Monday, 22nd September 2014
Lakshman I.Keerthisinghe LLB, LLM.MPhil, Attorney-at-Law
Cynic - A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. - Oscar Wilde – Lady Windermere’s Fan
Media reported that the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has urged the NGO community to discuss their issues rather than opting to internationalize them. The discussion during the meeting held between the Defence Secretary and the representatives from 11 NGOs engaged with CHOGM 2013 and the associated Commonwealth People’s Forum, had been based on the issuance of the NGO Secretariat circular and the new issues that have emerged following the government highlighting on the need for NGOs to work within their mandate.
The discussion moreover had also branched out into government surveillance of NGO activities, power devolution, issues on missing persons and the unwillingness of NGOs to dialogue with the government. The Defence Secretary had made several proposals in order to iron out differences that have arisen between the NGOs and the government.
Two decisions had been reached during the meeting which included regularizing meetings between the NGO Secretariat and the NGOs to collect relevant information and to solve issues and bringing the Defence Secretary into dialogue with those NGOs that are more strongly and openly critical of the government Among one such proposal had been for the NGOs to work closely with the NGO Secretariat liaison offices in district secretariats in order to resolve any problems that would be encountered in the field. He had also expressed his commitment to environmental protection and on the possible role that can be played by NGOs in working in the environmental sector.
A total of 11 NGOs had participated in the meeting with the Defence Secretary which included Colombo District Business Development Co-op Society, Maternity & Child Life Development Foundation, Eco friendly Volunteers (ECO-V),The Sarvodaya Movement, Seva Lanka Foundation, Vanni Cultural Fund, National Peace Council, Centre for Poverty Analysis, Oferr Ceylon, Manawa Shakthi Padanama and the Human Rights Organization of Sri Lanka and it had been facilitated by Dr. Lalith Chandradasa from the Presidential Secretariat.
A non-governmental organization (NGO) has been defined as any non-profit, voluntary citizens’ group which is organized on a local, national or international level. Task-oriented and driven by people with a common interest, NGOs perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions, bring citizen concerns to governments, advocate and monitor policies and encourage political participation through provision of information. Some are organized around specific issues, such as human rights, environment or health. They provide analysis and expertise, serve as early warning mechanisms and help monitor and implement international agreements. Their relationship with offices and agencies of the United Nations system differs depending on their goals, their venue and the mandate of a particular institution.
Civil society
The term “Civil society” is used to describe the broad range of organisations in society which fall outside government and which are not primarily motivated by profit. They include voluntary associations, women’s groups, trade unions, community groups, chambers of commerce, farming and housing cooperatives, religious or tribal-based groups, cultural groups, sports associations, academic and research institutions, consumer groups etc. As such, while NGOs are part of civil society, they do not constitute the totality of civil society. Civil society is a larger and more complex construct, within which is located NGOs as entities that in Sri Lanka command the most attention or derision.
According to Stirrat and Henkel there are approximately 20, 000 NGOs and grass roots organizations in Sri Lanka (Stirrat and Henkel, no date: 1). The NGO Commission Report (Report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry in Respect of Non-Governmental Organizations Functioning in Sri Lanka, 1993) estimated that in 1993 there were 3,000 NGOs in the country. Some analysts have categorized these NGOs as that of 3, 856 local NGOs and 47 foreign NGOs between the 1980s and 1995, 76 NGOs in the social welfare sector, 81 in the participatory development sector, 24 active in research, 26 involved in environment related issues and 32 working on human rights issues.
Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies has estimated that there are approximately 67 NGOs working in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka alone who have registered with the Consortium (1998). National Secretariat for Non Government Organizations has 1,428 registered NGOs according to their web site. This Secretariat established recent has as it objectives: the making of a conducive environment for national and international communities to contribute in the relief and development activities, coordinating the NGO sector; among NGOs, with the government sector institutions and, with the people who are in need of the services of the NGOs, ensuring that the NGOs conduct projects within the legal framework of the country and that the NGOs act within the national policy framework of the country.
Issues of transparency and accountability
These objectives must simultaneously co-exist within a vigorous debate on NGO activism that is founded on a shared appreciation of the roles that both NGOs and their detractors play in a democratic society. The argument here is not to suppress debate on NGOs, but to couch such commentary in a manner that helps those who locate themselves within NGOs to reform them from within. While it is a tragedy that maligning NGOs in Sri Lanka seems to be a pursuit in itself, it is possible that NGOs which creatively address such criticism can change the tenor of the present debate into one that is more conducive for the exchange of ideas that at the end of day would help all Sri Lankans to enjoy the benefits of a just, peaceful and democratic society.
This endeavour is critical because NGOs exist in a symbiotic relationship with their constituencies. NGOs cannot assume, even though it may be the ideal that they work towards, that social empowerment can be conflated with unqualified support for NGOs in the light of increasing attacks on their activities. NGOs must and should deal with criticism leveled against them. The essential fragility of NGO interventions in the light of growing extremism and intolerance is becoming far too evident. NGOs need to develop ways in which they engage with such criticism head-on. It is only in the continuous process of dialogue with its harshest critics that NGOs can hope to maintain a semblance of credibility in the eyes of these critics.
