Current trends in the detail of nations’ development processes point to an increasingly growing consensus on the importance of engagement, participation, involvement and overall pluralistic approach to defining the relationship between governments on one side and other critical stakeholders, such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and advocacy groups on the other side.
The relatively common or sufficient consensus on the importance of non-state actors in development is a critical aspect of how governments and in particular public services draft and put in place mechanisms through which they actualize this perspective. I don’t have enough space to go at length on the origins and justification for this type of citizen engagement, but I will just briefly point out some of the underlying assumptions of this argument.
It is widely held that non-state actors, in particular NGOs and advocacy groups, possess certain characteristics which give them a comparative advantage over governments and donors in implementation of general welfare programmes and projects. I will not debate the extent of the validity or evidence of the correctness or accuracy of this assertion in here, but in most countries, including our own, NGOs can point to successful projects, some of which are in pockets of societies where even governments had yet to make the difference. It is however equally recognised and accepted that worldwide the activities of these organizations are generally of small scale and often reach a relatively limited number of citizens. These basic assumptions look at the ability of NGOs to reach and impact on the poor and marginalised groups as critical, largely because of inherent low costs and effectively robust interventions these programs entail. I suppose as I discuss these aspects one would want to locate the place and role of NGOS in Botswana and gauge as to whether they too exhibit characteristics of NGOs of the nature described above.
The development processes of this country have always been led, patterned, directed and controlled by the public sector. NGOs, while a part of this development process, have been largely restricted to small scale and limited interventions. This has been compounded by the worldwide problem of very under-resourced NGOs (financial & Human). To the extent that some are also dependent on grants from government makes their visibility and independent of thought and engagement marginal and sometimes insignificant. This is not to in any way to suggest that NGOs in Botswana have not had an impact in the development processes. I am sure we are aware of the various successes some of the NGOs in the country have achieved either as single entities or through joint or conglomerate efforts.
In the context of the tendency to have limited access and narrow scope of their activities, a trend has emerged over the last few years, which seeks to ┬┤scale-up” the impact of NGOs so as to increase their impact and ensure that more numbers of the poor and marginalised sections of societies actually benefit from the good work that these NGOs and advocacy groups are doing. This new perspective about NGOs, seeks to create a space within which governments can measure and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of programmes and projects under the control of NGOs, especially welfare programmes. On the basis of this assessment, governments can scale-up the nature and extent of the assistance required by these NGOs and increase avenues of citizen engagement and participation. The ultimate focus of this approach is to identify programmes and projects that have a potential to sustain impact and effectiveness in welfare areas that include up-liftment of the economic status of the poor, creation of new opportunities for employment, especially those that can translate into long-term benefits on increased consumption, savings and investment. The mention of these long-term benefits would provide a poser as to the extent to which current welfare programmes in Botswana under both government and NGOs have the potential to achieve increased consumption, savings and investment.
My argument is that while both government and the various NGOs in Botswana probably agree that there is need to scale-up the nature of assistance to the poor and marginalised sections of Batswana, this is not necessarily accompanied by efforts towards making NGOs a more active partner in the development processes of a welfare nature. Currently, the backyard gardens and constituency sports tournaments are some of government’s major projects in addressing problems of unemployment, poverty and related social ills, but NGOs are effectively only seen as peripheral in these initiatives. I believe the public service must as a matter of urgency systematically assess the potential role of NGOs in the implementation of welfare programmes and measure the extent of possible increased effectiveness. This will provide this nation with a possible truly multifaceted approach for creating and stimulating constructive citizen engagement that will maximize the public’s participation and resourcefulness.
It could also be helpful to have the assessment include the identification of the types of projects that must constitute the “ideal” welfare package to communities. I am saying this because often when we speak welfare, a large component of those projects is on social services and the relief side. Could it not be an idea to ponder on, whether we should start concentrating on projects that centre on credit, income generation, skills training and technical assistance and exclude those on social services and relief for the immediate and short term? This would be to attempt to create a platform for programmes and projects that are more likely to address that long-term ideal of creating a chance for increased consumption/production, savings and investment as aspects that could easily entrench the sustainability of the impact and effectiveness of our welfare programmes. I am aware that this type of assessment will require more than just a determination of types of programmes to include or exclude. It is an intense exercise that would have to look at aspects such as location of projects (rural or urban), sector specificity and others, including possible need for striking a balance amongst and between the varying determinants.
All these must be undertaken with the full participation of NGOs and in some instances advocacy groups for the long-term sustainability of our welfare programmes.
Molaodi teaches Public Administration at the University of Botswana
