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ASSESSMENT OF POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN THE FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF DEVELOPMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES
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I nited Nations Eicx>noniic Commission for -Vl'rica
STUDIES IN PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT No. 1
ASSESSMENT OF POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN THE FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF DEVELOPMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES
A CASE STUDY OF "NAMIBIA
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
^5%# Public Administration, Human Resources and Sociai Development Division
CONTENTS Page
PREFACE Iii
I INTRODUCTION 1
II NGOs IN NAMIBIA: A BRIEF DESCRIPTION 4
1. A Divided Camp 4
2. Number and Size 7
3. Development Activities and Orientation 9 ill NEW ROLES FOR NGOs: ADVOCACY
AND GOVERNMENT LINKAGE 18
1. Changing NGO Roles and Attitudes 18 2. NGO's Linkages with Government 20 3. NGO/CBO Participation in the Design
of Development Policies 22
4. NGO/CBO Participation in the
implementation of Development Policies 25 5. Linkages and Alliances Amongst NGOs 26 IV NGO's NEEDS.. PROBLEMS AND
LIMITATIONS 23
1. General 29
2. The Brain Drain and Leadership 29 3. Follow-through and Implementation 30
4. Budgeting and Accounting 30
5. Technical Capacity Versus Grassroots
Credibiiity 30
6. Inter NGOs Coordination 31
V THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF NGOs IN NAMIBiAN DEVELOPMENT
VI SCOPE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVITIES BY NGOs
I Y W I ü ö »
PREFACE
It is now eminently dear that popular participation in development is an essentia! prerequisite of and a cornerstone of human-centred self-reliant and self-sustaining development.
Without the active involvement of people and their organizations in the development process, improvements of human Conditions can neither be achieved nor sustained.
The African Charter for Popular Participation in Development affirms this by calling for an era in which the participation and empowerment of the ordinary men and women are the order of the day. In a rare consensus, the Conference attested to the fact that people's participation must be at the heart of Africa's development mission and vision and it confirmed that authentic development springs from the collective imagination, experience and decisions of people.
The Charter, and the emerging unanimity, have presented us with an unparalleled opportunity to unleash the creativity and harness the energy of the people for a better future for themselves, their countries and Africa as a whole.
!t is this recognition that prompted the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to take the initiative to establish a Focal Point for Promoting Popular Participation in Development to facilitate the implementation of the Charier, strengthen the role of people's organizations and work with them to formulate and articulate programmes and initiatives that would foster widespread participatory action.
The Studies in Participatory Development are designed to promote and facilitate the instutionalization of participatory processes and enhance people's involvement in the poiitical,
social and economic lives of their countries and the sharing of experiences, ideas, concepts, institutional mechanisms and organizational forms on participatory development.
To ensure that the studies remain useful, reievent and topical, suggestions of appropriate subjects for inclusion in the series as well contributions for publication under the series are actively encouraged and sought from our readers. Comments and feed-back on any of the studies published under the series will also be highly appreciated. Piease address correspondence on these and related matters to:
The Director
Public Administration, Human Resources and Social Development Division
P.O. Box 3001
UN Economic Commission for Africa Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Telefax 251-1-51-44-16
I INTRODUCTION
Namibia is in its third year of independence. Structures and institutions throughout Namibian society are in transition and facing a change of roles. Most national non-government organisations (NGOs) - particularly those with strongest links with and legitimacy at grassroots level - are still wrestling with the need to transform their primary role from nationalist political mobilisation against apartheid and the colonial system to development promotion or representation of their constituencies.
By southern African standards, the Namibian government is outstandingly accessible to input from non
government and popular organisations^ At the same time, it is in the process of transforming and rebuilding its own institutions. While central government structures are to a large extent in place, regional and district systems of administration and service delivery are not Impiementational capacity varies from ministry to ministry and from region to region. Also being hammered out at present - in differing ways by differing ministries and departments - is the extent to which service delivery and the onus for local and community level organisation should fall within government's remit, and to what extent within the remit of the NGOs.
Foreign agencies and NGOs involved with Namibia are also making the policy transition from anti-apartheid solidarity as their primary motivation to development as a priority. Since 1989, when many began to open offices in Namibia and to have direct contact with the local NGOs which they had supported in the past, these relationships also began to change. Many foreign NGOs, as well as multilateral and bilateral agencies, emphasise the importance of NGOs in delivering services to people and communities structurally disadvantaged by the colonial inheritance. Many also support the democratisation and strengthening of civil society.
This is in line with the shift in progressive development thinking in the "1970s and 1980s away from top-down, government orientated programme design and implementation techniques. NGOs and community based organisations (CBOs) seemed to represent the best organisational alternative for popularly mobilized development.1
However, this approach can conceal a bewildering myltlplicity of expectations about NGOs' roles. Some examples of such roles are as2:
# agents of development;
m community organisers and educators, institution builders, soda! service providers, and humanitarian relief providers;
# political activists, human rights protectors, policy watchdogs and lobbyists, and democracy promoters;
e organisational and financial managers;
® technical experts in agriculture, health, etc.;
m innovators and testers of new ideas, approaches and technologies;
# fund-raisers and credit providers;
® employment creators;
m a counterbalance or alternative to governments.
In Namibia, the period of anti-colonial struggle and war is recent, and divisions stiH remain in the NGO sector, as we see below. Counter-balancing this to a certain extent is the
fact that because Namibia's population is small (1.4 million), many of the skilled, educated and experienced Namibian social activists know one another personally, and informal contact is
continuous. However, the legacy of the apartheid era's systematic withholding of general education and specifically management skills from the black majority is still in effect. So too are attitudes of the pre-independence era which affect NGOs' roles today.
