NGO’S Role in
Developing Countries
- Muhammad Rasheed
- Asif Maqbool
- Naeem Qasim
In Pakistan ,
NGOs are a relatively new phenomenon. The term is usually applied to
organizations engaged in social uplift activities of some sort, and especially
the provision of services traditionally considered to be a part of the
government's preserve. NGOs have asserted themselves as a third party in the
traditional relationship between the State and civilian society, where the
latter is represented by political parties. The growing recognition of the
effectiveness of NGOs in micro-level development has enabled them over the
years to advocate an alternative development strategy. Korten (1989)
distinguishes between four generations of NGOs which have been involved
in:
- Relief and welfare;
- Small-scale, self-reliant local development;
- Sustainable systems development;
- Information and networking for people's empowerment.
The success of NGOs depended in the existence of what
Rumansara (1990) called "the political space", i.e., the social space
in which people are given more opportunity to take part in the decision-making
process and are no more longer dominated by bureaucrats, the State or the
ruling regime. In areas where such possibilities exist, NGOs can acquire the
ability to influence policy formulation and reform. There are two main paths
through which that can be done: either in a participatory role by replicating
more widely the experience of successful programmes at the micro-level, or in
an advocacy role by influencing those in authority to make macro decisions.
NGOs can provide an important
supplement to the public sector at low cost, extend the outreach of government
services and amplify the coverage of, for example, agricultural extension
services. SRSC and the Aga Khan
Rural Support Programme are good examples in that regard. NGOs have
collaborated with the government in preparing the NCS, collected and provided
micro-level information to the government and multilateral agencies, and
entered into negotiations with the government and with NGOs of the developed
countries over the issues that divide North and South. Therefore NGOs are
becoming an important force which the government must take into full
account.
NWFP is characterized by tribal
and feudal norms and traditions. Before British rule and independence, self-help
and mutual cooperation were the only ways to endure life in an area with tough
physical environmental conditions and little means of communication. Land and
other natural resources were the only means of subsistence, complemented with
modest internal and external trade. The people had to cooperate in digging
irrigation channels and logging the forests. Social life was also centred
around the community rather then the individual. Weddings, funerals and other
festivals were occasions when the entire community pooled its resources in
participation. Agricultural and forestry were also community activities,
irrespective of ownership status. The management of common resources was also
undertaken by the community itself. Even dealing with cases where rules were
violated was a community effort; for example, in Chitral a man caught felling a
tree without prior permission would have been punished by having to sacrifice a
goat or other animal which would be eaten by the rest of the village. It was
only with the occupation of the subcontinent by the British in the eighteenth
century that led to the government assuming a paternalistic role, resulting in
increased dependency on the State.
That situation continued after
the creation of Pakistan
in 1947. Bureaucratic control over public funds for development made them
vulnerable to abuse and caused an inequitable distribution of benefits.
Together with political instability and fragmented policies, the situation
resulted in the erosion of public trust in State mechanisms and increasing
corruption. The quality of life and the provision of basic services to the
general public remained questionable. Consequently, there was a renewed
interest in self-help initiatives in sustainable development with the help of
NGOs, community-based
organizations (CBOs), village
organizations (VOs) and other private sector organizations.
Joint communal work is now
taking on new shapes as a result of the influence of external factors. The
motivation of receiving funds from the donors and aid-giving agencies is an
important factor for in the formation of NGOs/CBOs for community work. Those
NGOs and societies have to register under a variety of laws such as: the Companies Ordinance, 1984, section 42; the Society Registration Act, 1860; the Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies
Act, 1961; the Trust Act, 1882; and the Charitable Endowment Act, 1890; the Provincial Water Users
Association Ordinance and Cooperative
Societies Act, 1925 (Provincial National
Conservation Strategy, 1991). The registration of NGOs, CBOs and VOs under any
of the above laws is done at the provincial level.
