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Social Auditing

A social audit is a way of measuring, understanding, reporting and ultimately improving an organization’s social and ethical performance. A social audit helps to narrow gaps between vision/goal and reality, between efficiency and effectiveness. It is a technique to understand, measure, verify, report on and to improve the social performance of the organization. Social audit is based on the principle that democratic local governance should be carried out, as far as possible, with the consent and understanding of all concerned. It is thus a process and not an event. Social auditing is taken up for the purpose of enhancing local governance, particularly for strengthening accountability and transparency in local bodies.
The key difference between development and social audit is that a social audit focuses on the neglected issue of social impacts, while a development audit has a broader focus including environment and economic issues, such as the efficiency of a project or programme. (http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/ad346e/ad346e09.htm)
The purpose of conducting Social Audit is not to find fault with the individual functionaries but to assess the performance in terms of social, environmental and community goals of the organisation. It is a way of measuring the extent to which an organisation lives up to the shared values and objectives it has committed itself to. It provides an assessment of the impact of an organisationʹs non‐financial objectives through systematic and regular monitoring, based on the views of its stakeholders. (http://www.idgnet.org/pdfs/Social%20Audit.pdf) (http://www.caledonia.org.uk/socialland/social.htm)

Social determinants of health

Social exclusion

A situation in which individuals are prevented from fully participating in society by factors such as age, poverty, disability or ethnicity.
Social exclusion refers to the multiple and changing factors resulting in people being excluded from the normal exchanges, practices and rights of modern society. Poverty is one of the most obvious factors, but social exclusion also refers to inadequate rights in housing, education, health and access to services. It affects individuals and groups, particularly in urban and rural areas, who are in some way subject to discrimination or segregation; and it emphasises the weaknesses in the social infrastructure and the risk of allowing a two-tier society to become established by default. (http://mcgraw-hill.co.uk/openup/chapters/0335204732.pdf)

Social isolation

A condition in which an individual has extremely limited social networks and supports.

Stakeholders

Stewardship

A function of government or other body responsible for the welfare of the population and concerned with the trust and legitimacy with which its activities are viewed by the population.