 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 April 2000 Issue No. 476 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 April 2000 Issue No. 476
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Summit Features Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Potential partners
By Rasha Saad
across the barricades
The nature of the relationship between NGOs and governance in the Arab countries was the focus of discussion by Arab and foreign specialists at a three-day conference held in Cairo earlier this week.
The conference was jointly organised by UNESCO, the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, the French Centre of Legal, Economic and Social Studies and Documentation (CEDEJ) and the Institute of Research for Development (IRD).
According to Sarah Ben Nafissa of the IRD, the attitude of Arab governments towards NGOs varies according to their activities. "The NGOs which are involved in public affairs, such as the question of development, or political issues, such as human rights and democracy, usually upset Arab governments because they give themselves the right to criticise state policies," she told Al-Ahram Weekly.
On the other hand, she added, the NGOs that are service providers, such as in the health and education sectors, do not face the same problems because they are viewed as compensating for the government's shortcomings in these spheres.
That democracy is restricted in the Arab world was seen by most participants as one of the major obstacles facing Arab NGOs. Ben Nafissa contrasted the attitude of Arab governments with that of Western ones. "In Western countries, there is a heritage of exercise of democracy and a more distinctive vision in sharing political and social roles. The Arab governments, on the other hand, have not yet apprehended the vital role these organisations play in the progress of the community," she said.
The independence of financial resources is another challenge also faced by Arab NGOs. These NGOs should depend on internal resources coming from the private sector, but the business community in the Arab countries is believed to be in close relationship with the administrative machinery and politics. Thus, some Arab NGOs, particularly those whose targets are not of a socio-charitable nature, find themselves forced to turn to foreign and international donors and establish contact with international NGOs. This leads to problems with Arab governments which feel that their ability to monitor associations and NGOs is limited. As a result, governments diversify their administrative techniques of intervention in the affairs of NGOs that receive foreign funding.
Although hailed by the public as filling the gap between the governments' declared policies on social justice and the bitter reality of the absence of participation and social injustice, NGOs are criticised by their governments as "jumping on the bandwagon" of foreign funding and substituting national struggle and development work with material and political interests, participants said.
However, looking on the brighter side, Guilain Denoeux, a project consultant for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), believes that although governments may be uncomfortable with, or even irritated by, the pressures these advocacy NGOs bring to bear, "governments often have little choice but to demonstrate at least a minimal level of political will to tackle the governance issues highlighted by NGOs."
Denoeux, representing the viewpoint of donors, highlighted donor strategies for improving governance in Arab countries. According to him, there are two strategic approaches that should be appropriately mixed, depending on where the country finds itself in the process of transition to -- or consolidation of -- democratic governance.
One approach is the "demand-side" assistance strategy, which assumes that the most effective way of improving governance in the Arab world is to strengthen specific components of civil society, including service-oriented and advocacy NGOs, in relation to the state. The other one is the "supply-side" assistance strategy that, by contrast, focuses on improving the quality of governance that is "supplied" by the state. Such assistance strategies, according to Denoeux, focus on strengthening government institutions which shape the quality of governance in a certain country. The reason behind favouring this mixture of the two approaches, he said, is that "while civil society can be helpful in promoting democracy by proposing new ideas, putting on the agenda things that would not be there if the government was the only player, government institutions (are the only authority which) can take the next step and convert these efforts into politics and norms."
However, some of the participants criticised the "supply" strategy on the grounds that the majority of Arab regimes are authoritarian and, by strengthening government institutions, donors are indirectly supporting these regimes. But Denoeux argued that "this is a misunderstanding of the situation on the ground." He explained that even in authoritarian regimes, there are pockets of reform and that the political will to reform varies considerably in government institutions, and even within the same institution. "Our role is to pinpoint those agents of reform and help them apply their agenda," he concluded.
