Responsible party

A social impact assessment is not a two-way conversation between an assessor and a charity. The workbook frames it as a three party relationship: the Social Impact Assessor, the responsible party and the intended users.

The responsible party is the person or persons of the social enterprise who are involved in implementing the social project. It is the side whose work is being assessed. It runs the project, holds the records and has to give the assessor access to them.

The responsible party does not have to be the one who hires the assessor. The workbook's example is a donor acting as the engaging party. Nor is the report written only for the responsible party. It can be one of the intended users, but not the only one.

In the sample report of Chapter 8, the responsible party signs up to a list of practical duties: keep processes audit ready, share information on time, stick to agreed timeframes, and work with the assessor to clear obstacles.

The five elements of an engagement (Chapter 5, 5.9):

1. Three party relationship: social impact assessor, responsible party, intended users
2. Social project / program / intervention scope
3. Social Project Monitoring Framework
4. Social Impact Assessment Evidence
5. Social Impact Assessment Report

The three parties (5.9.1):

The responsible party and the intended users may be from different entities or the same entity.

Under the SAS Framework (5.6). The framework is a frame of reference both for assessors and for the responsible party, engaging party and other stakeholders who are the intended users of the report.

What the responsible party agrees to (Chapter 8 sample report, Swagruha):

• ensure all key processes, systems, internal controls and supporting documentation affecting social impact assessment reporting are audit ready;
• maintain open communication and coordination;
• establish common expectations in writing;
• provide additional system and financial information within agreed timeframes;
• give access to subject matter experts or contractors;
• abide by the timeframes;
• work together to discover and correct audit impediments;
• establish a common, detailed understanding of how assurance will be obtained.

The report template puts these responsibilities, alongside the assessor's, in Section I (Context).

Based on the workbook's Chapter 8 Swagruha case. The ₹4.67 crore spend and family counts are the case's; the donor is illustrative.

The project. Swagruha, an NPO, ran Niwas, repairing the homes of 1,265 slum families in Mumbai from January 2019 to December 2022, and spent about ₹4.67 crore. That works out to roughly ₹36,900 per family (4.67 crore ÷ 1,265).

Mapping the three parties:

What goes wrong without the responsible party's cooperation. The assessor interviews 190 of the 1,265 families. Suppose Swagruha had not kept its beneficiary lists and progress reports audit ready. The assessor could not draw a proper random sample or check claims against records. That is why "ensuring documentation is audit ready" and "working together to correct audit impediments" appear in Swagruha's list.

Swagruha is an intended user too. But the report is not written for Swagruha alone, because the responsible party cannot be the only intended user.

Chapter 5 (10% weightage) defines the responsible party within the three party relationship (5.9.1), lists it among the five engagement elements and names it in the SAS Framework (5.6). Chapter 5's sample questions ask which concept the three party relationship is an element of (the social impact assessment engagement), and which party plans the assessment with professional scepticism (the assessor, not the responsible party). Chapter 8 (15%, the heaviest chapter) shows the responsible party's commitments in the Swagruha sample report.

• Responsible party ≠ engaging party, necessarily. The engaging party could be a donor. They may be the same, but need not be.
• Can be an intended user, but not the only one. "The report is prepared solely for the responsible party" is wrong.
• It implements; it does not assess. Planning and performing the assessment with professional scepticism is the assessor's job.
• Three parties, five elements. The three party relationship is one of the five elements of an engagement.
• Same entity is allowed. The responsible party and the intended users may come from the same entity or different entities.
• Chapter 8 calls it the "reporting entity". The template note on Section I speaks of the responsibilities of the reporting entity; in the Swagruha report that entity is labelled the Responsible Party.