NGO Management Lesson 3 NGO Strategy

NGO Strategy A need for NGO strategy Main Issues: In the past 10 years NGOs have contributed remarkably to development but at the global level it remains limited. Many small-scale successes have been achieved but systems and structures of the Governments that determine the distribution of power and resources within and between the societies remains largely unchanged. As a result, the impact of NGOs on the lives of the poor people is highly localized and often transitory.

A Need for NGO Strategy Main issues (Con’t) Government programs are often large in scale but limited in their impact Failure of the NGOs to make the right linkages between their work at micro-level and higher systems and structures of the governments therefore the successes of NGO projects remain “Islands of Success” Many NGO projects are small scale and never enough to secure lasting improvements of the lives of the poor people…

NGO Strategy 4 Approaches Scaling-up via working with the government Scaling-up via operational expansion Scaling-up via lobbying and advocacy Scaling-up via supporting local level initiative

Some Facts should be noted about the Government Government structures are hierarchical and autocratic. Power and control rest at the top level of the central government where they program and control over resources Governments have a natural tendency to centralization bureaucracy (red-tape) and control? Governments have authoritarian relationships with their citizens in terms of tax collection, law enforcement, protection of social order… Governments remain largely responsible for providing health, education, agriculture and other social services that people rely on.

Some facts (con’t) Many NGOs have ignored the government structures in their work by trying to work directly with the local people. But some of them have learned and realized that they should work with the government structures if they want to have an impact or change at various levels. International NGOs work actively with government institutions and ministries to promote changes in policies and practice. National NGOs take more active role in the political process and lower level of the government institutions.

Scaling-up via Working with the Government Aims to foster more appropriate and effective policies and practices carried out by civil servants and ensure that the governments at national adopt policies which will benefit and enable the poor people to control over their lives. The approach is to provide funds directly to the governments, policy advice, technical assistance (incl. volunteer) and a combination of these, a package of inputs... The approach is not an attempt to replace the government work but rather to influence the direction of the government policy or to support the existing policies. NGOs cannot seek to replace the state because they have no legitimacy, authority or sovereignty and importantly they are self-elected so they are not accountable?

Working with the Government (Con’t) Important points to be considered: NGOs should understand structures, systems and policies of government; Study programs and projects of the governments; Study constraints and difficulties of the government Commit to partnership with the governments for long periods of time Create good personalities and partnerships with individuals of the governments (e.g. observing conflict of interests, capacity building, multiplication at macro and micro level); Coalition and networking to combat with larger donors Sometimes, allowing government to take over credit of achievements.

Scaling-up via Operational Expansion This approach is to increase impact of the NGOs by expanding projects or programmes. The expansion can take several forms: Geographical – moving to new areas or countries Horizontal – adding additional sectoral activities to the existing programs Vertical – adding upstream or down stream activities to the existing programs Organizational Pluralism in service delivery creates choice and efficiency that can speed up the efforts for poverty alleviation.

Scaling-up via Lobbying and Advocacy Rationale to this approach: many causes of underdevelopment created by poor and inappropriate political and economic structures e.g. policies of the governments and other multilateral institutions such as WB, IMF and other major donor agencies. This approach aims to increase impact on the structures of the governments by individual NGO or joining together among NGOs as national and international level of efforts to lobby governments and bilateral and multilateral donor agencies to change their structures and policies in order to benefit the poor people and countries, e.g. campaign on protection of environment and natural resources, food aid, respect of human rights...

Lobbying and Advocacy (Con’t) Approach (continued): NGOs lobby donor agencies in terms of offer debt relief for poor countries, on structural adjustment (WB and IMF). Some NGOs contact key individuals within bilateral and multilateral agencies to learn more about the policies and have good relationships with them Many governments and donor agencies have seen the NGOs as implementers but not as partnership for policy dialogue. So, this approach also aims to strengthen the relationships between NGOs and donor agencies.

Scaling-up via Supporting Local Level Initiative The focus of the NGOs involve in supporting local initiative: awareness raising, building, group formation, leadership, training and management skills rather than the contents of programs and activities the local organization pursue. The aim is to empower people to have greater control over local and national decision making and resources. It also seeks to improve ability and right to define collective goals, make decisions and learn from experience. NGOs not to influence the CBO activities but play role as intermediary mixes catalysis with other programs.

Supporting Local Level Initiative (Con’t) The approach focuses on support to disadvantaged individuals to form into groups and organizations and join together to have influence on policies and politics at the national level. Another important aspect is to promote democracy at local level by combining voices of local people through their representatives at national level - many NGOs have claimed or considered themselves to represent the voice of the poor. This approach can also be used to promote accountability the government to the local people.

Remarks Scaling-up approaches aim to maximize the NGO impact and effectiveness. These approaches can be the best strategies for achieving the greater impact but it is necessary to be used and implemented with consensus where none exists.