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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Government suspension of NGO field operations - Index of articles
NGO
heads concerned about government's latest attempt to control CSOs
National
Association of Non-Governmental Organisations in Zimbabwe (NANGO)
September 03, 2008
Heads of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) from Harare
met today and deliberated about the decisions taken by the Ministry
of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare as announced on 29
August and 1 September 2008 to;
- Selectively
lift the suspension on NGO field operations,
- Ask for
continuous compliance with the "Policy on Operations on
Non-Governmental Organisations in Humanitarian and Development
Assistance", and
- Introduce
a new Monitoring & Evaluation Instrument for NGOs in form
of a questionnaire which has to be filled out and forwarded electronically
to the Ministry by the end of September 2008 - failure to
comply with this directive automatically renders such organisations
"Candidates for Deregistration".
The meeting
expressed serious concern about the "Divide and Rule"
tactic applied by the Government in that:
- The suspension
on NGO field operations was selectively lifted for humanitarian/welfarist
organisations. Field operations of PVOs operating in other sectoral
areas remain under suspension.
- The Ministry
of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare stresses that only
Organisations registered under the Private
Voluntary Organisations Act had been affected by the ban.
Therefore the partial lift of the ban would also only apply to
PVOs. But at the operational level other organisations e.g. Trusts
and Networks continue to experience difficulties due to the blanket
suspension of PVO/NGO field work that was announced in June 2008.
The NGO representatives
also refuted a claim raised by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour
and Social Welfare in the meeting of 1 September 2003 that government
and the NGO sector had "agreed" on the "Policy
on Operations on Non-Governmental Organisations in Humanitarian
and Development Assistance".
NANGO stressed that it had never been consulted in the drafting
of that policy and that the NGO community has never formally "agreed"
to the policy. The Policy was unilaterally announced by the government.
The NGO representatives thereby stressed that the government should
not impose policies without consultation of Civil Society.
The introduction
of the new Monitoring & Evaluation Instrument for NGOs was seen
by the representatives of NGOs as a re-introduction of the highly
contested NGO Bill "through the back door" after government
failed to introduce this legislation in 2005. There was consensus
that the new Monitoring & Evaluation Instrument was introduced
on political grounds to tighten the government's grip on NGOs
and to possibly close some NGOs. However the meeting acknowledged
that according to the PVO Act and the General Notice 99 of 2007
"Code of Procedure for the Registration and Operations of
Non-Governmental Organisations" the government had the right
to request books, accounts and records from NGOs. But organisations
could not be forced to disclose information which they are not required
to by the law. Organisations expressed concern about uncurbed probing
by government into NGOs.
Further, it
was stressed that the new Monitoring and Evaluation Instrument is
an unnecessary duplication process since NGOs are already accountable
to government through various reporting obligations such as the
submission of annual reports to the Ministry.
In conclusion
the NGO representatives stressed the importance of the state doing
more to facilitate increased service delivery by NGOs irrespective
of them being registered as e.g. PVOs, Trusts or Networks bearing
in mind the constrained humanitarian conditions for the vast majority
of Zimbabweans. The NGO sector stands united in its expression of
concern about the government's latest attempt to control CSOs.
Visit the NANGO
fact
sheet
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