Civil society organisations should start networking
Uganda has over 7,000 civil society organisations (CSOs) doing development work in various sectors.
By Samuel Baale
Uganda has over 7,000 civil society organisations (CSOs) doing development work in various sectors.
However, over the years there have not been sufficient efforts to harmonise CSO work in a more collaborative approach where they could network, share knowledge and leverage resources to maximise synergies. This hampers their chances of learning from one another, and collaborating to influence decision making processes.
It also hampers their capacity to mobilise resources for their programmes, including further advocacy for adequate resources.
The existing partnerships among civil society organisations are often formed on the basis of financial relationships between grantees and sub-grantees of international organisations. Partnerships and networks involving CSOs, government agencies and other decision-makers are equally limited. Some networks formed in the past have either collapsed or got registered, becoming legal entities that ended up competing for resources with their own members, thereby killing the very ideals for which they were initiated.
Representation on ministerial technical working groups is not only limited, but also input and feedback mechanisms for CSOs are unclear. Meaningful interaction between the CSO fraternity and the development partners is also limited. A combination of such factors curtails the benefits of locally-driven dynamic networks.
For example, on governments’ and donors’ attempts to dialogue with civil society, CSOs have often been unable to provide coordinated input into the policy or decision-making processes in a consistent manner.
Under the Euroleverage project, the German Foundation for World Population Uganda is taking the lead in reshaping the face of networking. At this speed of emerging “boundary-less†economies, development actors, including CSOs must seek approaches that facilitate collaboration and programmatic coherence in order to address the immense demands of development.
It is only through meaningful networking that a finer platform for development cooperation processes can be laid.
Cooperation facilitates better understanding and appreciating the dynamics of the new aid architecture, including the principles of the Paris declaration with respect to aid effectiveness. This knowledge is concentrated in a few individuals who have participated in previous aid effectiveness meetings.
CSOs which still strive to work in isolation will, sooner or later, find themselves between a rock and a hard place, especially in terms of resource mobilisation. Donors are increasingly concentrating their resources geographically and thematically, freeing up resources to be redeployed through the new mechanisms of general budget support and sector development programmes.
I urge CSOs to join the Civic Coalition on Population and Development to leverage efforts in order to; strengthen advocacy in support of adequate resource allocation, effective policy and programme implementation and strengthening the capacity to mobilise resources.
The writer is the EU-funding
specialist for the German Foundation for the
World Population
Uganda has over 7,000 civil society organisations (CSOs) doing development work in various sectors.
However, over the years there have not been sufficient efforts to harmonise CSO work in a more collaborative approach where they could network, share knowledge and leverage resources to maximise synergies. This hampers their chances of learning from one another, and collaborating to influence decision making processes.
It also hampers their capacity to mobilise resources for their programmes, including further advocacy for adequate resources.
The existing partnerships among civil society organisations are often formed on the basis of financial relationships between grantees and sub-grantees of international organisations. Partnerships and networks involving CSOs, government agencies and other decision-makers are equally limited. Some networks formed in the past have either collapsed or got registered, becoming legal entities that ended up competing for resources with their own members, thereby killing the very ideals for which they were initiated.
Representation on ministerial technical working groups is not only limited, but also input and feedback mechanisms for CSOs are unclear. Meaningful interaction between the CSO fraternity and the development partners is also limited. A combination of such factors curtails the benefits of locally-driven dynamic networks.
For example, on governments’ and donors’ attempts to dialogue with civil society, CSOs have often been unable to provide coordinated input into the policy or decision-making processes in a consistent manner.
Under the Euroleverage project, the German Foundation for World Population Uganda is taking the lead in reshaping the face of networking. At this speed of emerging “boundary-less†economies, development actors, including CSOs must seek approaches that facilitate collaboration and programmatic coherence in order to address the immense demands of development.
It is only through meaningful networking that a finer platform for development cooperation processes can be laid.
Cooperation facilitates better understanding and appreciating the dynamics of the new aid architecture, including the principles of the Paris declaration with respect to aid effectiveness. This knowledge is concentrated in a few individuals who have participated in previous aid effectiveness meetings.
CSOs which still strive to work in isolation will, sooner or later, find themselves between a rock and a hard place, especially in terms of resource mobilisation. Donors are increasingly concentrating their resources geographically and thematically, freeing up resources to be redeployed through the new mechanisms of general budget support and sector development programmes.
I urge CSOs to join the Civic Coalition on Population and Development to leverage efforts in order to; strengthen advocacy in support of adequate resource allocation, effective policy and programme implementation and strengthening the capacity to mobilise resources.
The writer is the EU-funding
specialist for the German Foundation for the
World Population