law opinion
Legal issues on NGO development and some recommendations
Sayeed Taposh
Large numbers of NGOs work in Bangladesh. Though NGOs like FPAB started work in Bangladesh before independence but large scale involvement of NGOs started after the independence. Immediately after the liberation war Gonoshasthya Kendro (GK), BRAC, Grameen Bank and some other NGOs started rehabilitation activities for war victims especially for women and children. It was the beginning and the number increased gradually. Excluding the youth clubs, cultural or religious organizations the number is still the highest in the world. In 1988, during flood, a large number of NGOs become active in disaster management and relief activities and NGOs in fact received official recognition for effort for their activities. Donors responded positively to request of NGOs for support in the rehabilitation activities. Large amount of money spent for relief and rehabilitation activities at that time. NGOs were named at different times as Private Voluntary Development Organization (PVDO), Development Organization, Not-for Profit Organization etc. but widely known as NGOs.
Though NGOs have been working in Bangladesh for long time, people still don't have clear understanding about NGO movement in Bangladesh. They have questions on the role of NGOs. Most common of the questions are why NGOs are working , what brings the NGOs here, are they working for the poor people or for themselves, are they abusing people, why the administrative expenditure of NGOs is so high etc.
Factors contribute the effective rise of NGO
There are some factors that deny the effective rise of NGOs in Bangladesh. Poor governance is one of those factors. An ideal organization should have an executive committee consists of people from different sectors who are able to contribute for the organization at policy level. At local levels the Executive Committees of NGOs are formed with persons belong to heads of the organizations who cannot contribute for the organization. The heads of the organization are always afraid of internal conflict and to being cheated by committee members. This happened in many cases after fund received from donors. The members are not elected but selected by the head of the organization. Very often the members are family members such as wife, son or daughter, brother, cousin etc. These committees remain inactive and committee meetings hardly held in time. The members for general bodies are selected from persons who never become active nor pay membership subscription and sometimes, don't even know about their involvement in the General bodies. Members stay out of the country, don't attend meeting but membership updated. The Annual General Meetings are not held in time but resolutions prepared.
Registration is necessary as legal identity for an organization. Registration is given by different authorities such as Directorate of Social Services (DSS), Women Affairs Directorate, Youth Development Directorate, Directorate of Family Planning, Joint Stock Companies etc. A large number of documents needed for registration. Despite lack of knowledge in preparing the documents, NGOs become successful in getting registration because there are people who assist them. There are questions on quality and similarity of documents of different NGOs. It seems that the documents are copied from others. The organizations want intervention in every areas of development regardless of their capacity or need for such intervention. Goals and objectives not set properly or not clarified. Goals, objectives, programs, activities often mixed up and no descriptions on strategies. There are inconsistencies in programs and activities. Visions, missions are often not set.
Sustainability of NGO
Fund is one of the important factors that necessary for sustainability of an NGO. General Members' subscription can be a source for financing an NGO. Because of lack of active general members or executive committee members the NGOs can not create fund from internal or outside sources. Micro-credit activity is also can be source of funding. Micro-credit activities of Bangladeshi NGOs have been recognized as model for other countries but there are criticisms. Some NGOs become dependent on micro-finance activities for sustainability. These NGOs initiate activities on a large scale not justifying their capacity in context of manpower, logistics etc. to handle. High interest rate is also a cause for criticism. There are competitions among micro-credit support providers and it is difficult for the small NGOs to achieve success in the field. Sometimes, beneficiaries take loan from different organizations at a time and become unable to return the amount. They are being pressurized by the NGOs. There are apex bodies like Credit Development Forum (CDF) which are trying to coordinate micro-finance activities. In recent times the govt. has been trying to impose regulations to control malpractice in micro-finance sector.