Finally, an issue of terminology. In Namibia, the term NGO refers to a range of organisations operating on the national level. As well as community and other deveiopment- orientated organisations, these include women's organisations, churches, trade unions, youth, scholar and student organisations, legal assistance and human rights advocacy organisations, adult and other training or educational bodies.
Professional associations, like business chambers, the Namibia Agricultural Union, the Small Miners' Association, the Hawkers' Association, are also sometimes included in discussion of the NGO sector, especially where they are of use or relevance to black Namibians' advancement (see Appendix 2).
National NGOs usually have affiliated organisations, branches, projects or OBOs which they support (financially, organizationally or otherwise) in several Namibian regions.
OBOs are understood to be district-bound. They may include local church bodies; local farmers' unions; income generating projects; co-operatives for production, marketing or buying wholesale; credit unions; or local service organisations such as pre-school facilities.3
Ii NGOS IN NAMIBIA: A BRIEF DESCRIPTION 1. A Divided Camp
Overview
There are deep divisions between Namibian NGOs, many of them the legacy of the independence struggle. There are also enduring policy differences. Some, notably the first and third groups described below, see themselves as people's organisations and espouse a social democratic mode! of development. Others espouse the free enterprise approach, and in the view of the 'community development' grouping tend to be technocratic and unconsultatiye, without community leva!
legitimacy.
In the 1980s, most local NGOs, including the majority of churches, focused strongly on community agitation and political mobilisation. The aim was public mass action which was meant either to accelerate or to frustrate the struggle for political independence. Where housing, labour organisation, or women's rights, for example, were campaign issues, the ultimate aim was the national struggle against South Africa. So NQOs divided dearly into politicai camps; these divisions are still influential today.
The NANQOF/Community Development Grouping
The Council of Churches In Namibia (CCN), the Namibia National Students' Organisation (NANSO), which represents scholars as well as tertiary students, and the majority of the trade unions were prominently in SWAPO's camp before independence. In many cases, it was understood that funding for community projects' was in fact a way of paying salaries to political organisers, and the viability of the projects was not the point.
The member organisations of the Namibian Non- Government Organisation Forum (NANGOF), an NGO umbrella
organisation formed in 1990, include a number which emerged from this dynamic. Most influential members include the Namibia Development Trust (NDT), the Namibia Community Cooperative Alliance (NCCA), NANSO and the National Job Creation Service (NJCS). This is in spite of the fact that many member organisations of this group started or took their present form after 1989 when the political transition began, since many key members had been community or political activists prior to the settlement.
As a result, many NANGOF members are also wrestling with the transition from poiitical mobilisation to practical implementation of development work. This grouping stresses popular and community participation in income generating or service projects in communal areas or deprived urban townships.
The Pro-Colonial Grouping
Other NGOs actively supported the colonial power's 'hearts and minds' campaign. These were mostly ethnically oriented groups supported by the apartheid 'homeland' authorities, and, in the war zone of northern Namibia, by the South African military. They have generally faded away since independence, though an organisation called Swords into Plough-shares, linked to the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA). the official political opposition party, is still active.
The Third Force'
There is also a group referred to by some NGO cadres as the Third Force': pro-independence and nationalist but not SVVAPO linked. The Namibian Nationhood Programme Coordinating Committee (NNPOO) which supports a number of
rural and urban projects, was started in 1983, and is an example of such a grouping.
The Namtbian Association of Non Governmental Organizations (NANGOS) was formed in mld-1990, as an umbrella organisation for a number of projects, some believe as a competitive reaction to the formation of NANGOF. Non- SWAPO nationalist activists, including some to the left of the present ruling party's policies, were infiiiential here. As with NANGOF, popular participation and community level organisation are the strategies favoured by this group.
The Tonrth fore*
The 'Fourth Force' is a group of NGOs formed during the 1980s often with the support of corporate funding: the Rössing Foundation, the Institute for Management and Leadership Training (iMLT), the Private Sector Foundation, and the U-Do Trust are leading examples. These avoided political affiiiation, were started by whites, and stressed policies oriented to free enterprise and training.
A characteristic of the 'fourth force' NGOs, despite allegations against them of 'collaboration', technocratic paternalism and lack of grassroots contact, is effective administrative and accounting procedyres. This organisational stability has since independence led to several of them becoming partner organisations of United Nations or bilateral donor agencies.
Othsf Orgafilsatl©!iss Linkages and Problems Though in the past the 'community development' grouping would have nothing to do with the others, since Independence a number of informal links have been forged, and feelings run less high than before.
In the pre-lndependence era, the only women's organisations that operated on a national level were those affiliated to the various political parties, replicating their divisions. Women's Voice, an organisation which emerged from the pro-SWAPO activist grouping, was discouraged by the party and dissolved. It is only since independence that concerted attempts to set up national women's organisations have been made, and these continue to be bedeviled by party- political divisions.
A final and crucial process that has placed enormous strain on the NGO sector was the brain-drain of experienced NGO personnel into government structures after independence.
This affected and weakened organisations primarily in the first grouping named above, it was most marked in the case of the trade unions, but many community development orientated organisations suffered. On the positive side, many NGOs have thereby forged excellent contacts within government.
Since most CBOs have links - financial, organisational eduGationai - with NGOs in one of these groups (or with individual churches), they tend to identify with the ethic espoused by 'their' NGO. The will tend to share its weaknesses as well. Where a support NGO suffers from, say, poor planning and weak administration, or excessive centralization of authority, its related CBOs will often do so as well.
