What key challenges you had when you were elected as AIN Chair?
When I started, the country was going through a lot of changes. The people's movement II had just concluded. Questions were being raised about the role of I/NGOs in the new Nepal.
On the one hand, the expectation of the community (from INGOs) had risen. On the other hand, frequent change of government was a quite a challenge because each new government had its own set of policy, perception and ways of working with INGOs. In such a context, it was not easy to move ahead.
Secondly, my predecessor Shib eshji was both a professional and an activist. And he had lots of experience. I was just a professional. So the challenge for me was bigger.
How much do you think have been accomplished?
Not much actually. For example, we tried to positively influence the formulation of Social Development Act to make timely changes in it. We held series of high-level meetings and interactions. We were assured that we would be consulted at least in areas that influence and concern INGOs. But we have not been consulted till now.
Similarly, there are several issues on which we need to dialogue with Social Welfare Council. We have done so; we have frequently, actively and strongly put forth our position and perspectives. But conclusions have not been reached as yet. Unstable political situation, differences in policies of political parties etc are main causes behind it.
But it is true that AIN grew and expanded under your leadership?
That's true. But it dnews_id not start during my tenure. I just gave continuity and provnews_ided impetus. I encouraged more INGOs to join AIN. So, we grew in quantity.
But we also improved in quality as well. For example, the Working Groups (WGs). They are increasing in number and also in terms of their work. Through WG, the schism between government and AIN has narrowed. Participation of members in Plenary is also improving. I always encouraged all the members to participate, to have their say and share. But there is still room for improvement. Still the more vocal and active members are quite the same lot, others just listen. We need to encourage the latter to be vocal and active.
Another achievement is that we have been able to forge strong relationship with the UN. This has been very helpful in dealing with problems and pressures arising from the conflict situation in the country, especially after we became signatory to the Basic Operating Gunews_idelines (BOGs). Moreover, the UN Resnews_ident Coordinator has been very helpful in taking INGO voice to the ministry as well as to donors. Lately, AIN was also invited in the National Development Council meeting (of National Planning Commission), where our Vice Chair participated.
In nutshell, the perception of government of INGOs has improved for sure. There has been the recognition that INGOs have contributed in the development sector. But still we have not been able to fully establish that INGOs are development partners in true sense. We have not been able to change the perception of especially leaders of political parties and office bearers in the government.
But what I want to say is whatever has been achieved is because of the excellent team work we had, and support and contributions by my colleagues in the team. It was a joint venture indeed.
There is this perception that INGOs are not transparent and accountable.
Definitely. The perception is there. We need to do more than what we are doing now. The perception might be biased to some extent but it might also be true. We can''t say all INGOs are perfect. What exactly should be done should come from more in-depth discussion among ourselves. What I can say for now is that we need to work on all levels and with all key stakeholders.
AIN has developed gunews_idelines for social audit. It could be a helpful tool. It could be effective at district and community level. Even if we could only provnews_ide some information about our projects, partners, budget, expenditure etc, it will be helpful. We also need to hold constant dialogue with government agencies about such issues, especially because office bearers change frequently.
What do you think should be the priority of AIN in the near future?
First and foremost, efforts must be put to establish that INGOs are important and responsible stakeholders for the development of the country. We are not donors and should not present and behave like donors. If we do so, other stakeholders will behave with us accordingly.
The contributions of INGOs have not been interpreted appropriately. The focus is on money: how much is spent for what, how much is the overhead cost etc. The donors are also asking the same questions to us. Donors are mostly supply driven. They provnews_ide the money and they want the work done. Our approach should be more demand driven. That requires that we take up the role of development catalyst, partner and activist, rather than that of donor. We also need to make others understand this fact.
Another is the new foreign anews_id policy. There is a paragraph about INGOs in it, which is controversial. If it is finalized keeping the paragraph unchanged, we will be in problem. We need to start the dialogue urgently. We also need to influence the social development act before it is finalized. Probably, next government will be formed soon. So we need to act fast.
Where do you see INGOs in the changing political and development context?
The country is going for federalism. In the post-federalized Nepal, every state will have major say in development programs and activities of the state concerned. Consequently, we have to be able to work in a new decentralized political system. That requires that our activities be need based, demand driven and rights based. We need to practice these development slogans in real sense if we want to be successful.
The works of many INGOs are not demand based; we cannot mobilize resource as per local needs. We rather design projects based on resource consnews_ideration. There is also a need to educate donors to change this situation. INGOs can do this better than others.
Importantly, INGOs should not take the attitude that the county needs us forever and we should be here forever. We will not be effective if we work with that mentality. The day we fulfill our visions and missions, the day we can leave it to local NGOs to continue the work and the day we work ourselves out of work, we should consnews_ider that our biggest achievement.
Chij Kumar Shrestha
Immediate Past Chair, AIN