Lack of accountability is when we fail to accept our own shortcomings and mistakes. This can take the form of an outright rejection of them, or it can be an unwillingness to change. Accountability means that when we make mistakes, we want to know it and to fix them. This requires a willingness and the capacity to learn from the mistakes. Believing we have the capacity to act is also a form of accountability. Accountability is essential to learning.
Powerlessness and lack of Accountability
Choosing to not exert our considerable power and pushing responsibility for effort outward and away from ourselves sends a message of sloth, irresponsibility, and non-accountability.
Setbacks are never pleasant. It is easier to avoid accountability and let someone else deal with the problem. Sometimes we do not have, or do not exert, the energy to figure out why things went wrong and what would be a possible solution. Often, if we do try to do so, we do so in isolation rather than in respectful listening to the people with whom we work. We try to run from mistakes, rather than to engage with others to learn more through them.
We frequently hear interveners say:
- “I can’t do anything about that.”
- “That’s the donor’s/my HQ’s/the fighters’ fault.”
- “My impact is so small, I can’t be responsible for anything.”
Fighters and those inciting conflict want us to believe we are powerless. They would like nothing more than that we acquiesce to the environment they create.
Often, local people also push responsibility away. They too say they feel powerless and expect change to happen, if it happens, as a result of someone else’s actions. If interveners claim powerlessness, we are reinforcing the sense that local people are also powerless.
We claim to be “change agents”. Accountability requires that we accept our own claim and truly assess and take responsibility for the impacts we have, positive and negative, and the intended impacts that we fail to achieve.
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