Accountability

  • Board of Directors: WorldLoop is governed by an independent Board of Directors and their primary function is to give advice and make recommendations to the Managing Director about policies, strategies, allocation of resources and legislative arrangements. In addition, this board is responsible for giving its formal approval to major strategic and organisational decisions taken within WorldLoop.
  • Communication: Having a well-developed and open communication strategy – both in the short and the long term – is vital to an organisation like WorldLoop. Therefore, a traceable communication path has been established to ensure the organisation’s transparency. This is done by providing information about every part of WorldLoop’s operations. In practice, this means that all communication matters are handled in a manner to make sure that all relevant information about projects executed, partnerships and other facts are accessible through WorldLoop’s website, newsletters and other communication media.
  • External audit: Since transparency is a key component of a healthy organisation, WorldLoop is audited on a yearly basis by Grant Thornton Bedrijfsrevisoren – Réviseurs d’entreprises CVBA – SCRL Belgium (previously known as PKF Business Advisors Belgium). The audit is conducted in accordance with legal and statutory requirements and provides assurance that the financial statements are free of material misstatement. The audit process includes measuring the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by the management, as well as evaluation of the overall financial statements. This allows the organisation to better inform the public about how resources have been used.
  • Financial report: WorldLoop has financial transparency in its management in order to be able to account at any given moment for the use of the funds assigned to the organisation, whether by third parties, companies, private individuals or public authorities.By actively fundraising for financial and in-kind contributions, WorldLoop can guarantee its existence as a financially self-supporting organisation and remain fully focused on its core activities, namely helping organisations in developing countries to change the e-waste cycle. WorldLoop is not funded by public authorities and therefore focusses on Corporate Social Responsibility partnerships with corporations and civil society organisations and associations. The governments in all the different countries and regions where WorldLoop is working, are important stakeholders for WorldLoop and therefore transparency is key to engage with governments, as well with all other stakeholders. WorldLoop is a non-profit organisation mainly funded by financial donations from companies and civil society organisations and associations. To a lesser extent, WorldLoop is aiming to generate income from ‘income generating activities’ in line with our not-for-profit goal and mission (e.g. facilitating collection, transport and export/import of hazardous e-waste fractions from our non-profit member organizations in developing countries). Part of this income is contributing to WorldLoop’s operational and administrative costs. In its e-Resource certificate programme, an overhead percentage is deducted from funds raised to cover for the costs of project management (e.g. follow-up visits) and quality assurance (e.g. project audits).The use of funds by WorldLoop is monitored through external (Grant Thornton) and internal (Deloitte) audits, ensuring a transparent use of the funds, as well as a correct reporting towards sponsors. The use of project funds by WorldLoop member organizations is monitored by financial audits, commissioned by WorldLoop and performed by international audit firms (e.g. PKF Africa). Project funds are used to support e-waste projects in developing countries where there is a clear need for e-waste solutions but where no (or very small) budgets are available to pay for the out-of-pocket expenses to start up, grow and become self-sustaining over time. In this way, WorldLoop is one of the organisations able to provide member organizations in developing countries with co-funding, as well as invest in innovative solutions with its partners to tackle the e-waste challenge effectively. In order to keep its administrative overheadcosts as low as possible, WorldLoop mainly relies on in-kind contributions for most of its activities. The Board of Directors guarantees that all donations to WorldLoop projects are handled in a professional manner and are completely free of profit.
  • Internal audit: WorldLoop wants to be a reliable partner for its sponsors and partners at all times. In order to ensure the transparent and professional use of funds, Deloitte supports WorldLoop with internal audits, risk management and legal support, as well as by providing Deloitte experts to carry out all the accounting. Most recently, Deloitte has been involved in the development of a reporting and monitoring framework for WorldLoop member organizations.
  • Managing Director: The Board of Directors has entrusted the daily management to Olivier Vanden Eynde, founder of the organisation, by means of a management agreement. Two members of the Board of Directors hold an annual evaluation session with the Managing Director as part of an ongoing, collaborative inquiry to explore the daily functioning of the Managing Director.
  • Member Organization: An individual or organization participating in the WorldLoop network, receiving WorldLoop financial and/or consulting support in exchange for transparency and compliance to WorldLoop standards.
  • Project Management: The entire process of transparency is further strengthened by WorldLoop’s project management cycle. This process involves (i) project selection based on an operational plan screening and clearly defined selection criteria, (ii) a pilot based and gradual growth approach to e-waste projects, (iii) continuous monitoring of project progress through regular reporting by member organizations, (iv) periodic evaluation of pilot projects and new strategies, (v) providing a full range of support services to member organizations, including seed funding support, technical assistance and e-waste fraction disposal support.The two guiding principles are self-sustainability of the e-waste project over time and the concept of local ownership by independent entrepreneurs in developing countries. This means that all projects must have a reasonable chance of becoming fully self-sustaining over a period of 3-5 years time, and that WorldLoop members are ultimately responsible for the success of their enterprise. WorldLoop’s role in projects is to act as an incubator, providing local social entrepreneurs with all necessary support to succeed.
  • Risk management: For WorldLoop, it is important to focus its programmes on long-term goals, since e-waste will not disappear in a day. This means it is important to build in financial assurance. The organisation manages financial risks through a policy of spreading income. Income is obtained from multiple sources, including individual sponsors, donationsfrom strategic partners and self-generated income out of not-for-profit activities.
  • Social entrepreneurship: In the rapidly developing non-profit world, it is important for an organisation to become self-sufficient rather than having to depend entirely or partly on contributions or subsidies. WorldLoop is aware of this and therefore operates as a social enterprise, combining the passion of a social, philanthropic mission with the very best of the for-profit enterprising world. It is, however, important to mention that WorldLoop’s social and environmental mission will always be central to all its activities.
  • Strategic partner: An organization that supports WorldLoop by offering in-kind support (operational, professional services or knowledge) that is closely aligned with the core business of the strategic partner.