Partners and accountability
We work through Partners:
We work alongside local organisations overseas, and only open local offices where that’s the best way to support them. We encourage partners to participate; after all, it’s their project. Instead of writing programmes for them, we work alongside them to write and deliver programmes together.
We offer financial and practical assistance to improve capacity and skills. We evaluate projects regularly to keep improving. We don’t dictate to our partners, but we promote our quality commitments and support their implementation. That could mean bringing several partners together to share learning and experiences, helping with funding applications, or providing financial management training.
Are you a CAFOD partner? Find information here.
We work through networks:
Working through Networks helps us access otherwise unreachable countries, provide efficient emergency response, and speak out as one voice for change.
As the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, we belong to the Caritas International (CI) Confederation which is made up of 162 Caritas members and is the third largest global humanitarian agency. CI is organised in 7 regions and CAFOD plays an active role in Caritas Europa.
We’re part of CIDSE
, a 16-strong Catholic development agency network and our Director Chris Bain is CIDSE’s current president.
We’re actively involved in HAP International (Humanitarian Accountability Partnership)
, CBHA (the Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies) and ALNAP (Learning, Accountability, and Performance in Humanitarian Action)
. Matthew Carter, the Head of CAFOD’s Humanitarian Department, is currently Chair of both HAP and CBHA.
We’re part of the Disasters and Emergencies Committee (DEC) - a fundraising and coordination network of the 14 leading UK humanitarian agencies who collaborate at times of major disaster to raise funds from the UK public. The DEC helps us save money by advertising our emergency appeals as one group. DEC appeals are publicised for free on TV and radio.
We’re part of several campaign networks, including Stop Climate Chaos and Crisis Action , and are members of ICVA (International Council of Voluntary Agencies) .
Our accountability
We work according to internationally agreed standards, principles and core partnership values.
Read CAFOD’s accountability and standards >>