Issues of transparency and accountability are at the core of much criticism leveled against NGOs. Given the vast sums of money that are involved, it is not unfair to request ways in which NGOs open up, where they should subject their on-going interventions to public scrutiny. NGOs should not create dependencies.
Peace building is about a committed and sincere attempt to assist the motherland, which requires the transfer of knowledge to local actors in order to eschew the creation of new dependencies which may create new fault-lines between and within communities. There is also the need to build systems and social networks that function long after donor aid has dried up. Serious internal discussions need to take place on the foci, scope and strategic engagements that NGOs undertake in pursuit of their ideals..Internal debate on the propriety of handling finances and management needs to be exercised by the management levels of NGOs, but need to involve all levels in order for such debates to be sustainable.
A fundamental problem with NGOs is that across the spectrum, their impact in shaping the mindset of the masses is limited by their ineffective engagement with the mainstream media. This is primarily due to inadequate training on how best to use mainstream media for advocacy purposes.
Many Sri Lankan NGOs fail to publicize their activities and circulate their ideas in the media to incorporate the values they promote into the political arena. They are unable to inform and shape public opinion, clearly picture the situation of the on-going reconciliation process, and fully address the concerns of the public regarding the that process.
To this end, NGOs clearly need to build capacities to effectively formulate messages and utilize the mainstream media to disseminate policy alternatives that advocate in favour of peace, stability, and mutual understanding within the Sri Lankan society. It is expected that this results in a more informed and participatory polity and society engaged in vigorous debates, conscious and respectful of common interests, values and cultures, and eager to contribute to the development of Sri Lanka.
Many NGOs do not publish details of projects and interventions. It is a challenge to even get them to exchange information between themselves, because of an incredible culture of secrecy that pervades organisational activities. It is therefore hypocritical to promote and worse, criticise a lack of values that many NGOs themselves do not abide by. It is unfortunate that even when the resources exist, NGOs and international financial institutions and donors are no exception to this, as they do not like to exchange information on programming and interventions in similar focus areas and geographical contexts.
Publicising project outcomes, creating direct linkages between media and communities who have benefited from projects that have built local capacities, publishing project details, outcomes and any related material (ideally, in Sinhala and Tamil as well as in English), a short write up in the provincial edition of newspapers, posting relevant material on-demand to those who request it etc., can help in creating frameworks that are more open to the rigour of constructive investigation and resilient to probative inquiries on the accountability and transparency of such interventions.
Donors need to support measures through which NGOs become more responsive to the demands for accountability placed on them. Such frameworks require human resources, expertise in the design of effective frameworks and sustainable funding to ensure the continuity of such engagements. Donors must also encourage and fund processes through which NGOs are required to undertake self-assessment on a regular basis and that the reflections and findings of such self-assessments are mainstreamed into on-going and planned interventions.
Ill-fitting Western models and a donor driven agenda
Many NGOs, even those based in Colombo, don’t have the capacity to conduct such vigorous self-assessments without donor support – despite perceptions to the contrary. It is imperative that support mechanisms that proactively engage with key concerns raised on the role and nature of NGO activism are helped about by donor commitments to such processes. In order to counter allegations of partisan bias and the perceptions of duplicity, NGOs need to re-examine the matrix of engagements with socio-political actors in Sri Lanka and the manner in which they are conducted. Nation building requires that consciousness of the responsibilities of creating and sustaining such commitments prevails. NGOs activities must be prefaced by a sincere commitment to build organic capacities, recognising the primacy that needs to be given to the local ownership of processes as opposed to ill-fitting Western models and a donor driven agenda.
The danger of acquiescing to such Western agendas that are discordant with building local capacities is that it creates in the minds of those who most desperately need assistance the impression that one is only trying to help for parochial or mercenary gain, instead of a deep seated commitment to help the community stand on its own feet. What is required are dialogues that support progressive reformist tendencies in NGOs, while at the same time exploring ways in which such reform can take place in the eyes of those who are outside of NGOs frameworks. To this end as the Defence Secretary has suggested that the NGOs ought to commence a dialogue with the NGO Secretariat liaison offices in district secretariats in order to resolve any problems that would be encountered in the field, while expressing his commitment to environmental protection and on the possible role that can be played by NGOs in working in the environmental sector.
In conclusion, it must be stated that the NGOs in Sri Lanka can play a positive constructive role in assisting the government in its infrastructure development and social welfare activities as well as environmental protection for the betterment of our Nation thereby refraining from the negative destructive approach of criticizing and destroying Sri Lanka’s image in the international arena. As Oscar Wilde said a cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
From : http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=features/ngos-cannot-be-wild-ass-clubs
