Government and NGOs

ZAMBIA: Proposed law regulating donor funds causes friction: "Zambia is considering a law that could compel NGOs to account for donor funds allegedly being used to criticise the government.
President Levy Mwanawasa announced at a public rally on Tuesday in the northwestern district of Kabompo that authorities were closely monitoring the activities of NGOs and some churches. "

The Post (Lusaka) reported that the VICE-President Lupando Mwape has directed police to arrest NGO officials who go into his area without his permission.

While I have reservations about such decrees from politicians, I think the issue about the good work being done by the NGOs, and the tremendous opportunities being opened up by them for public service in various fields should be discussed in depth. In various discussions , a sharp contrast is often made between the dull and confined routine of the bureaucrat working for the government and the freedom and initiative of the social activist serving the NGO.

The successful NGO tends to extend its operations, and, in doing so, it has to come to terms with the very problems of funding, management and accounting that bedevil the work of the government.

The acquisition and management of large funds requires both time and effort. The move from social activist to fund raiser and fund manager has been made with ease by many, but it has also brought about some change in their orientations. The prime movers of successful NGOs do not like to talk about the sources of their funding, preferring to dwell instead on the work their organisation is doing and the work that remains to be done.

The successful NGO needs to have administrators, accountants, project officers and field staff. Their terms and conditions of work have to be specified in a more or less formal way. Even the most dedicated promoters of social causes have to make some concessions to the demands of bureaucratic routine.

I think this what the Vice president is trying ensure although he seems to resort to draconian measures.

Modern organisations have certain common characteristics, whether in the public or the private domain, in the governmental or the non-governmental sector. Here, as important as the sector in which the organisation operates is the scale of its operation. It is at this point that the NGO seem to replicate, not just the ways of functioning but also the forms of organisation of agencies of the government. This cannot be an argument against the existence or even the expansion of voluntary activity in the social field outside the government's ambit. Such activity plays a vital part not only in the regeneration of society but also in the health and well-being of democracy. The public will no doubt appreciate the good work that is being done by the NGOs. But they, in their turn, must be ready to submit themselves to the same exacting scrutiny and assessment that they expect the public to exercise over the work of the government.