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| Sunday, 5 December 2004 |
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Guns turned on NGOs by political parties by Gamini Warushamana Some hard and baseless criticisms levelled against Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) by political parties may cause termination of millions of grants that are donated for socio-economic development programs by donor agencies and donor countries, warns Nimal Hewanila, Managing Director of the "Friends of Lanka". Friends of Lanka is a NGO engaged in socio-economic development activities in the Kegalle district. Though there are some controversies, NGOs are playing a very important role in the socio economic development of the country, Hewanila said that During the Cold- War era, NGOs were formed and used as spy agencies by both parties. This political argument against NGOs is based on the origin and past of NGOs. But today the world is different. Though it is true that even today some NGOs are acting with political agendas of some powerful nations, commonly all NGOs do not belong to that category. Even the United Nations has accepted the importance of these NGOs and it uses them in socio-economic development programs in the developing countries. The UN releases its funds to recognised NGOs in these countries to carry out projects and Friends of Lanka is one of them in Sri Lanka. There are several reasons that UN, other donor agencies and donor countries select NGOs to implement development projects in developing countries. One thing is non-availability of government agencies or structure that cover rural areas. India is one example and the Indian government helps NGOs to carry out development programs. In this sense, Sri Lanka does not need any NGO, because we have a very extensive government sector running to Grama Niladari level. The other reasons are inefficiency, bureaucracy, corruption, lack of accountability and political interference in the government sector Hewanila said. Hewanila said that NGOs have proven that they have overcome these bottlenecks and today not only donor agencies but also the government invites us to implement development projects. One example is Water and Sanitary project. Government has placed the Project as a separate entity out of the purview of the Water Board and the implementation is carried out by NGOs with the participation of the community. The project has got very important feed-back from NGOs and for the first time in Sri Lanka social scientists are engaged with engineers in the planning and designing of the project. We could extend the project beyond just water and sanitation and included environmental and other social aspects. In this project corruption has minimised and community participation and efficiency maximised. Four sub organisations of the Friends of Lanka are engaged in this project and are carrying out construction work worth Rs.130mn that provide benefits for over 20000 people. Another example is the Water and Sanitary Project in Wadugodapitiya colony, funded by the British High Commission. 'We built 30 toilets within 30 days as part of the sanitary project and the donors are happy while the water project will get off the ground soon. The project cost is Rs 1.2 million. _I am sure that none of the government agencies can complete a quality project within such a short period of time and without corruption' Hewanila said. Friends of Lanka is operating in all 11 AGA divisions in the Kegalle district. In every division there is a sub organisation engaged in different socio-economic projects. The Community Development Centre in Aranayaka AGA's division has conducted the conservation of local yam varieties project. Today the farmers of several selected villages have cultivated 40 local yam varieties. Now the Friends of Lanka is planning to commercially grow these varieties and has a plan to produce some processed foods from these traditional yams. They have identified a large export market for some of these varieties. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) funds the project. The NGO is also promoting organic agriculture in the Kegalle district. They have developed organic liquid fertiliser secreted by wormy culture. The project is carried out by the Daraniyagala organisation. The product is successfully utilising in soil development in tea estates and vegetable and fruit cultivation. This project is also funded by the UNDP. Conservation and cultivation of banana verities has been carried out by the Rambukkana division sub organisation of the Friends of Lanka. Now they have collected 35 local banana verities. This project is also funded by the UNDP. Friends of Lanka has completed ten micro hydro power projects in the Kegalle district during the past three years. The World Bank funds these projects and the funds and engineering consultation comes from the DFCC bank. These projects provide electricity to most remote rural areas. Construction work has been done with maximum community participation and the power plants are managed by Electricity Consumer Societies of the villages. There is a computer-training centre in the Friends of Lanka head office in Hettimulla. More than 500 rural students are now getting the benefits of this computer-training centre. There are 15 computers and well-qualified lecturers and instructors. The computer centre is very popular in the area because of its high quality and very moderate course fee. Horizon Fund of the Holland funds the project. Pointing out some school teachers leaving after an evening computer class, Hewanila explained the space created for NGOs by our inefficient government sector. They are teachers of the nearby school, which has a computer centre with 25 brand new computers and all other facilities but is not functioning, he said. Hewanila said that Friends of Lanka has a well-trained team of about 60 activists and employees. They are well aware of the modern trends in the world. Friends of Lanka allocates sufficient money to develop its human resources. "Normally donor agencies and other international links of NGOs provide local as well as overseas training opportunities for employees in NGOs. Therefore most of the activists and employees in NGOs are well trained, more efficient and productive than the government sector people. Their salaries are also well above government employees salaries" he was confident. Criticisms against NGOs are welcome but should be productive. If the government is working properly we will not have any work. Without solving those problems NGOs cannot be abolished. Government monitoring, proposed taxes in this budget are acceptable. Hewanila concluded. |
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