Annual Report

Accountability

VECO finds it important to be responsible, open and transparent towards all interested members, donors, government, public and private companies. It is for that reason that we want our communications and our reporting to satisfy the ever-increasing social expectations and questions of an ever increasingly demanding public. An annual report can no longer just be limited to compulsory financial reporting, a description of successful activities and achievements of the past year. In addition, information concerning "social governance", on own environmental care and impact, staff policy, volunteer activities... must be communicated.

Accountability is more than transparency. It is an active accounting that not only describes the successes but also the failures, and which explains how those successes and failures came about and what the organisation has learned out of it. In future, we want to report here on those in a more systematic manner.

Global Reporting Initiative

Sustainable development has always been high on VECO/Vredeseilanden's agenda, and as such, it is logical that we not only look to the immediate results of our programmes but also to the environmental and social aspects of our activities. Sustainable reporting maps out the economical, social and ecological results of an organisation or company.

Therefore we want to expand on this next year and harmonise with an external sustainability standard, such being the Global Reporting Initiative. The Global Reporting Initiative - GRI for short - has in the meantime grown to be a generally accepted system. A growing number of large companies and organisations throughout the world have committed themselves to reporting by following this framework.

We want to make, in the spring of 2009, a first reporting attempt for the year 2008, certainly in so far as the activities of the Head Office are concerned. Based on that exercise we will be able to fine tune the necessary systems, for the purpose of writing in 2010 a report for the year 2009 on the whole organisation which will merit the GRI label.

Questions?

Don’t hesitate to contact jo.vermeersch@vredeseilanden.be – ++32/16/31.65.80