In many countries, international NGOs have replaced traditional western donors and absentee states' influence by providing services that are traditionally the responsibility of the home governments. The growing trend is for international NGOs wield increasing power and resources in fragile states or so-called ‘failed states’. Western countries prefer to route donor funds through international NGOs rather than national governments, which are perceived as corrupt, bureaucratic or incompetent. The amount of aid flowing through NGOs in Africa rather than governments has more than tripled.
Governance and participation in health
NGOs: The new colonial powers in Africa?
Foreign Policy: 6 January 2009
Performance accountability and combating corruption
Shah A: World Bank, 2008
Shah’s book presents the latest thinking of leading development scholars on operationalising a framework of governance to empower citizens to demand accountability from their governments. Focusing on the question of how to institutionalise performance-based accountability, especially in countries that lack good accountability systems, the essays in the book describe how institutions of accountability may be strengthened to combat corruption. In general, the essays in the book highlight the causes of corruption and the use of both internal and external accountability institutions and mechanisms to fight it. It provides advice on how to tailor anticorruption programs to individual country circumstances and how to sequence reform efforts to ensure sustainability. They offer insights into ways policy makers can initiate governance reforms that introduce performance-based accountability in the public sector.
5 December: Great day for volunteers’ unity
Yu J: e-Civicus, 5 December 2008
Volunteers and volunteer-involving organisations around the world celebrated International Volunteer Day on 5 December in order to increase recognition of the contribution of volunteerism to peace and development. International Volunteer Day was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 17 December 1985. Since then volunteers and volunteer-involving organisations have joined with governments, NGOs, UN agencies and other partners to celebrate volunteerism and lay the ground for future activities. Yet volunteerism remains under-recognised and under-utilised as a resource for development, lamented the UN Secretary-General in his message this year. He urged all to continue to make every effort to raise awareness, measure impact and recognise that their efforts are making a positive difference.
Financial crisis: The poor have their say…
Barrat P: e-CIVICUS 417, 27 November 2008
The poor have not been consulted about the current global financial crisis. So far, all gatherings have been of the rich, from the World Economic Forum to the G8 Summit. At some point in the future, poor countries will merely be requested to endorse the decisions already taken by rich countries and to pick up the remaining crumbs. Ironically, the five powers that decide on war and peace within the UN Security Council are also the five biggest arms dealers of the planet (China, USA, Russian Federation, France and the UK). Rich countries are also the sole decision-makers in the reform of the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank and International Monetary Fund) that take money from poor and indebted countries. It’s time for poor countries to be given an opportunity to take part in these crucial decisions.
Gates Foundation gives millions for coverage of world health
McNeil DG: New York Times, 8 December 2008
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which spends billions on global health, is taking a direct route to ensuring global health coverage for all. NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in the United States received a Gates Foundation grant of US$3.5 million to help its correspondents produce 40 to 50 reports over three years on malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis, measles, neglected diseases and other global health issues. It came with ‘no strings’, reported the managing producer of NewsHour, which is seen on 315 PBS stations, noting that, if her reporters found a story critical of the Foundation’s work and Mr Gates objected, she’d let him defend it, of course, but was still determined to proceed with the story.
Research and policies lack civil society input
Inter Press Service: 20 November 2008
Health experts and activists have heavily criticised African governments for failing to collaborate with civil society organisations (CSOs) on health research and health policy development. Governments tend to perceive CSOs as a threat because they are independent, often critical of government and see their role as holding politicians accountable, health activists said during the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Ministerial Forum for Health Research in Bamako, Mali. As a result, many governments ignore calls for public participation. Without inclusion of CSOs, African governments' efforts to create sustainable health systems would fail. With increased partnerships between researchers, governments and CSOs, the health agenda could be taken forward more efficiently and in a more equitable way.
Women-led NGOs make the difference
Maro I: Daily News, 4 November 2008
This article discusses the exemplary leadership women have displayed in organisations they lead in Tanzania, such as women-led organisations like the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA), Women in Legal Aid Committee (WILAC), Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), Medical Women Association of Tanzania (MEWATA), Equal Opportunities Trust Fund (EOTF), Wanawake na Maendeleo (WAMA) and the Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA). All these organisations have well-established constitutions-legally-binding documents that guide their operations, permanent premises, dynamic organisational structures and transparency in their operations as well as clean certificates of books of accounts. The organisations’ activities are generally recognised by the government, general public and the international community.
Community-based worker systems: Guidelines for practitioners
Mbullu, P: African Institute for Community-Driven Development (Khanya-AICDD), 2007
These guidelines aim to assist practitioners and implementing partners to run community-based worker (CBW) systems more effectively, maximising impacts for clients of the service, empowering communities, empowering the CBWs themselves, and assisting governments to ensure that services are provided at scale to enhance livelihoods. They are aimed at practitioners in government, civil society or the private sector already involved or interested in the practical application of community-based worker models. Topics include the generic components of the CBW system, deciding where to use a CBW approach, preparing for implementation and operationalising the CBW system. Descriptions are provided for the different elements of the system, along with step-by-step guidance.
Report from Round Table 6: The role of civil society in enhancing aid effectiveness
Advisory Group on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness: September 2008
The aim of the Round Table was to build upon the work of the Advisory Group on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness (AG-CS). A first point of consensus to emerge from RT6 was recognition of the many roles of civil society, and of the importance and value of civil society organisations (CSOs) as development actors in their own right and as aid recipients, donors and partners. A way forward was proposed, involving donors, governments, and CSOs themselves, and shared leadership for different aspects of this work. It includes working together to provide a more enabling environment for CSOs, working on how CSOs can develop more effective partnerships with each other, including North- South, South-South, global networks and national umbrella organisations, offering support for the CSO-led Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness and preparing the ground for CSO engagement in the High-Level 4, ensuring that a multi- stakeholder perspective on CSO effectiveness is a major theme of HLF4.
The extent of community and public support available to families caring for orphans in Malawi
Kidman R and Heymann SJ: Institute for Health and Social Policy, McGill University, 10 October 2008
Malawi is poised to drastically expand safety nets to orphans and their families, and this study will provide an important foundation for this process. The study analysed nationally representative data from 27,495 children in the 2004–2005 Malawi Integrated Household Survey. It found that friends and relatives provided assistance to over 75% of orphan households through private gifts, but organised responses to the orphan crisis were far less frequent. Over 40% of orphans lived in a community with support groups for the chronically ill and about a third of these communities provided services specifically for orphans and other vulnerable children. Public programmes, which form a final safety net for vulnerable households, were more widespread. Free/subsidised agricultural inputs and food were the most commonly used public safety nets by children's households in the past year and households with orphans were more likely to be beneficiaries.