Since many of our friends lives revolve through how NGOs serve them,
this article is worth-reading and deserves respectful discussion
without naming and blaming. aren't NGOs working in the blind sector
need guidance how to go forward in 21st century? I think they should
engage with academia and the beneficiaries regularly. Disability
researchers,NGOs and the government 3some should work in tendom!
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/ngos-the-good-bad-and-the-ugly/article7127580.ece
With Greenpeace and various non-profits under the scanner, it is time
to revive the idea ofan accreditation agency for the sector
COLLABORATE:"It's an opportune moment for the government and NGOs to
together clean up their act." File photo shows activists of Oxfam
India, Greenpeace India and Global Climate Action wearing a mask
during a sensitisation campaign on climate change marking Global Day
of Action on climate change-- PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
COLLABORATE:"It's an opportune moment for the government and NGOs to
together clean up their act." File photo shows activists of Oxfam
India, Greenpeace India and Global Climate Action wearing a mask
during a sensitisation campaign on climate change marking Global Day
of Action on climate change-- PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
"In Sheraton hotels in scattered nations, We damn multinational
corporations; Injustice seems so easy to protest,
In such seething hotbeds of social rest."
('The Development Set', Ross Coggins, 1976)
The newest remix of Ross Coggins' poem has come from none other than
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he commented about "five-star
activists" in an address early this month to the judiciary. The
difference is, Ross Coggins was an insider who wrote a scathing satire
on social service workers who travel from rich countries to save the
developing world -- "although we move with the better classes, / Our
thoughts are always with the masses." Mr. Modi, far from having any
intention of guiding India's non-profits or holding a mirror up to
them, seems to have simply anointed himself as a rating agency for the
voluntary sector. However, in the background of the heightened
scrutiny of NGOs, coming in the wake of the protests against nuclear
power plants and mining operations, Mr. Modi's jibe is more than just
an outlier.
The uproar around NGOs today is an opportune moment for the government
and the voluntary sector to work together to clean up their act. It is
time to again broach the idea of a national accreditation agency for
non-profits. The erstwhile Planning Commission had built the
groundwork for this in the National Policy on the Voluntary Sector
2007 and had come up with a set of guidelines set forth in the
Eleventh and Twelfth Five Year Plans for the sector. Although the
policies were not ultimately adopted, the directions were arrived at
after extensive consultations with multiple stakeholders and they
reflected a positive and collaborative spirit. Most importantly, they
were founded in recognition of the nuances underlying the sector and
the evolving dynamics of its relationship with society and with
government.
The first move was to shelve the idea of importing rankings because
the Indian voluntary sector is neither as single-purposed as the hotel
industry nor as amenable to hierarchical gradation as the military,
two spheres where ratings are dominant. The voluntary sector in India
is diverse in purpose, nature and approach. As rating agencies would
admit, standardised measurement methodologies for social sector
organisations are still an emerging field and comparisons across
sub-sectors would be bananas and limes, far less apples and oranges.
However, intermediary organisations such as rating agencies could
definitely be beneficial in building a robust voluntary sector, where
the link between performance and incentives is not always holy.
The experience of rating agencies across the world reveals that
ratings (alphabets or stars) are helpful, especially to donors, in
reducing transaction costs, while making investment decisions based on
financial health, to check compliance of statutory norms, etc. This
has been found to work especially well with certain sub-sectors such
as commercial microfinance but not as well for agencies with multiple
bottom-lines, intangible results, or whose primary purpose is to hold
the state accountable. These are exactly the non-profit organisations
about whom self-serving perceptions are formed and which are
exploited, when needed, with a political vendetta. It was, therefore,
rightly decided that ratings could not be a stand-alone solution to
build credibility or assess non-profits.
Accreditation could work
The second move was to acknowledge that accreditation could be a
win-win starting point and that mainstreaming this would be a logical
step to take. Accreditation is the process of certifying voluntary
organisations based on a set of agreed and codified norms, principles,
standards and practices. Credibility Alliance, a network of voluntary
organisations in India, has been a pioneer of this in India. There
have been similar experiments nurtured by donors and consultancy
agencies. Yet, accreditation of the NGO sector has not yet blossomed
to its full potential, for it has remained outside the state's
engagement. All attempts have been voluntary and were born out of a
self-regulatory spirit or donor interest, although the benefits in
terms of public perception, investor confidence, and donor guidance
are well documented.
It is in this context that a consensus was reached to set up an
autonomous accreditation authority -- National Accreditation Council of
India or NACI -- in 2012. However, it only progressed to the extent
that a document was prepared by the Council for Advancement of
People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), a government body,
whose existence itself was under the scanner.
During the multiple engagements between 2007 and 2014 between the
Indian government and the voluntary sector on institutionalising
accreditation, it was decided that NACI will need to be autonomous,
have equal representation of both government and voluntary
organisations, develop a methodology in consultation with the sector
and, most importantly, respect the diversity of the sector in terms of
size, location, nature and theme.
A certificate from NACI will still not be sufficient to avoid
broad-brushing or selective marking of non-profits or activists. Yet,
if the Prime Minister truly believes in building a credible voluntary
sector, it is imperative to move ahead and revive the NACI idea.
Without that, "five-star" will only mark the level of trust deficit
between the present government and the voluntary sector.
(Balakrishnan Madhavan Kutty is a Harvard graduate in non-profit
management, and has supported non-profits across India and the U.S.)
--
Avinash Shahi
Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU
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