Civil society and govt to tie the knot

The NGO sector can often be something of a nuisance to governments, but in Namibia they have decided to embrace their activists in a formal partnership to facilitate development. A policy document, later to be turned into law, advocates working with willing NGOs in recognition that civil society groups are often closer to the communities that government development programmes want to reach. "Neither this policy nor the proposed new legislation intend to control the activities of CSOs [civil society organisations] in Namibia," said Helmut Angula, director-general of the government's National Planning Commission. "The overall objective of the policy framework is to create an operational partnership for the country, its citizens and their civic organisations, as well as the government, which is the policy-making body," he added. A database of civic organisations will be compiled, a code of good practice developed, and the establishment of a partnership help-desk is planned. Namibia is a middle-income country, but has vast wealth inequalities stemming from its apartheid past. The government's initiative is based on a National Capacity Building Assessment study, undertaken to map the way forward to meet its ambitious Vision 2030 development plan. The report noted that government and civil society collaboration had, up until now, been "somewhat ineffective". "This may be due to the lack of clear guidelines on partnership, and because NGOs and civil society in general remain weak and divided, seldom able to present a common front on issues affecting them," said the report. Norman Tjombe, chair of the Namibian NGO Forum (Nangof), noted: "We are fortunate in Namibia to have an environment in which we can operate freely and engage in dialogue with government. We cannot say the same of other countries in our neighbourhood, where governments fear civil organisations and civil organisations fear governments." Tjombe stressed that civil society organisations were important partners in building prosperity. He cited the example of home-based care (HBC) programmes for people living HIV/AIDS, which is carried out almost exclusively by NGOs. "Those volunteers doing HBC are trained by such organisations and they really work at grassroots level, going from door to door in towns and villages and squatter camps," he pointed out. "This policy framework has given the partnership between the government and civil society a new momentum."