Different departments of the government such as LGED, DSS, DNFE, WAD, YDD etc. include NGOs for implementation of projects. This is a good initiative indeed for sustainability of local NGOs. But it is alleged that fair judgment in selection of NGOs not ensured and NGOs receive fund in exchange of money or because of their political linkage. Good NGOs don't receive fund. At present some of the NGOs under different ministries have been listed because of financial misappropriation, poor quality of work or political linkage with the past government.
Donors in Bangladesh
Many people have come forward to establish NGO in recent times. Once there was a situation in Bangladesh, NGOs received fund just providing a one page write up on activities. The situation has been changed. Only a few of the registered NGOs get funds from foreign donors. This has not been realized by many people who are still on the run to establish NGO. Lack of constructive thinking towards socio economic development of our country, poor knowledge on development methods, organization development, management, organizational policy, programs, activities etc. make people failure achieving the success in this sector. Many of the people don't even have the ability to write letter to donors. Being denied to receive fund from donors, they lose everything.
It seems that donors have become very much cautious about giving funds to new NGOs. Because of the demand from a large number of NGOs it has been very difficult for donors to select suitable NGOs. In most cases the papers supplied by the NGOs don't provide enough information on activities. Information inconsistencies, duplication, misinformation etc. make the task difficult for donors. In fact, the donors don't have that much manpower to handle a large number of applications. Donors are puzzled with applications. As a short cut way to avoid problems the donors provide funds to big NGOs. In this case, the big NGOs take the responsibility to channel funds to others.
Registration, an important factor
Registration gives NGOs the permission to work for the community. At the time of registration the organization should be assessed whether it is really interested or capable to work for the community. The registration system should be strengthened. There should be a fair review of organization documents. Activities, programs, projects, vision, mission, governing body etc. to be reviewed by people with expertise on relevant issues. NGOs may have activities on legal support for women and children and it would be better if the concerned write up in the documents is read out by a person who is expert on legal issues. Write up on education to be reviewed by someone who has knowledge on education. The registration authorities at local levels (district or thana level offices) don't have expertise or manpower to thoroughly review a large number of organizational documents. A sub-committee consists of experts such as Educationist, Lawyer, Human rights activists etc. may be of some help for the purpose. The local administration may help the registration authorities at district levels to form a sub-committee. The registration officer of DSS should be the focal point of the committee while the ADC (Education & Development) who at present deals the NGO related issues will be the head of the sub-committee. The committee will sit regularly for review of applications. This will minimize workload of registration authorities and enhance purposive formation of NGOs.
Duplication of documents should be avoided. The registration authority should look into the issues of governing body formation. In no way family members should be allowed to become members of the governing body. The NGO may be advised to incorporate different sector people in the committee. Registration of youth clubs, cultural organizations or religious organizations as NGOs should be stopped. These organizations should not be mixed up with NGOs. Inclusion of these organizations only and destroys the image of NGOs.
Conclusion
It is true that existence of NGOs didn't bring down the number of poverty driven people in our country to a minimum level; the role of NGOs can never be ignored. NGOs had done enough in some specific fields such as employment generation; people's awareness on human rights, health & family planning and nutrition issues, education etc. NGOs have significantly enhanced the capacity and participation of women in income generation activities. NGOs are to supplement the govt. effort. NGOs to work side by side with the government and there should be initiatives to make the effort of NGOs purposive.
People without positive attitude to help distressed people should be discouraged from formation of NGO to avoid waste of money, manpower and time. Some people may have willingness to work for the society but lack of knowledge and ideas on activities, programs, or projects. Their willingness to contribute for the society is appreciable but there should be other scopes for them to work for the community. It was reported in 1988 that some NGOs had spent donors' funds for construction of buildings in the name of helping the flood victims. It was also reported that immediately after the fund received, the concerned person fled to a neighboring country and did not show up further. People have been experiencing flood again and NGOs have come forward again. This time the donors are very much cautious and those will not happen again. But this time NGOs have to bring back their good image.
The author is working as Site Coordinator, Department of Social Services (DSS), Jessore.