Thus the history of NGOs in Namibia is a highly politicised one. An important grouping within the NGO sector, NANGOF, includes personnel highly experienced in popular mobilisation with excellent grassroots links and credibility.
NGOs in this grouping see as one of their main priorities the development of their im pie mentation a! capacity.
2. Number and Size
There has been an explosion in the number of NGOs and CBOs in Namibia since independence. A 1989 study of Namibian NGOs4 identified;
15 involved in community development;
14 in education and training:
4 in health care;
9 multisectoral NGOs, mainly churches or church-linked.
The largest was the CCN, which at the time had some 200 staff. Most of the rest had staffs ranging from 2 to 20.
Since independence, the number of NGOs tallied depends on the definitions used. One recent NGO Directory5 counts 135 NGOs - including foreign NGOs active in the country. The most detailed and reliable source seems to be the National Planning Commission's draft list of Development Organisations in Namibia. This lists:
6 umbrella NGO co-ordinating organisations;
36 national NGOs;
38 training and educational organisations;
18 church and church-related organisations;
18 women's associations (including political party-
linked ones);
15 environmental organisations;
22 trade unions, leagues or business associations.
In addition, one hundred forty-one CBOs and projects are listed. Also named are the international NGOs, bilateral government implementing agencies, and multilateral agencies active in the country.
Many of NGOs and CBOs listed are ephemera! or one- person operations: some are large, but as we shall see below, notably in the example of the CCN, the trend among donors is to discourage large staffs in NGOs. Few of the NANGOF or NANGOs groupings have staffs larger than ten.
3. Development Activities and Orientation
The NAN Q OF/Co mm unity Development Grouping
The first category of NGOs named above - the NANGOF/community development grouping = have as their target constituency the majority of Namibians who are dispossessed and marginalized.
These NGOs themselves tend to be urban-based, sometimes with branches in outlying regional centres. Where they support rural projects - the majority of cases - their staff travel to the target areas on a more or less regular basis.
Levels of unemployment in urban and peri-urban areas are estimated at about 50%. The 70% of black Namibians who live in rural areas, mostly in what are today termed communal areas, once the 'ethnic homelands' of the apartheid system, include a majority in villages or outlying homesteads who are barely able to survive. Depending on the region, an estimated naif or more of families are female headed. For the majority in communal areas, 'subsistence5 agriculture has broken down, and survival depends on remittances from family members in employment or on government pensions paid to the aged. This
group of NGOs thus targets the unemployed in urban township areas, and the underemployed, marginalised or dispossessed in communal areas.
Trie role of the NANGOF/community development grouping in relations to rural communities usually follows the following sequence;
9 Activation and discussion of the potential for self help projects:
« Definition of needs, definition of potential projects, with elected executives or steering committees;
• Formulation of a project budget in consultation with project representatives;
® Submission of a funding budget and rationale to a donor agency;
B Organizing administrative and other necessary- training for the project group;
• Follow-up visits and problem-solving support as possible.
The projects initiated by the NANGOF/community development NGOs, which includes the CCN's community development activities, though the CON is not a formal member of NANQOF, fall into three main categories:
© Income generating projects, including brickmaklng, poultry and bread production, vegetable growing projects; cooperative buying or marketing schemes; sewing and weaving craft projects for women.
• Educational and training services, including children's day care centres (pre-school education), and private schools (primary and secondary education), informal business and project management training, and awareness raising through cultural programmes.
® Credit unions and saving schemes, amongst which the Namibian Credit Union League (NACUL) is the national NGO most active among community groups mobilizing their savings. The NCCA was Instrumental in founding Farmer Inter-League Solidarity Action (FISA), a savings and credit facility for local farmer's organisations mainly in southern Namibia.
An ongoing factor affecting almost all rural based projects and CBOs in Namibia is that to survive, they almost always need to have a positive relationship with the local power structure. This is usually made up of traditional authorities (chiefs and elders) and/or church structures. These are often very hierarchical in orientation and have played a part in constraining the development of participatory, democratic action and structures. In some cases, the target beneficiaries of a given project are and were not consulted or encouraged to participate in decision-making6. Such programmes were also marked by gender inequality.
Thus in general, NGOs that target marginalised black communities are now called upon to change from resistance to development agency roles. They are now facing the challenge of assisting the previously undemocratic, hierarchical, male dominated projects to take on their own development themselves, in communities where deep political rifts also still remain. And this is in addition to fundraislng and trying to meet training needs for administrative and bookkeeping skills, marketing, technical training and so forth.
However, the NANGOF member NGOs, though their umbrella organisation is administratively weak, have the strongest links of formal and informal cooperation of any Namibsan NGO grouping.
The 'Third Force': NNPCG and MANGOS Gmyping
Though this grouping supported the Namibian independence struggle and shares many of the popular participation techniques for mobilizing projects espoused by NANGOF, the fact that its leading figures were not SWAPO members still affects interaction between the NGOs and CBOs concerned.
The NNPCG is an umbrella group for a range of projects including rural gardening, sewing, backyard mechanic and pre
school CBOs units in central and southern Namibia, it runs a pre-school in Khomasdal, one of Windhoek's townships, and the Jacob Morenga Tutoria! College, a private secondary school.
NANGOS, though founded as an umbrella body, does not appear to have developed strong connections or a functioning identify since its inception. An attempt to gain possession of a current list of member organisations met with failure, though founder member organisations include the Science and Mathematics Programme and the Workers' and Peasants' Women's Association.
