Tuesday 7 February 2012

The Thin Line - An analysis of NGO Sector

There is no iota of doubt that social & development work is most challenging task for NGOs and its partners. it is very tough to sell your product or service when buyer is community. It is hard to change behavior or attitude. You never know whether it will be change or not.... , we need to criticize "Operational & Funding Model In South".As, I live in India, I can better tell it in context of India.

 It is generally seen that we are always  looking for big project . Most of implementer like us  are experts in their own right  . But most of time, we are busy in managing donor or donor organization. Rather than of energizing our  work, we are busy with aesthetic of work. Southern NGO are busy in documenting,reporting of the work.Most of the time a tiny fraction of work is reported . It is like Body without Soul(only beautification of work, rather than right way of doing work ). In the name of monitoring , there is some site visits which includes photograph,decorated case study ,air journey, palate full food etc.Sometimes it looks that they come for a vacation.Oh  Damn !!  You are here to assess the work which matters for person who are devoid of two time meals.Monitoring  is always expensive . Those money can be used for community development rather than of spending lavishly .   Can  we not develop a peer review system ??A system  where monitoring doesn't meant terror of donor(always limited to fear of his reaction, future of project ) but learning, sharing and teaching experience. The sector has fear of failure . If this fails what will happen?? Failure always teaches you .It is always seen that we as  NGO sector complains about lack of coordination among various stakeholders (within government department or government and bureaucrats). We never realized same thing about our  own sector. Implementers do not cooperate or share . It is always emphasized on north-south dialogue. South-South dialogue is inevitable for fruitful result in social/development sector in developing country. We are generally gypsy. Gypsy in terms of searching fund. Most of time, we are busy in filling various application  format of different donor. Can't we have a single format?? We can't .We are afflicted with atychiphobia.We  consider the possibility of failure so intense that we plan things but  choose not to take the risk without consent (or fear )of donor. We generally undermine our  own efforts so that we no longer have to continue to try.We behave like   pawn in hands of donor .A foreign donor decide how we work for  a particular community.    

NGO sector is trapped in Vaccine Thinking. It didn't develop overnight. It is outcome of success of scientific & industrial action.it is deeply ingrained in our mind completely taken over our various system. Vaccine Thinking assume that there is a single universal solution for a single problem.It is applicable to all genders, races or ages. For Example: Climate Change Problem can not solve with vaccine thinking. It varies from location, weather etc.  With Vaccine Thinking,we  can not do away with problem of Climate Change or Poverty.We need to wear spectacle with different  lens. A lens which allow to see problem differently and try to find out various answer ,processes and results.Can We do It?? Yes, We Can....



Quote:The line between failure and success is so fine. . . that we are often on the line and do not know it.

No comments:

Post a Comment