Accountability as a mechanism for transparency, sustainability and legitimacy: case study "FUSAL"

Abstract

This article focuses on a case study that analyses how the Fundación Salvadoreña para la Salud y el Desarrollo Humano (FUSAL) implements actions aimed at disseminating information on its various development interventions, and how these practices provide it with essential characteristics that guarantee its permanence in Salvadoran society, that is, transparency, sustainability in financial terms, and legitimacy. For this purpose, qualitative research has been carried out, with a descriptive scope, in which the semi-structured interview instrument was applied at both the individual and focus group levels, where the interviewees met a series of criteria for their selection. Likewise, the process of documentary review on the subject enriched not only the content of the study, but also contributed to the elaboration of the data collection instrument. The findings show that its different accountability mechanisms, ranging from auditing processes to reporting, have allowed it to develop a deep-rooted culture of accountability in which it is constantly working to strengthen its institutional capacity, giving it the credibility to receive various sources of funding, based on its capacity for transparency, which in turn gives it financial sustainability and legitimacy. It is clear that for an adequate accountability process to exist, organisations must provide information in three directions on the activities within the framework of their interventions, as doing so places them in the national and international limelight as agents of change that govern their actions based on transparency and good practices.