The Toyrtri Force5
As indicated, the groupings discussed above regard these NGOs as paternalistic and unconcerned for the need for structural change in Namibia, though their target group for training and credit provision was black Namibians, urban and rural. Like many other Namibian NGOs, they tend to be maie-
dominated. They do not have an umbrella organisation, but cooperate with each other and organisations in the other groups on particular programmes. The Rössing Foundation, for example, is like the CCN, participating in a UNICEF sponsored integrated Area-based Programme in Tsandi in northern Namibia. Rössing is also participating in a teacher-upgrading programme being run by the Ministry of Education, Old divisions and enmities are eroding.
The Rössing Foundation has training centres in southern, central and northern Namibia, its main orientation is training: in agricultural, craft and office skills; it runs teacher upgrading and an English language programme. It also runs seamanship training at the small southern port of Lüderitz.
Once exclusively supported by Rössing Uranium Ltd., an RTZ subsidiary, it now receives up to 75% of its funding from bilateral agencies, notably the British Overseas Development Agency (ODA). This is an indication of the fact that donor agencies find effective administration, implementation and accounting attractive despite criticism of this organisation's role before independence.
The Private Sector Foundation specifically aims to train and provide credit for development of individual enterprise.
The IMLT provides basic to advanced administration and management courses. The Department of Women's Affairs in the Office of the President used IMLT to run courses for black women would-be entrepreneurs throughout Namibia.
A slight exception within this group is the Namibian Agricultural Union (NAU), which before independence catered exclusively for the needs of white commercial farmers, and was the umbrella body for their district associations. Since independence it has been chaiienged to design programmes taking communal farmers into consideration, and is now deploying mobile training units In communal areas. Black farmers' associations, many of them newly formed, are
affiliating to the NAU. However open to criticism this body is for its pre-independence roie, it does have access to a broad range of technical and technologica! expertise.
In short, the skills base in Namibia is so thin that both government and, more reluctantly, the liberation orientated NQQ groupings are accepting that the country must deploy what resources it has for development, especially on grassroots level.
To conclude: not all NGOs in Namibia belong to the groups defined above, but these categories, as recognised by most NGOs themselves, are a guide to the range of attitudes and priorities which can be found in the NGO sector here, and which will affect any attempt to mobilize it.
Fynding of NGOs
International donor support to local NGOs in the pre- independence period was never difficult to obtain, whether from church or other international donor agencies, this was the era of soHdarity. and accountability, in the literal sense, was never demanded, with the exception of the 'fourth force' NGOs, which were largely corporate funded at this time. Also representatives of donor agencies, with very few exceptions, could not visit Namibia.
At this time, the CON dominated the nationalist NGO sector, and played a considerable role in supporting and articulating local opposition to South Africa, it also supported and ran a large number of community development and local adult and other education programmes. Perhaps partly due to the pressures of its opposition role, its internal structures became increasingly hierarchical and centralized. Project accounting and decisions were increasingly made within the CCN, Both in the organisation and its projects, managerial skills development was neglected. The CCN began to suffer
from bureaucratic bloat, itself absorbing increasing proportions of the funds it was supposed to be channelling to community level
When donor agencies began visiting or basing themselves in Namibia in the course of 198S/90, their examination of the CCN's books and its projects fed to a widespread, though never publicly announced, conclusion that the CCN in its present form was not an effective agent of development or channel of resources to the grassroots.
Funders faded away, and the CCN was forced into extensive restructuring and retrenchments. It, too, lost a number of its most effective personnel to government.
Donor agencies, based in Namibia or abroad, were also making the transition from solidarity support to development assistance. Many of the international NGOs receive funds from their government development agencies - and many of these in the course of the 1980s were becoming more stringent in their requirements. Notably, the stress shifted from 'process5 to 'product.' It was not enough for projects or NGOs supported by such agencies to prove they were engaging directly with the grassroots. Income generating projects had to come up with a plan showing when and how they would indeed cover their costs and generate income. Three-to-üve-year donor investment support periods' were becoming the norm. Service, education or training projects had to begin at least to cover their running costs.
Some twenty-seven international NGOs are based in Namibia, in addition to 10 UN agencies and about the same number of bilateral implementing agencies. Most aid to Namibian NGOs is channelled through those organisations with local representation here. Privately, many of the international agencies' staffers speak of the 'weak NGO sector.' They cite problems with Namibian NGOs' implementing capacity; their ability to mobilise, but not administer; their ability - based on
their social legitimacy - to begin grassroots projects, but not to follow through the process that would make CBOs and projects viable and self-sustaining.
Projects that prove themselves viable and NGOs which deliver the development mobilisation which is their aim have little problem in raising funds, but ail are subjected to far more intense scrutiny than in the past.
This, of course, is taking place in the context of the great increase in the number of Namibian NGOs and CBOs since independence - which must imply that the proportion of experienced NGO personne! (even without the brain drain into government) has shrunk relative to newcomers to the sector.
Many Namibian NGOs resent this critical scrutiny and the withdrawal of donors, even old solidarity partners, where accounting or reporting procedures are not met.
From the point of view of Namibian NGOs, internationai agencies now based in Namibia are increasingly usurping their grassroots project implementing role. Agencies do often now fund CBOs or projects direct, rather than via a local NGO. The Namibian community development NGOs feel that instead of being treated as partners in development, they are being pushed to the background. This is in spite of the fact that at least the community development orientated NGOs do have social legitimacy and special knowledge - varying, admittedly, from organisation to organisation and region to region.
Where funding is being withdrawn from them, Namibian NGOs feel their vulnerabilities at management level are being used as an excuse. One local NGO director gives as an example his view that Namibian NGOs' requests for support in institution building and iocaily administered revolving credit facilities are being ignored by funders in favour of isolated, short-term project funding requests. This is seen as a deliberate attempt to create and maintain dependency.