Community participation in NWFP
began in the 1980s when forestry and integrated development projects helped to
organize village groups that would play a role in meeting project development
goals. At present, in NWFP several such programmes and projects exist which are
operating through community organizations, either by helping to create new
projects or reactivate existing ones. The CBOs and VOs are playing a
significant role in the successful implementation of those programmes and
projects. NGOs formed in 1990s also work with CBOs and VOs, and play an
important role in their respective fields. They are catalysts for change and
are a source of empowerment for the local communities. They are very effective
in advocacy, awareness raising and the highlighting of human rights issues. In
addition, they sometimes act as a check on ill-conceived government policies.
The most important international, national and local NGOs working in NWFP
include:.
- IUCN, which is working for advocacy, environmental
conservation and development;
- The World Wildlife Fund, which is working in the
field of wildlife, national parks and protected areas;
- The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, which working
in Chitral and northern areas of
- The Sarhad
Rural Support Corporation (SRSC) working in Charsadda, Kohat, Karak,
Mansehra Abbottabad and Haripur districts in the field of agriculture,
health, institution building, welfare and women in development;
- Khwendo Kor, working in Nowshera,
- The Pak-German Integrated
Rural Development Project, which is working in Mardan and Swabi on
integrated development;
- The Sungi
Development Foundation, which is working in Abbottabad, Haripur, Manshera
and Battagram on integrated development;
- Ghazi-Barotha
Traqeiyati Idara, which is working in the Ghazi, Swabi and Attock areas on
advocacy, resettlement and development for the Ghazi-Barotha Project;
- The Pakistan Environmental
Protection Foundation, which is working on awareness raising, sanitation
and afforestation;
- Action Aid, which is working in
Kalinger/Haripur in the field of rural development;
- The Aurat
Foundation, which is working throughout the whole province in the fields
of women in development and related issues;
- The Human Resource
Management and Development Centre, which is operating in
- The Shewa Educated Social
Welfare Association, which is working in Swabi on integrated development;
- The Da Lass
Gul Welfare Programme, which is working in
- The Gunyar
youth welfare organization, which is working for the improvement of the
local environment in the villages of Swat District.
Weaknesses and problems of non-governmental
organizations
NGOs are not yet fully mature
and suffer from a lack of clarity in their mission and objectives, which leads
to them working in too many different fields. Some also experience difficulties
in getting donor support. In NWFP the NGOs are predominantly donor-dependent,
and most of them lack experienced and skilled managers mainly because of a lack
of funds. Therefore, a strategy is needed to outline the ways and means through
which the NGOs and CBOs/VOs can play their part in the sustainable development
of the province. The strategy will become an integral part of SPCS and hence
will provide a platform for the NGOs, CBOs and VOs to become a part of the
overall development process in NWFP. To date, the Social Welfare Department is
the only government department providing support to NGOs, mostly in the form of
small grants. The limited funds, bureaucratic procedures and lack of
institutional capacity at the field level has rendered the service by the
Department virtually ineffective. Even if it worked, it would naturally focus
on social welfare problems with little or no attention being paid to
environmental and development issues. SPCS has co-facilitated the development
of an alliance among NGOs in NWFP, called the Sarhad NGOs Ittehad, which is an
important step toward NGO networking. SPCS envisages support for its
replication at the local level. That will increase their role in networking and
public decision-making.
Background:Pakistan
Program Goals and Tasks
The goal of this program
is to move toward poverty eradication and promote sustainable development in Pakistan by
building civil society's capacity to create structural conditions for
democratic development and good governance.
The task is to initiate
participatory development approaches where people assume the central position
at all levels in development projects, as an alternative to the top-down social
welfare and charity approaches.
The participatory development
or empowerment approach focuses on building the capacities of civil society
communities to serve their own needs. It has been successfully used in projects
such as the internationally renowned Orangi Pilot Project in
Karachi. The brainchild of Dr. Aktar Hameed Khan, this community
development program allowed communities in the urban slums to overcome problems
of sanitation, housing, health, education and employment.
SAP Pakistan wants to help build a
democratic society which includes the marginalized and the vulnerable in
informing public policy. The Canadian
International Development Agency and South Asia Partnership Canada began a
partnership 15 years ago and result in the creation of South Asia Partnership
Pakistan, an independent non-government organization in Pakistan that
"trains the trainers" with an array of civil society organizations.
