NGOs need to cement links with government

In the search for African solutions to African problems, the international donor community is increasingly regarding non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as essential for democracy and empowering people on the continent. It is argued that African NGOs are in a better position to empower civil society via people's organisations. Civil society can then act as a countervailing force to the power of the African state, bureaucracy, and the local elites. With this in mind, two Malawian academics have produced a comprehensive report that looks at the role of NGOs in the education sector in the impoverished Southern African country. The report, titled 'The changing roles of non-governmental organisations in education in Malawi', is aimed at highlighting the role NGOs are currently playing in strengthening education and to assist donors and host governments in the design, use and management of NGO-implemented programmes. At the outset the authors, Esme Kadzamira and Demis Kunje, both academics at the University of Malawi, point out that the involvement of NGOs in the education sector in Malawi is small and insignificant, "particularly when taking into account the vastness of the education sector". Despite the increase of enrolment at primary level after the introduction of free primary school education in 1994, access to education still remains the biggest problem in Malawi. The 1999 directory of NGOs listed only 56 NGOs as implementing programmes in formal education and skills training programmes. Kunje pointed out: "There has however been a change in focus of NGO activity in education from mere construction of schools to a more direct involvement in the implementation of education programmes and also in the policy formulation process." But as NGOs become more entrenched in Malawian civil society, the report noted that many NGOs had adopted a mulit-sectoral approach to development. "For instance, NGOs working in orphan care and HIV/AIDS prevention have usually included education components in their programmes. Other NGOs such as Action Aid and World Vision International have included health, food security, capacity building and economic empowerment," Kunje added. The report said that the biggest concern of NGOs had been the financing of their education activities, although funding was more of a problem for local NGOs to secure than their international counterparts. Almost all the local NGOs surveyed for the report cited funding as a major constraint, and most relied on local fundraising to finance their activities. Consequently, their areas of operation and scope of work tended to be small and limited to one district, or a single location in one district. Kunje said some of the major challenges facing NGOs in the education sector was the tight grip the government had on education in the country. "Because education is so centrally controlled it makes it difficult for NGOs to operate without any restraints which lessens their impact on the ground," he said. But NGOs have been dismayed by the lack of government commitment to the work they do. As such the report read: "There has been an implicit assumption that government would scale up NGO activities once they have demonstrated impact, but to a large extent this has not happened either because NGOs programmes have been poorly linked up with government plans and also because of a lack coordination and consultation between the two." It was regrettable, Kunje said, that most NGOs programmes have ended up as projects because of a lack of coordination both within the NGO community and also with government. "There is little learning from each other, but instead innovative ideas are being tried out by NGOs all the time before consolidating the lessons they have learnt," Kunje said. "In addition, in a centralised system of government, linkages have to be established between NGOs and various government ministries, which may be time consuming and demanding especially given that most NGOs have thin staff on the ground," the report read. The report concluded by suggesting that NGO activity needs to be monitored and regulated in order to bring about "some coherence and endure harmonisation of efforts within the sector". The report also urged NGOs to scale up their programmes by getting government to adopt some of its initiatives.