Increasingly, Namibian NGOs feel, foreign NGOs and agencies are trying to dictate development agendas, or are operating according to agendas that are not communicated to Namibian NGOs. This indicates that there is a real need for international agencies to be explicit about their aims and standards in order to achieve greater transparency about agendas.
Thus in addition to the divisions between national NGOs, there are rumblings, as yet seldom publicly articulated, about the relationship between national NGOs and donor agencies at all levels, where many of the most influential national NGOs feel their autonomy is being threatened.
There are two examples of the strains engendered. The first, in 1990, was an effort to set up a unified NGO forum, to include foreign NGOs based in Namibia, the initiative was supported by the CON, and opposed by the NDT, notwithstanding their similar poilticai orientations, it collapsed at the first meeting.
In the second example, in 1991 the UNDP attempted through a foreign consultant to facilitate the formation of a single organisation of Namibian NGOs. This met with considerable resistance, because of the historically formed and perceived divisions between different types of local NGOs.
There was also suspicion that UNDP wanted to guide, coordinate or gain control of national NGOsf funding activities.
The attempt failed.
Ill NEW ROLES FOR NGOS: ADVOCACY AND GOVERNMENT LINKAGE
1. Changing NGO Holes and Attitudes
With the election of a democratic government at independence, Namlbian NGOs have had to reassess their role. The 'community development' group had in the past centred its strategies on opposition to the coionlai government Indeed, so closely was this group linked to in-country SWAPO political structures, that setting up new community-based organisations, even within its ambit, had been frowned on as potentially 'dividing the struggle'. Women's Voice was an example of this conflict, as were the furious debates in the mid- 1980s about the formation of, among others, NANSO, and the community organisation Bricks. Criticizing SWAPO, even by implication, was unthinkable, and regarded as giving aid to the enemy.
One consequence was outlined by a current Deputy Minister, former Robben island prisoner and an key trade union activist m the years before independence:
"People have a dependency paralysis. In the old days [before independence] it was frowned on to act independently, even if it was not specifically political. Now many people want to keep on waiting for leaders to decide, they can't deal with independence and taking action on their own."
Especially in 1990/92, when the new government was in the course of formulating broad policy directions and restructuring its central institutions, trusted national NGOs were often called on, or saw themselves as duty-bound, to relay grassroots demands and expectations to government. They began to act as brokers or conduits to regional or national
government for the local groups with which they were in contact.
In this process, NGOs in the pro-SWAPO grouping, canvassing on local level for demands, expectations and complaints to report back to government - often at the request of particular Ministries for information - found local groups in some cases shocked at the notion of complaining to or even lobbying stheir! government.
This is particuiariy true in northern Namibia, where about 60 per cent of the population lives, and where, as the main war zone, political polarization was particuiariy acute.
Views expressed at a meeting convened by the NDT provide an example. In 1991 the NDT, set up in 1989 as a conduit for the European Community's Victims of Apartheid fund, but led by experienced community activists, organised a large meeting in the Ovambo region of northern Namibia to discuss development priorities and programmes, it was attended by NGOs and CBOs, regional government officials, district councils, and groups including women and ex- combatants. A number of those present were disturbed to hear questions raised as to whether the government was in fact meeting its promises, and if not, how and whether to mobilise to bring pressure for government action. One young man went so far as to say that such lobbying would amount to 'treason'.
Those involved in NGOs who now see their role as Including civic mobilisation no longer have continuous and dose consultation with formal poiiticai parties. The trade unions in the group federated under the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) in particular are having to redefine their role, which was explicitly one of leadership in poiiticai mobilisation for independence. Now they find themselves being ushered off the national political stage, and are moving
towards developing more conventional trade union structures, focusing on workplace issues.
NANSO, the scholar/student movement, is also working on transforming its role to one that serves its constituency directly. From mass demonstrations challenging the colonial power, it is now looking to bursary schemes, sex education, student counselling and such activities.
Thus the more populist and community development NGOs have come to see their role as including representation of their constituency groups, including the rural and urban poor.
2. MGO's Linkages with Government
The Namibian government has not designated a specific ministry or department as a point of contact for NGOs. Opinion on the part of government officials as well as NGO cadres differs on this. Some would favour a dearly designated institution for initial NGO dealings with government, or at least
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government-NGO consultation at project or especially local levei, to prevent duplication of effort. It is not unknown for NGOs or, indeed, different government departments, simultaneously to be planning action on a particular issue in a given area.
Others see the process, currently the commonest, whereby NGOs work to develop and maintain ongoing contacts with line Ministries involved in particular programmes, as being the most positive and flexible approach. They argue that contact and cooperation with Ministries, according to the nature of the issue or programme concerned, is the most practical form of interaction, which also prevents the development of restrictive red tape at the central government level. This view holds that where NQO-government links are not formalised, they perhaps work the better for it.
At present, NGOs have easy access to government officials. This is the consensus of a number of local NGO leaders. Levels of interaction between NGOs and CBOs on the one hand, and government on the other, include participation in workshops or seminars. These are regular events, and often consider important poiicy and implementation issues.
In addition, many NGOs have a range of personal contacts with ofndals up to Permanent Secretary and Minister levels. Information ss exchanged, in particular about local conditions in outlying districts, well as on NGO attitudes on various issues.
Further, some Ministers or Permanent Secretaries have been nominated as patrons of NGOs. For example, the Minister of Trade and industry is a patron of the Namibia Credit Union League; and the Speaker of the National Assembly is a patron of Bricks, a community organisation in Windhoek's township of Katutura.