South Asia Partnership Pakistan today has a network of over 2,000 community-based
organizations involved in political education for a democratic society that
respects human rights and gender equity. This program benefits participating
communities by helping them become capable of planning and implementing
sustainable development initiatives and accessing necessary resources.
Supporting Pakistan NGOs: Phase One
Registered in 1989, SAP Pakistan
arrived in the wake of General Zia-ul-Haq's military dictatorship and into a
fragile democracy. For 11 years, the dictatorship had shrunk institutions,
suspended democratic discourse, seen the emergence of fundamentalist forces in
the country, and left Pakistan
civil society in a state of total disarray.
When the program began, the goal
was to improve the quality of life of the poorest segments of the population by
funding community-based projects. As SAP Pakistan learned more about the
nature of local non-governmental and community-based organisations (CBOs), it
was evident that most of these organisations were still in their formative
phase. Few had sufficient institutional capacity to plan and undertake viable
community development projects and they needed help in developing their
capabilities in project planning and management. So SAP Pakistan
adapted to this need.
Consequently, in 1991, SAP Pakistan
revised its program strategy and shifted its focus from a project funding to a
capacity-building organisation dedicated to promoting democracy, equality,
social justice and tolerance in society. The ultimate goal was to strengthen
the capacities of these fledgling organizations to become catalysts for
sustainable and democratic development in their communities and advocates for
supportive policies and programs. The new approach emphasised training, the
formation of networks and partnerships, and the implementation of long-term
community organisations. SAP Pakistan
designed its Resource Development Program to create a strong body of activists
drawn from their local communities and committed to participatory development
methods.
A strong emphasis was placed on
increasing community understanding of issues affecting people's lives, SAP Pakistan
started to promote social activism by linking micro development issues with
macro development problems. Linking poverty to human rights, democratisation,
and good governance became part of a myriad of challenges in strengthening
civil society.
When the Government of Pakistan
launched the Social Action
Program in 1993, which acknowledged the need to transfer responsibility for
development initiatives to local NGOs/CBOs, SAP Pakistan was poised to fill
some of this gap as historically, Pakistan did not had a network of mature
NGOs/CBOs with the ability to design and implement strong development projects
in the social sector.
Supporting Pakistan 's NGOs: Phase Two
In Phase Two of the program,
from 1995 to 2003, SAP Pakistan
delivers an integrated program of capacity building support to organizations
through training, project partnership and advocacy.
- A 12 month training program provides NGOs/CBOs with a theoretical orientation of civil society and alternative development participatory processes, including workshops in gender and development, human resource development and financial management.
- It implements targeted community development projects (link to
projects) with CBOs/NGOs in
- Fostering CBO/NGO networking and collaboration, and linking these organisations to government and advocacy organizations.
- Developing provincial and national networks capable of training additional organisations and communities has created a multiplier effect.
This program has provided the
platform for SAP Pakistan
to become a respected leader in the NGO community, particularly in terms of
mobilizing the country's first national NGO network, the NGO Forum, and its
engagement in dialogue and advocacy with the Government of Pakistan on policy
and legislation issues.
SAP Pakistan actively and strategically
promotes women's issues and gender equality in all its activities and actively
collaborates with women's rights groups on women's human rights, economic
empowerment and access to social services. Over half of its community
development programs address the needs of women through its partnership program
division and a significant amount of informal learning takes place in the
community about gender equality. Depending on the geographic location, programs
are either run by women or for women beneficiaries.
Recently, SAP Pakistan has
implemented a "Women in Politics Program" promoting women as
political leaders at the local level as a result of the Local Governance Reforms and
Devolution.
The Canadian linkage and
partnership development program of the PNSP aims to increase Canadian awareness
and support of development issues in Pakistan using a three-pronged
approach:
- development education, foster dialogues, exchanges and learning
to inform Canadians on gender equity, good governance, social justice and
the promotion of all human rights, drawing on SAP
- partnership development, focusing on building linkages, understanding, solidarity, as well as, project support for Canadian and Pakistani organisations working for social change.
