New restrictions placed on NGOs

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in Angola will have to submit detailed reports and strictly adhere to national labour laws and other regulations as the government implements a law governing their activities. Rules passed in December 2002, designed to boost efficiency and coordination as the country moves to a reconstruction and development phase after 27 years of civil war, would be fully enforced, Minister of Social Welfare Joao Baptista Kussumwa said this week. Urging NGOs to embrace "a more healthy and useful cooperation", Kussumwa said that if limited resources were to be used efficiently, NGO projects should be included in the government's strategy for growth and fighting poverty. "To try to do many things at the same time, to please all of the people, could undermine the success of any initiative," he told a meeting of NGOs and the government's Technical Unit for Humanitarian Coordination (UTCAH). "We must concentrate our attention and strengths on clearly defined objectives to obtain the results we hope for." NGOs are still digesting the implications of the new system, but after having been allowed to operate freely during Angola's emergency years of the war and its immediate aftermath, some fear it could harm their autonomy and hamper their humanitarian efforts. "Many NGOs may find this a bit hard to swallow, because they have not had any previous reporting requirements to the Angolan government, and they have not been accountable to the government for their activities - although NGOs are accustomed to providing detailed reporting to their donors and their own 'boards,'" said the head of one NGO, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It will mean that NGOs will have to find out more about national procedures in employment; learn about national regulations, and work within them, so yes, it will restrict them to a certain extent." During the emergency years, NGOs, helped by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), could get working permits and visas relatively easily, while customs officers allowed relief equipment to pass through the system without extensive delays. Kussumwa's insistence that suitably qualified Angolans should get positions before foreigners – a practice common in many countries - has sparked concern that the government could clamp down on NGOs bringing in expertise from abroad. "We have no problem with the labour law, and many NGOs only bring in expatriate staff for training posts and highly specialised jobs," said the NGO head. "But my big concern is that we need to have a reasonably quick way of bringing staff in from abroad when we need external people ... It can take three months, or usually much more, to get a staff position filled for a one-year post." STILL AN EMERGENCY? The law is designed to ensure the efficiency of humanitarian aid, once OCHA relinquishes that role later this year, as part of Angola's transition from emergency to development. But some NGOs argue it is premature for the government to talk about transition when many parts of the country, particularly rural areas, still have dire needs. "For us, the country is still very much in an emergency situation. Most infrastructure in the interior is still destroyed, and there is no basic health care in 60 or 70 percent of the country," said another senior NGO official. While the government is rehabilitating some of the provincial hospitals, many health centres away from the more prosperous coastal cities have few qualified medical staff and a poor supply of medicines and equipment, with drugs failing to arrive at the right time or in the right quantities. President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said recently that there was one doctor for every 13,000 Angolans. But in some of the provinces more affected by the devastating civil conflict, the picture is even bleaker. In the central province of Bie, which was at the heart of the fighting, it is estimated that there are only three Angolan doctors to look after one million people, and Moxico in the east, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have returned since the end of the war, there are two doctors for half a million people. "To say the war is over, so we are now in development, is the wrong assumption. There is still an immediate need for health services, education services and food," said the NGO official. UN Children's Fund figures show that little over half (56 percent) of Angola's six- to nine-year-olds attend school, with that number plummeting to just six percent when they reach 10 and 11 years old. The World Food Programme is still supplying emergency food aid to large numbers of Angola's 13 million people and much remains to be done, even at the most basic level. "When 1.8 million people are still dependent on food aid, how can you say the country is going into a transition phase?," asked the NGO official. "Emergency funds are drying up - some organisations have stopped some of their programmes because of lack of funds. It’s really worrying," the official said. The government is calling on more transparency from NGOs, but serious concerns about its own accountability, amid allegations that billions of dollars have disappeared from government coffers, have cast doubts on its motives, some aid workers have alleged. "What the government wants are bilateral agreements, so the money goes directly to them. Right now, they think the money is just going straight to the NGOs - it's slipping out of their hands and they feel they are losing control. This is an effort to frustrate the humanitarian community, and move as fast as possible into bilateral agreements where they can have control over the funds," said one NGO official. However, Kussumwa insisted that NGOs would still have a key role to play as the country rebuilds. "In the new phase which we are beginning, your contribution will certainly continue to serve to make a difference to the lives of our communities," he told Monday's gathering. "Our common objective is to assist the needy Angolan population."