Among other Ministries with which local NGOs have contact and in some cases cooperate on programmes are:
# The Ministry of Education especially its teacher upgrading and adult education programmes;
NGO and church-run private schools in some instances receive Ministry support.
• The Ministry of Health and Social Services especially where church or other NGO-run clinics and health programmes receive support, and between the CGN's Social Services department, which provides counselling, and the Ministry's social workers.
® The Department of Women's Affairs in the Office of the President, which has used NGO
training programmes for women, and maintains contact with other women's organisations.
# The Mirilstry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development, whose Department of Rural Development in particular has good contacts with NGOs, and whose Division of Cooperatives has extensively consulted NGOs on new iegisiation on Cooperatives.
® The Ministry of Labour and Manpower Development has regular contact with the trade unions, especially the NUNW. The most important interaction to date has been the NUNW input into the new Labour Code, which is shortly to come into effect; but this Ministry, as well as the Prime Minister, has also intervened to mediate labour disputes.
# The Ministry of Local Government and Housing, which has received representations from NGOs on behalf of urban squatter groups which the Ministry planned to remove.
e The Land and Development Bank is changing its rules to allow cheap finance to communal area farmers. At least two locai NGOs have had fruitful contact with it.
e The Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation has some cooperation with NGOs where groups have been resettled on new land, or has taken over resettlement projects started by NGOs which found themselves unable to cope with their scale. The Directorate of Rehabilitation works cioselv with the National aP Organisation of Disabled People in Namibia,
3. NGO/CBO Participation in the Design of DeveEopment Policies
Thus one of the great advantages of Namibian government at present is the accessibility of its officiais. NGO cadres are however divided when it comes to the measuring the impact of NGO input on poilcy development. Some see it as still lacking, while others ciaim the facts indicate positive progress in this regard. Some examples are given below.
Trade Unions and the National Labour Code Those positive about the NGO progress in policy formation often cite the input by trade unions - particularly the NUNW grouping - in the drafting of the National Labour Code.
This came into effect at the beginning of November 1992, and is intended to provide a legal framework for relations between employers and employees. The unions failed to get a minimum wage into the Bill, but several of their other recommendations were incorporated.
The New Cooperatives Act
Similarly, the participation of NGOs in the drafting of the envisaged new Cooperatives Act is given as an example of positive consultation, the Division of Cooperatives within the Ministry of Agriculture invited NGO representatives of the NANGOF grouping as well as representatives of the powerful white marketing cooperatives to a series of consultative sessions. The NANGOF NGOs were invited because of their support work with small black rural farmers' cooperative, and ultimately arranged a national workshop with these small cooperatives, at which recommendations for the amendment of current cooperative legislation were put forward. The draft bill- has not yet been published, so the impact of this input is not yet able to be seen.
NANSO and the Education Code of Conduct The Namibian National Students' Organization worked together with the Ministry of Education in drawing up a Code of Conduct for schools. This document, among other things, tries to redefine the role of mechanisms such as Parent-Teacher committees and the perfect system in order to make them more participatory and hence less unpopular. The document is now Ministerial policy; while some schools in Namibia's notoriously authoritarian inherited school hierarchy have implemented the code, others show localized resistance.
The Land Reform Conference
Frustrated cadres cite the Land Reform Conference of June 1991 as an example of positive NGO input with little impact'. This conference, based on nationwide representation aimed to set a popularly acceptable framework for land reform in NamiDia.
A number of national NGOs organised district-level workshops in communal areas to elicit black farmers' views on directions of land reform, and produced position papers for input to the land Conference. Communal areas in today's Namibia were the colonial apartheid tribal homelands which were the only areas in which black Namibians had access to land during most of the coionlai period. They are consequently overcrowded, while some of the 4000 mainly white owned commercial farms are seen as potential targets for redistribution to the previously dispossessed black majority.
The conference saw views aired by a wide range of Namibian interest groups, black and white, and produced a set of recommendations for further investigation by the national government. Indeed, the Consensus document produced by the Conference specified in Article 24 that NGOs and Cooperatives can play an important developmental roie in rural
areas, and recommended that their work in cooperatives and agricultural development be recognised, encouraged and promoted; further, that the government should assist aü NGOs and cooperatives active in the field of development.
A Technical Committee was appointed to investigate the implementation of those parts of the Conference's recommendations applicable to commercial farmland. Thus far there has been no draft legislation and no report to the National Assembly. Completion of the Technical Committee's work has been subject to long delay, although its findings are expected to be presented to Cabinet shortly. Land hunger is a burning issue in Namibia, and following the expectations raised by this unprecedented process of nationwide consultation before and during the conference, there is widespread dissatisfaction at the apparent lack of progress.
The Squatter Issue
Namibia is undergoing intensive urbanization, which is hardly surprising given the breakdown of many traditional agricultural systems, exacerbated by the current region wide drought.
The Ministry of Local Government and Housing endorsed the bulldozing of squatter shacks in an area of Katutura, Windhoek's black township. NGO groups led protests against this action, and some, notably a Windhoek-based housing cooperative, are assisting housing development in site- and-service areas made available by government.
4. NGO/CBO Participation in the implementation of Development Policies
The question of implementation of policies to whose formation NGOs have contributed is a more vexed one.
Though policies may be adopted, there is a considerable time
lag between adoption and implementation, in explanation of which several reasons are advanced.
Some government officials explain delays as caused by the 'disloyal second tier civil service crops' left over from the previous dispensation. It is true that in some areas there has been obstruction on the part of bureaucrats opposed to the
present ruling party.
