ICSI SAS – 10 Social Audit Standard on promoting livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of small and marginal farmers and workers in the non-farm sector
Applicability and Scope
This Social Audit Standard (‘the Standard’) is applicable to the Social Auditor as defined under sub-Regulation (f) of Regulation 292A of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018 conducting the Social Audit of the Social Enterprise as defined under sub-Regulation (h) of Regulation 292A of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018. This Standard deals with procedures, responsibilities and duties of the Auditor with respect to the Social Audit being conducted by him/ her of the Social Enterprises engaged in the activities prescribed under sub-regulation 2(a)(x) of Regulation 292E of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018.
Objective
ICSI Social Audit Standard – 10 (ICSI SAS-10) aims to aid the Social Auditor with necessary instructions or guidelines for the effective Social Audit of Social Enterprises engaged in the field of “promoting livelihoods for rural and urban poor including enhancing income of small and marginal farmers and workers in the non-farm sector”. Social Auditor shall follow the minimum criteria as specified in this proposed Social Audit Standard issued by the ICSI.
Effective Date
This Social Audit Standard will be in force with effect from –/–/20–.
Social Audit Process and Documentation
Social Auditor shall conduct the Social Audit in accordance with the procedures/ mandates established and notified by the ICSI from time to time. Social Auditors shall
perform their functions that provide sufficient and adequate evidence to support Social Audit. Social Auditor can acquire evidence for the effectiveness of Social Audit through inspection, observation, inquiry, consultation, interview, questionnaire, analytical procedures and/or other research techniques or any other acceptable methods as he/she deems fit. The procedures to be followed are as under:
I. Define Social Audit objectives and planning Social Audit;
II. Intimation to the Management of the Social Enterprise about the Audit Plan;
III. Identification of Stakeholders and consultation;
IV. Visit to/inspection of the area where project/activity was implemented;
V. Collection of data, Analysis and assessment;
VI. Reporting.
I. Define Social Audit objectives and planning Social Audit
The Social Auditor shall define the object and scope of the Social Audit prior to conducting Social Audit. It is always better to have a proper plan prior to Social Audit and it includes nature, timing and extent of the procedures and standards to be followed while conducting Social Audit. The Social Auditor should also analyse the report, recommendations of the previous Social Audit, if any, and review the corrective actions taken by the Social Enterprise with respect to the recommendations suggested in the previous Social Audit Report. This is the first stage of Social Audit process.
II. Intimation to the Management of the Social Enterprise about the Audit Plan
It is expected that the Social Auditor should intimate the audit plan to the Management of the Social Enterprise so that they can have the necessary documents and materials ready and available for the Auditor.
III. Identification of Stakeholders and Consultation
The key stakeholders who can be involved in the Social Audit process include project beneficiaries like small and marginal farmers, workers in non-farm sector, their families, officials of the local bodies, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), training agencies, recruitment bodies, media, etc. The consultation must be done with the stakeholders to extract accurate and needed information.
IV. Visit to / inspection of the area where project / activity was implemented
The Social Auditor must make it a point to visit / inspect the location and this will also give him / her better opportunities both for collection of data and consultation with the stakeholders.
V. Collection of data, analysis and assessment
This activity involves identifying key issues that need to be cross checked in the Social Audit as well as how information and data pertaining to the activity undertaken by the Social Enterprise will be collected. Moreover, in Social Audit process, two types of data are crucial. Primary data collected from stakeholders and community members, followed by Secondary data collected from various other sources. Gathering secondary information is very important in the process of Social Audit. Secondary data are inevitable for making Social Audit Reports. Information required for preparing Social Audit Reports may not be available in single point but may be in different records in different forms.
Social Auditor shall collect the relevant information through any of the following methods:
- Documents and records
- MSME scheme documents
- NABARD policy documents
- List of schemes by Deptt of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, GoI
- Questionnaires and surveys
- Interviews
- Observations
- Published data from authorized sources
Evaluation should be based on certain criteria and suggestive list of such criteria is provided hereinafter. However, the list is inclusive and not exhaustive and the Social Auditor must exercise his own discretion and judgement on case to case basis. Also, the feedback from stakeholders should be considered while preparing the Social Audit Report.