- NGO consultation held with both Canadian and Pakistani partners
in
Through regular seminars,
workshops, and brown bag lunches, the development education component of the
PNSP has focused on engaging a diverse group of organisations in Pakistani
development issues: NGOs, research and academic institutions, media, South
Asian community organisations and ordinary Canadians. The PNSP also
participates in SAP Canada 's
South Asian regional forums by providing a Pakistan perspective on important
sustainable development issues, highlighting issues to the attention of
policymakers and NGOs for possible programming.
While local governments are
primarily responsible for the provision of basic services, their revenues have
not kept up with population and economic growth. The Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi , is held up as
one of the best examples of NGO-led development in an urban area. Known as one
of the most successful NGO sanitation provision projects, this program has
helped over one million people to improve sanitation since its inception in
1980.
Pakistan 's Social Action Program
In 1993, the Government of
Pakistan (GOP), acknowledging the poor social status of its citizens, initiated
the Social Action Program (SAP) to improve basic social services-elementary
education, primary health care, population welfare, and rural water supply and
sanitation.
An aid consortium including
Asian Development Bank (ADB), (British) Department for International
Development (DFID), the Netherlands Government and the World Bank supported the
first phase of the Social Action Plan (1993-1997), and were joined by European
Union in the second phase (1997-2002).
The first phase aimed to
increase sector financing and monitoring and evaluation, while the second phase,
based on lessons learnt in the first phase, placed more emphasis on policy
development, governance, and capacity building.
The SAP was successful in terms
of putting the social sector on the priority agenda of the federal and
provincial governments, building capacity at these levels, and improving
planning and evaluation. The SAP helped increase girl's education, and health
and family planning services, often in combination with private services.
Due to the growing macroeconomic
crisis, public expenditure on education, health, and population declined from
2.7 percent of GDP in the mid-1990s to 2.1 percent of GDP in 2001. The GOP and
external assistance agencies did not fully anticipate the serious and
entrenched neglect of public social services and underestimated difficulties in
improving implementation and efficiency. Social sector development requires a
social transformation and a radical change in the way social services are
managed, with full recognition of the roles of communities and the private sector.
Local Governance Reforms and Devolution
The military government of
General Pervaz Mussarraf initiated a number of reforms to address governance
problems and long-standing structural challenges. On the political side, the
Devolution Plan announced in March 2000, is a fundamental reform. It aims to
replace the existing highly centralized and control-oriented government with a
three-tiered local government system that institutes "people-centred,
rights and responsibility-based, and service oriented" government
structures.
The elected local governments
took power on August 14,
2001 in over 100 districts in the four provinces. Local elections
were held over a six-month period on a non-party basis, with full adult
suffrage.
The Local Government Ordinance
promulgated on 14 August
2001 provides for three levels of local government, each with a
governing council:
- district governments (107);
- tehsils (about three per district); and
- union councils (about 20-30 per tehsil), which comprise villages/urban wards.
Significantly, thirty-three
percent of seats are reserved for women at all three levels of local
government, and additional seats are reserved for peasants, workers, and
minorities. The majority of elected council heads (nazims) and deputy heads
(naib nazims) may belong to local influential families, but it is also
significant that nearly 50 percent of councillors belong to disadvantaged
sections of society, women, peasants, and workers.
Devolution, first from
provincial to elected local governments, and then from the federal to
provincial level, will bring fundamental changes to how all public services are
planned, financed, and managed. The bulk of basic poverty-focused services, for
health, education, agriculture, water, and natural resource management have
been devolved to district and lower local governments. Provinces, once
predominantly responsible for service delivery, will assume new
responsibilities to support and supervise the performance of local governments,
not as administrative appendages of the provincial bureaucracy, but as
independent corporate bodies accountable to the electorate through political
leaders.