Also the machinery of the civil service is under reconstruction, and in some cases implementation capacity on local level is not yet in place. Where scarce skilled personnel are concerned - agricultural extension officers are an example -
they will often opt for service in the capital or central region rather than in the most needy peripheries. Also the duplication or overlapping between functions of several Ministries in some cases can lead to deadlock.
Finally, the government faces financial constraints.
While committed to broadening the base of social service delivery and attempting to be responsive to the powerful sense of entitlement of the dispossessed majority, there is a limit to the budget defidts the IMamibian government can run without falling into the structural adjustment trap. On the positive side, this might induce government to increase its partnership with NGOs for policy implementation on the local level over the next 5-10 years.
. ... - • •- ."S..?-/?*-'-
To summarize: while the Namibian government is an
outstandingly approachable one, particularly by interest groups
representing the dispossessed, proposals accepted in principle
do not readily get to the stage of implementation. However, the
question whether NGOs possess the ability to analyse public
policies in order to offer alternatives demands a positive
answer The examples give above indicate the NGOs in
Namibia have little trouble in formulating positions on public
policy, sometimes in cooperation with one another, and
sometimes in partnership with government departments.
Further, their inputs on policy issues are often preceded by canvassing among the policy target group or constituency.
5= Linkages and Alliances Amongst NGOs
The issues that used to divide national NGOs have changed and increasingly tend to facilitate their networking among one another. Some observers, notably foreign NGOs or agencies, are disturbed by the fact that NGOs currently have two umbrella structures, with many operating outside both of these. As indicated above, the formation of a single umbrella body is not probable at this stage, due to ideological and historical divisions.
But there are informal contacts between organisations in both groups, and others that are members of neither. The situation is not one of implacable hostility, but of a reluctance at this stage to consider formal organisational links where past experience is seen to have been divisive, this situation also has a positive side: it provides fertile ground for debate, experimentation and creative thinking on development oriented linkages across the boundaries of the two umbrella bodies and with 'fourth force' NGOs. Several NANGOF member organisations (notably NDT, NCCA, NANSO and the National Job Creation Service) recently met with the Rössing Foundation, the IM LT and the Nyae Foundation (an area based NGO supporting a range of programmes in the former 'Bushmanland') to produce an NGO Memorandum on Drought (March 1992).
The document contained their recommendations on drought relief action, just as the government was undertaking this programme. It recommended a balance between cash and food aid, so as not to weaken local producers' markets, it also recommended incentives to local food processors such as millers to import the raw gran themselves, to preserve local
jobs, rather than flooding rural areas with pre-processed imported food, it also recommended preparation for the post- drought situation, such as ensuring that seeds would be available.
The Memorandum was submitted to the Prime Minister.
An official letter of response said that NGOs concerns were respected; otherwise the recommendations do not appear to have affected drought relief programmes.
An instance of failure to form a national-level alliance is the longstanding struggle of the Federation of Namibian Women to conclude all national level women's groups as affiliates. After more than a year of meetings, one of the political parties' women's associations could not bring themselves to accept the system of representation proposed, and backed out. Nonetheless, in addition to the Department of women's Affairs within the government, national women's NGOs are in increasingly vocal grouping with effective informal Hnks. Most of those which are not affiliated to political parties, however, are geared to canvassing for legal and political reform or providing counselling and rape crises services rather than undertaking local development projects. The exception here is the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA).
• i? 1 • , •••• : 'Ö IV NGO's NEEDS, PROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS
1. General
The community development NGOs, are, as stated earlier, now cailad upon to change from resistance to development agency roles. They are now facing the challenge of assisting previously undemocratic, hierarchical, male dominated projects to take on their own development themselves. Further, the increasing stress on project viability and sustainability places demands to develop and transfer planning, managerial, administrative and marketing skills, to name a few.
The following sections summarize a range of problems identified by local NGO leaders.
2, The Bfairi Drain and Leadership
Many of the skilled and experienced leadership figures of the NGO sector have moved into the civil service since independence, due to better salary and fringe benefit options within the Government This weakens NGO implementational capacity and performance, and frequently means that the remaining leadership is heavily overworked.
As a consequence, almost all NGO leadership structures are heavily centralized despite populist or democratic approaches to development, in part because the drain of skilled personnel into government has narrowed their skills base.
Given their constant need for consultation with communities, other NGOs and with government NGO cadres find themselves are running from meeting to meeting, or seminar to seminar. One NGO director says;
"Almost everybody, national government as well as NGOs, are in the process of formulating strategies in a setup where experience seems to be the most scarce resource. The few experienced NGO leaders are therefore under heavy pressure from all sides."
3. Follow-through and Irnp'err.entaticn
There is a lack of follow up by NGOs in support of projects they were instrumental in starting. In general, Narnibian NGOs are skilled at activating and popular mobilisation, while programme design, management and implementation capacity are more rare. An additional factor to bear in mind here is that while NGOs may discuss such issues among themselves, several of them experience outsiders' raising such issues as unwarranted interference.
4. Budgeting and Accounting
The Inability to provide clear budget outlines and projections is sometimes cited as an NGO problem. Some NGOs, however, respond that the funding procedures of donor agencies are needlessly elaborate. Lack of visibly effective accounting systems seems to be a general problem. The 'Fourth force' NGOs, however, are however effective in this regard.