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Sl. |
Particulars |
| A. Promoting livelihoods for rural and urban poor | |
| 1 | Initiatives taken for ensuring minimum wages for rural and urban poor workers engaged in farming and non-farming activities. |
| 2 | Financial assistance provided to unorganized workers. |
| 3 | Initiatives taken for sustainable use of natural resources in a way that guarantees the quality of life of present and future generations of rural and urban poor workers. |
| 4 | Initiatives taken for minimising disguised and seasonal unemployment of rural and urban poor. |
| 5 | Initiatives taken for educating rural and urban poor and their children. |
| 6 | Initiatives taken for imparting skill to rural and urban poor youth. |
| 7 | Initiatives taken for improving rural infrastructure and public transport system in target area. |
| 8 | Initiatives taken to implement or assist in implementing novel rural development strategies like engaging multiple income sources and adopt a range of survival strategies (including various types of migration and straddling whereby some members stay in rural areas while others live semi-permanently in urban areas). |
| 9 | Initiatives taken to improve the agricultural practices (such as improved variety of high yielded seeds, mixed cropping, crop rotation, crop diversification, community farming, kitchen gardening,. etc) resulting in an increase in productivity of crops and thereby ensuring year-round food security and enhanced income. |
| 10 | Initiatives taken to empower women members to take a lead role in livelihood activities to assert their rights over productive assets and access inputs and services related to livelihoods from mainstream agencies. |
| 11 | Initiatives taken to create awareness among rural and urban poor regarding Government’s various social benefit schemes and improving their access to the schemes. |
| 12 | Initiatives taken and/ or assistance given to producer groups in agriculture, dairying and other areas of farming to upgrade technologies to improve the productivity and quality of their products, access market information, develop value chains, negotiate fairer terms of trade for their products and services, etc. |
| 13 | Initiatives taken to increase the access of MSMEs to financial services including affordable credit and their integration into value chain and market. |
| 14 | Initiatives taken to train and place rural and urban poor in domestic and multinational companies in high growth sectors such as fast moving consumable goods, manufacturing, construction, infrastructure, garment, marketing, etc. |
| 15 | Initiatives taken for imparting vocational training to women |
| 16 | Initiatives taken for creating job opportunities for women |
| 17 | Initiatives taken for developing entrepreneurial skill amongst beneficiaries |
| B. Enhancing income of small and marginal farmers and workers in the non-farm sector | |
| 1 | Assistance given for improving the productivity of agriculture sector through yield productivity, technical efficiency, production frontier, etc. |
| 2 | Initiatives taken for ensuring access to agricultural resources for people living in poverty, especially women and indigenous communities and promoting land tenure arrangements that recognize and protect indigenous and common property resource management systems. |
| 3 | Credit assistance provided for the rural poor to support sustainable agriculture and rural development. |
| 4 | Assistance given for storage and transportation facilities for perishable agricultural goods. |
| 5 | Financial assistance given for multi-tier cropping, bee-keeping, agricultural equipment functioning in green energy, solar energy production in non-cropping season. |
| 6 | Assistance given for access and use of mechanisation and automation in agricultural activities. |
| 7 | Initiatives taken for improving irrigation system, high quality seed stock, soil health practice, proper pest management. |
| 8 | Financial support given to help small and marginal farmers and workers in the non-farm sector by way of raising necessary funds through low-interest loans. |
| 9 | Assistance provided for promoting integrated farming system to counter the challenges of monsoon or unseasonal rain. |
| 10 | Initiatives taken for increasing public-private partnerships aimed at increasing agriculture production and food security. |
| 11 | Initiatives taken to create awareness about various crop insurance schemes available and help in getting the farmers’ crops insured |
| 12 | Creating awareness regarding various government schemes |
VI. Reporting
The Social Audit Report shall include information about the objective set out at the beginning of the Social Audit, methodologies adopted, observations, findings and recommendations if any. The Social Auditor shall also identify the challenges faced in implementation of the projects / activities and suggest areas for improvement based on observation, interview and feedback received from stakeholders. The Social Auditor shall also list out the limitations of the audit process which might include inability to identify all stakeholders, non-availability of proper response from stakeholders, lack of proper planning and implementation, faulty selection of beneficiaries due to political intervention and so on and point out the extent to which such limitations impact the Audit Report. The Report of Social Audit shall be as per the format notified by the ICSI from time to time.
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