In addition to elected councils,
the Local Government Ordinance 2001 provided a number of institutionalised
opportunities for citizens to participate in council affairs. Citizen community
boards, and public safety and justice committees were expected to monitor local
government activities. Citizen community boards were also empowered to
prioritise investments for up to 50 percent of the local development budget for
basic infrastructure and services. Unfortunately, the new government has
postponed the formation of citizen community boards, which would have provided
a platform for civil society to engage.
Public safety commissions at
district, provincial, and national levels, introduced by this Government under
amendments to the Police Act of 1861, offer new possibilities to depoliticise
the police and to increase their accountability to citizens.
Role of NGOs in Rural
development through training in Skills and trades
Besides public sector's
development programmes for rural development, the private sector/NGOs are also
being encouraged for enhancing the pace of rural development in the country .
particularly through innovative participatory approaches. The Agha Khan Rural
Support Programme (AKRSP) and National Rural Support Programme are the two main
non-governmental organizations which have undertaken various innovative uplift
schemes/programmes for the rural areas in Pakistan . Their activities are
briefly discussed as under:-
Aga Khan Rural
Support Programme
The Aga Khan Rural Support
Programme(AKRSP) is private, non-profit NGO, established by the Aga Khan
Foundation with the assistance of foreign donor agencies and Aga Khan
Foundation itself, It started its activities in December , 1982 initially in
the villages of Gilgit and Ghizer districts of the Northern Areas to improve
quality of life of the villages in programme area. In 1986, the programme was
extended and replicated in the Chitral district of the NWFP and the districts
of Skardu and Ganchey of the Northern Areas. The AKRSP since its beginning
focussed on enhancing incomes and quality of life of the people of the
programme area. On entering into its new five year phase ,1997-2001, the
AKRSP's objectives have been further clarified to reflect the development
context of the Northern Areas and Chitral, Encompassing the institutional and
economic development issues, the two major objectives of the new phase are :-
i)Promotion of local
institutions to be the part of an effective and sustainable system for
broad-based rural development, and
Increase average per capita
incomes to levels, comparable to that of the rest of the country.
Major achievements of the AKRSP
by the end of 1998 are listed below.
More than 3500 village
organizations and 2300 women's organizations have been formed in the Programme
Area.
Approximately 2000
infrastructure schemes have been initiated. Of which, 1700 have been completed.
these projects have collectively benefitted more than 100,000 households in the
Programme Area. 55000 kanals of new land has been brought under cultivation ,
as a result of investment in the irrigation schemes.
More than 300,000 kilograms of
improved cereal seed, 150,000 kilograms of fodder seed, and 200,000 kilograms
of improved potato seed have been supplied to small local farmers. In addition,
over 1 million fruit trees had been distributed. Also 3500 community members ,
both male and female have been trained, as agricultural specialists.
Around 5000 cross-breed cattle
have been supplied to local populations. 240 brooding centres had been
established , and 600,000 poultry chicks supplied to these brooding centres.
Around 5000 male and female livestock and poultry specialists have been
trained.
Some 15 million forest plants
have been provided to communities in Northern Pakistan ,
while village organizations themselves have planted 8 million trees established
1500 forest nurseries, and 1300 village forestry specialists trained.
A big vegetable seed production
venture has been started in Gilgit, through a system of contract farmers. A
major wool spinning and weaving project. primarily benefiting women has also
been started in Chitral. Over 2000 male village specialists and 1000 female
specialists have been trained for various enterprise sectors.
National Rural
Support Programme
The National Rural Support
programme (NRSP), has been registered as a Limited Company since November, 1991
with its headquarter in Islamabad .
The objective of the NRSP is to foster a country-wide network of community
organizations at the grassroots level and enable them to plan, manage and
implement their development plans at their own. The ultimate goal of the NRSP
is to reduce intensity of poverty and improve rural people's quality of life.
The NRSP is the largest private
non-profit national development organization in the country, operating in
twenty one districts of Pakistan
and Azad Kashmir in some of the biggest partnerships, involving the government,
NGOs, banks and donors. it has the following 5 major fields of operation.
Human Resource Development
Rural Credit and enterprise
Development
Natural Resource Management
Physical Infrastructure and
technology Development.
Social Sector Services.
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