Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor and former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim has been appointed president of international think-tank AccountAbility.

In a statement today, PKR said the appointment took effect on March 30.

In his opening speech, Anwar pointed out that accountability deficits are creating social, environmental and economic problems which affect all walks of life at present and the future.

"There is no obvious island of integrity from which to point the finger. Governments, businesses and civil society in every part of the globe face profound challengers in meeting their obligations.

"There is much work to be done to move these agents beyond mere rhetoric to becoming truly accountable for their part in addressing issues such as poverty, governance, environmental insecurity," he said.

Intertwined interests

He said while there are many blueprints for a better world, it is in practice immensely difficult to operationalise the concepts and ideals that will ensure those with power are effectively held to account by those without.

"Conflicting, overlapping and intertwined interests have outwitted most of our 20th century attempts to build successful approaches to the challenges of public, private and non-profit sector governance.

"Paradoxically, the proliferation of NGOs around the world is as much a sign of the failure of many of our modern governance institutions as it is an exciting development in how we manage our affairs," he added.

Innovating our vision and practice of accountability is perhaps our greatest challenge and most pressing need, noted Anwar.

"There are literally millions of agents of accountability, spanning auditors to human rights activists, whose daily work it to advance some form of accountability.

" Sadly the work of many accountability agents does not serve the broader needs of people and the planet, but rather supports and protects narrow interests," he said.

Often compartmentalised

Even where it does seek to serve a wider purpose, he said accountability is too often compartmentalised by issue, such as anti-corruption, climate change and labour standards.

"As a result, we fail to cross-fertilize effectively and so fail to reach a scale of impact that can make a real difference.

"Our task must be to catalyze and advance innovation and learning that inform a new generation of accountability practice," he added.

Anwar said accountability innovations that could be effective in addressing shared dilemmas and challenges must be identified and amplified.

There is also need to challenge existing accountability pathways that do not work or are aligned towards the wrong interests and ends, he added.

"Accountability after all must exist to civilize power and must always look introspectively as much as it projects," he stressed.

AccountAbility is a UK-based organisation established in 1995.