Is the NGO good or bad? Who knows?
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Dear Colleagues
I have been seeing more and more references to NGOs that seem to
be in the fund raising business, and not the program delivery
business. This is not a good sign. I have stories from Africa,
South Asia and Latin America. The following is an indicator of
the issue:
>>>>> Gisele is sceptical too about the help she and others can
hope for from the associations battling HIV/AIDS. "I went to see
them too. They wrote my name down on a list and made promises
they never kept. Most of these associations were set up to make
a living for the people who run them" she said. >>>>>>
This is one of the transparency and accountability (Tr-Ac) is-
sues that the transparency and accountability network (Tr-Ac-
Net) is being organized to address. This is not a simple issue,
but it is an important issue. A good organization that has no
money may have to disappoint Gisele. Or a bad organization, may
just have spent the money inappropriately.
And indeed decision making at the highest levels may also be the
problem. Where was the big money used? An important question,
and not easy to get an answer quickly.
If you have stories... good and bad... please send them to me.
It will help accelerate Tr-Ac-Net's work
Peter Burgess
CCSD Foundation / C-WISP / Tr-Ac-Net in New York
Tel: +1-212-772-6918
mailto:peterb@afrifund.com
mailto:tracnet@gmail.com
http://www.afrifund.com
http://TDUD.blogspot.com
http://taame.blogspot.com
http://CCSDinNY.blogspot.com
http://Tr-Ac-Net.blogspot.com
http://CCSD-WISP.blogspot.com
http://CCSD-ICT.blogspot.com
http://CCSD-Issues.blogspot.com
Is the NGO good or bad? Who knows? (2)
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Dear Peter Burgess,
Thank you for your mail about NGOs concentrating on raising
funds than concentrating on service delivery. The answer is very
simple, if you have ever run a NGO in Africa or East Asia you
would not make such a misleading statement. How would you expect
a NGO to deliver services without funds? How would you meet the
logistic needs for the NGO in the process of service delivery? I
can mention a few items here:-
a. Transport in service delivery
b. Communication
c. Salaries
d. Rent
e. Allowances
f. Training Materials in case of HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns
g. Stationery... and the list is endless.
What mechanism have you used to find out that NGOs are not de-
livering services? If NGOs cannot raise funds why does Afri-Fund
exist? I think you desire to be sacked. True there are NGOs who
have mismanaged donor funds but this equally appears in western
world. We have read of a lot of financial scandals involving
billions of US Dollars in western countries. Similarly, I have
worked with various whites in different projects and agencies,
whites donate money but eventually this money goes back in dubi-
ous ways.
Albert Kunihira
Country Director & Peace Ambassador
The Africa Youth Ministries Uganda
P.O. Box 20029
Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256-71-200009/75-200009 39-200009
Fax: +256-41-251060
mailto:Admin@aymu.org or
mailto:Albert@aymu.org
http://www.aymu.org
Is the NGO good or bad? Who knows? (3)
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Can we please avoid making sweeping stereotypical generalisa-
tions on all sides of the debate? I find these remarks highly
offensive. I have no doubt that others do too. There is surely a
more civil way in which to conduct a discussion between profes-
sional people.
Brendan Girdler-Brown
South Africa
Tel: +27-11-477-7865
Fax: +27-11-477-0143
mailto:hsct@icon.co.za
Is the NGO good or bad? Who knows? (4)
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I am of the same opinion as Mr. Girdler-Brown. Yet, Mr. Burgess
does raise a critical issue on transparency and accountability
on NGOs but asks for help in getting "stories". Mr. Kunihira
asks us to move away from "gathering stories" to finding actual
fact and I propose this to be done as follows:
The first discussion should be on accountability and transpar-
ency within NGOs:
(a) The first issue to find out is what caused NGOs to appear to
lack transparency and accountability. Could the issue be his-
torical? How did NGOs rise and spread in Africa?
(b) When we talk about transparency and accountability - we need
to understand that to an extent, these are value laden terms. So
what do we mean by transparency and accountability, generally
and within NGOs? Then discuss whether or not NGOs can be trans-
parent and accountable and how we can determine this. When we
talk about these terms, are we looking at rations - i.e. the
amount of money that goes to program work via-a-vis NGO over-
heads? Do we want a transparency international for NGOs?
The second area concerns the following:
(a) Just what is the role of NGOs in service delivery? What do
we mean by service delivery? Are NGOs a better method of deliv-
ering services in Africa compared to others? Are we talking
about western NGOs which have branches in Africa, African cre-
ated NGOs, or both?
(b) Are there other methods of service delivery? If so, why have
these been "neglected" and the focus placed on NGOs? How do we
go about improving them? If not, what are the problems and how
can these be resolved? Are they external or internal to Africa?
(c) Are there studies of NGOs in Africa that do a good job? What
lessons should we learn from these?
Maybe this can bring the discussion back to focus.
Patrick Mbindyo
Kenya
mailto:pmbindyo@magricon.com