5b Technical Capacity Versus Grassroots Crediblilty
Thus the 'community development' NGOs complain that these visibly more 'efficient' fourth force NGOs, which can often afford to employ staff with formal academic qualifications, are increasingly selected as implementing agencies within marginalised communities by government, foreign NGOs and multilateral agencies for these reasons. Though effective technical and administrative capabilities may be attractive to
outsiders, the community development NGO groups argue that they have more effective ongoing local contacts and networks, plus approaches which favour genuine structural change. The issue here is partnership and community deveiopment approaches, they stress, not competition for funding,
6, fnter-NGOs Coordination
The Divisions referred to above, as weil as the heavy pressures on ieadership figures often result in a lack of coordinated efforts by the NGOs. The umbrella structures referred to above still operate most effectively at a level of informal contact. Stronger forma! inter-NGO structures are still evolving, and should not be burdened with expectations that they are not yet ready to fulfil.
V THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF NGOS IN NAMIBIAN DEVELOPMENT
Having discussed weaknesses and divisions as weil as achievements, Namibian NGOs are eager to stress that they are potentially able to play a key role in national development policy design and/or implementation. A key point to bear in mind is that this is a sector in transition. Inevitably, in the next 5-10 years, some NGOs will decline, split or die. Those which are able to solve their organisational problems can and will thrive in a democratic environment which encourages seif-heip initiatives and open policy debate.
The very formation of the NGO umbrella bodies, they argue, is an example of their looking beyond narrow organisation-bound needs to the potential of the sector.
A *4 *4 a ^ e S**. »"•> 1 I 4» &=*. 4» a" *•>> U-v • a i»». ä ma *
rwjuiiiKJiiaii puimo uy iiit? uuiiiinuiniy development/NANGOF grouping:
m Of all institutions in Namibian society, NGOs are best equipped to mobilise the communities for participatory community development because of their close contact with the grassroots.
# In general, the administrative machinery of this NGO grouping is small. This allows for effective implementation of projects and devolution of control to local level, without wastage of resources on large bureaucracies.
m Funding is relatively easily available to them because of inter-national donors' negative views concerning over-large African Civil Services.
This is seen as consuming resources at central government level, instead of being directed at grassroots development.
The Namibian government needs some time to sort out local administrative and service delivery mechanisms - but postponement of addressing perceived needs at grassroots level could have disastrous political and other effects. This is where NQOss contribution, potentially in partnership with government could be exemplary.
NGOs and CBOs are definitely the agencies through which effective programme delivery is to be achieved, they feel. Training is needed as a means of strengthening NGO/CBO capacity.
The weaknesses listed above can be addressed through training on project design techniques, development programme monitoring, and effective participatory techniques of participatory programme administration.
Finally, foreign agencies and international NGOs should not 'exploit the weaknesses' of local NGOs but rather support their strengthening against the oay when foreign agencies cut budgets or withdraw.
VI SCOPE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVITIES BY NGOS The majority of NGOs active in environmental and conservation issues both before and after independence (See Appendix 2: Environment organisations) have been founded by rriiddia class whites and have concentrated on policies of wilderness preservation.
The integrated approach to environmental management, taking into account the communities which actually use and rely on environmental resources, has been introduced into Namibia relatively recently.
Things are, however, about to change on the environmental organisation front. This is quite clear from activities that are being supported by funders such as OXFAM UKI and local NGOs such as NCCA and NDT= A National Environmental Conference was held in August 1992 in Rehoboth. More than one hundred delegates from rural areas from all over Namibia gathered and expressed concern about their environmental degradation.
Communal area representatives, including a number of traditional leaders, who allocate land for use, were challenged by facts indicating that their management of natural resources such as woodlands and livestock rangelands is operating on a short term, unsustainable basis, visitors from Zimbabwe and Kenya were drawn in. Those attending shared in highlighting the interdependence of development and environment.
It must be stressed that this Is a first step, and has perhaps laid the foundation for future debate, awareness raising, environmental education and, potentially, the launching of integrated, holistic developmentai programmes. An inter- NGO task force was appointed to research and take the issues raised at the workshop further.
Positive feedback, for example, is expected from the Nyae Farmers' Cooperative. Based in the Bushmaniand communal area, with the support of the Ministry of Wildlife and Tourism, this organisation is working to negotiate a system whereby the local population shares in the profits and employment generated by the trophy hunting concessions licensed by government to operate in the area. The hope is that a sense of responsibility for sustainable use of wildlife on the part of all groups concerned will evolve.
NOTES
See for example Tim Broadhead: NGOs: In One Year arsd Out the Other? in Anne Gordon Drabek, ed:
Development Alternatives: The Chaiienge for NGOs, World Development Vol 15. Autumn 1987. This asks whether the NGO-centred development strategy is more than a passing fashion. So far, it seems to be enduring.
Anne Gordon Drabek: NGOs: Do We Expect Too Much? Progress. Spring/Summer 1992.
See Appendix 2: Section on Local Organisations and Co-ops, which also indicates - in some but not all cases - where these have links to national NGOs.
UNDP Base Studies on Financial Economic and Social Aspects for the Independence of Namibia: Namibian Non-Governmental Organisations and their role after independence. UNDP 1989.
Tne Namibia Foundation; NGO Directory for Namibia, Sponsored by USAID.
This was oneof the criticisms directed against the CON, with results that we shall see below.
PHSD's Publications on Popular Participation in Development Studies In Participatory Development
1. Assessment of Popular Participation in the Formulation and Implementation of Development Policies and Programme;
A Case Study of Namibia
2. Assessment of Popular Participation in the Formulation and Implementation of Development Policies and Programmes:
A Case Study of Uganda
3. A Code of Practice for the NGO Sector in Africa Popular Participation Workshop Series
1. Enhancing, Dialogue Cooperation and Interface Between the Government and Popular Development Organizations in Uganda
2. Statement of the ECA, FAVDO and PAC Roundtable on Cooperation and Partnership for African Development
E.C.A. LIBRARY
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This publication is prepared within the framework of the Popular
