The term CSOs or Civil Society Organizations lumps together NGOs, academic institutions, professional associations, cooperatives, federations, foundations. We learned the other day from the orientation given by the Department of Information and Local Government that the National Government would like CSOs to be in partnership with LGUs in carrying out development plans, programs and projects.
CSOs, particularly NGOs, have been in such partnership mode for the last three decades starting at the time when local development councils were formed at various levels and something like 30% of their membership will have to be allocated to representatives from the NGOs. The DILG staff during the orientation was focused understandably on discussing their programs and getting information from the CSOs about their organizational profiles and how best they could be partners in these programs.
Perhaps in the future DILG or the local government itself can focus specifically on the situation of the NGOs as development partners of the Government and see how the latter can help NGOs survive the hard times, which have been affecting them for almost two decades. During the orientation, Dr. Gloria Casabal of the University of Bohol Foundation raised the issue of resources as critical factor if we have to sustain NGO participation in government programs. I guess it is not an urgent problem with the rest of the CSOs such as professional associations and academic institutions.
It is interesting how the DILG focal point on CSOs replied to this concern. She said NGOs will always find the resources and that, in fact, Dr. Casabal is among the richest in Bohol and her family owns a University.
The matter was not pursued by DILG nor by the NGO representatives in the meeting. Again, this is understandable because the orientation was focused more on government programs rather than on listening to what NGOs have to say about their problems.
The situation is that in Bohol like in the other places, the NGOs have become a dying institution, always gasping for breath, bravely fighting for survival in a grant-weary environment. Globally, NGOs which depend exclusively on grants to sustain their operations, are getting extinct. In Bohol, how many of the 35 or so NGOs listed as members of the Bohol Association of NGOs (BANGON) some two decades ago are still around? And how about BANGON itself, supposed to be the coalition of NGOs mutually assisting each other to enhance further their role in development?
In recent years, the NGOs have to compete against each other to get donor assistance. They have to compete with the rest of the CSOs in fact to get noticed by donors and their projects funded. They find themselves competing even with the LGUs to get funding from donors. At one point, some NGOs claim, they had to compete against BANGON itself because the association had to raise funds to survive, too.
Most donors have increased the required counterparting from partners in the procurement of supplies and equipment, something like 20%. In one case, a donor has specified that an NGO should have 80% available funds that can be used for the project. Some donors have adopted the practice of requiring that beneficiary organizations spend first and the expenses reimbursed later which can take months. Donors in recent years have become too exacting in their requirements for NGOs to be extended funding support.
There has been no honest-to-goodness attempt to really assess the situation of the NGOs on the part of any Government agency or among the NGOs themselves. If we believe that NGOs have still a vital part to play in local development, we must first study a trend which has been going on for some time and assist them with much-needed resources to survive. Unfortunately, donors and their government counterparts always insist on sustainability as precondition for assistance rather than as outcome of a well-planned program designed to make NGOs achieve sustainability in their operations.
NGOs must take this problem by the horn and act decisively to avoid getting extinct in the near future.
CSOs, particularly NGOs, have been in such partnership mode for the last three decades starting at the time when local development councils were formed at various levels and something like 30% of their membership will have to be allocated to representatives from the NGOs. The DILG staff during the orientation was focused understandably on discussing their programs and getting information from the CSOs about their organizational profiles and how best they could be partners in these programs.
Perhaps in the future DILG or the local government itself can focus specifically on the situation of the NGOs as development partners of the Government and see how the latter can help NGOs survive the hard times, which have been affecting them for almost two decades. During the orientation, Dr. Gloria Casabal of the University of Bohol Foundation raised the issue of resources as critical factor if we have to sustain NGO participation in government programs. I guess it is not an urgent problem with the rest of the CSOs such as professional associations and academic institutions.
It is interesting how the DILG focal point on CSOs replied to this concern. She said NGOs will always find the resources and that, in fact, Dr. Casabal is among the richest in Bohol and her family owns a University.
The matter was not pursued by DILG nor by the NGO representatives in the meeting. Again, this is understandable because the orientation was focused more on government programs rather than on listening to what NGOs have to say about their problems.
The situation is that in Bohol like in the other places, the NGOs have become a dying institution, always gasping for breath, bravely fighting for survival in a grant-weary environment. Globally, NGOs which depend exclusively on grants to sustain their operations, are getting extinct. In Bohol, how many of the 35 or so NGOs listed as members of the Bohol Association of NGOs (BANGON) some two decades ago are still around? And how about BANGON itself, supposed to be the coalition of NGOs mutually assisting each other to enhance further their role in development?
In recent years, the NGOs have to compete against each other to get donor assistance. They have to compete with the rest of the CSOs in fact to get noticed by donors and their projects funded. They find themselves competing even with the LGUs to get funding from donors. At one point, some NGOs claim, they had to compete against BANGON itself because the association had to raise funds to survive, too.
Most donors have increased the required counterparting from partners in the procurement of supplies and equipment, something like 20%. In one case, a donor has specified that an NGO should have 80% available funds that can be used for the project. Some donors have adopted the practice of requiring that beneficiary organizations spend first and the expenses reimbursed later which can take months. Donors in recent years have become too exacting in their requirements for NGOs to be extended funding support.
There has been no honest-to-goodness attempt to really assess the situation of the NGOs on the part of any Government agency or among the NGOs themselves. If we believe that NGOs have still a vital part to play in local development, we must first study a trend which has been going on for some time and assist them with much-needed resources to survive. Unfortunately, donors and their government counterparts always insist on sustainability as precondition for assistance rather than as outcome of a well-planned program designed to make NGOs achieve sustainability in their operations.
NGOs must take this problem by the horn and act decisively to avoid getting extinct in the near future.
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