all kinds of institutions. We have demonstrated our commitment to this concept by promoting Integrated Reporting to become part of the C20 recommendations for G20 leaders as an invited member of the C20 Governance Working Group under the Turkish Presidency of G20 in 2015; by becoming a founding member of the “Integrated Reporting Turkish Network”; and by preparing our annual report for the first full year of our operation as an Integrated Report.
Integrated Reporting helps both internal and external stakeholders comprehend the mission, vision, and strategy of the organisation and improves their governance. Through Integrated Reporting, the institutions communicate with their stakeholders more transparently, increase the consistency of their activities, and by providing indicators about the effectiveness of their performance improve responsible and fair utilisation of resources. This in turn results in better deployment of their strategy and improve their accountability towards their stakeholders
We are proud to declare that the Academy is among one of the earliest non-profits in the world and the first Turkish institution to adopt the International <IR> Framework. We hope that our endeavor will serve as an example for other NGOs, and encourage them to experience the Integrated Reporting process.
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