NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD GOVERNANCE
3.10 DEVELOPING INSTITUTIONS FOR ENHANCING GOOD GOVERNANCE
3.10.3 Role of the non-governmental organisations
If different levels of government are supportive of each other, this creates confidence for the private sector. Investors and the private sector demand a good climate of good governance in a particular country for them to invest.
In fact, by the early 1990s NGOs had acquired a reputation for:
• Being capable of reaching the poor and targeting assistance to chosen groups;
• Obtaining true, meaningful participation of intcrlded beneficiaries;
• Achieving the correct relationship between processes and outcomes;
• Choosing the proper mix of assistance - educational, technical, material;
• Being flexible and responsive in their work;
• Strengthening local level institutions;
• Achieving outcomes at less cost;
• Tailoring interventions to the needs of specific situations;
• Experimenting with alternative ideas and practices;
• Employing long-term, strategic perspectives and time scales;
• Undertaking people-centred problem identification and research;
• Analysing and identifying with the realities of the poor (Molomo and Somolekae in Hope & Somolekae, 1998:98).
Although the concept of civil society means many things to many people, it is, according to Kotze (in Maharaj, 1999: 173), "a political concept because it is essentially about power - the power of non- state actors to participate in making decisions that have an im~act
on them". For their part, NGOs are among the only formal organisations to enjoy a degree of autonomy from government and to have a direct presence among mobilised communities at the grassroots level. Governments and NGOs therefore find themselves in a new and challenging juxtaposition that requires leaders on both sides to ponder the potential for conflict or complementarity between their institutions (Kotze in Maharaj, 1999: 173).
Recently in South Africa, one major NGO Le. the Treatment Action Campaign led a successful campaign to get the government to provide anti-retroviral drugs to HIV-positive mothers to prevent mother-ta-child transmission.
NGOs play an integral part in development by providing assistance and support to communities which are otherwise neglected by the public and private sectors. As voluntary institutions, they are motivated not by profit, but by the need to uplift and empower communities which otherwise may be ignored by the state.
In some countries there is a parallel movement towards popular participation and the empowerment of civil society. For many decades ordinary citizen, powerless and disillusioned in the face of economic decline and tyranny, have turned their backs on the basic workings of their state. Their failure to participate in civic life has worked to speed political and economic decline and has worsened the lot of citizens. It is now widely accepted that a quest for democracy and a good governance campaign cannot be sustained without broad popular support and the dedication and hard work of all citizens (ECA, 1999: 4).
3.10.3.1 Strengths of NGOs
Maharaj and Jaggernath quoted by Du Toit et al (1998:265) state that with the increasing democratisation of the developing world, there has been a great expectation from funding agencies and development policy-makers that NGOs would contribute to a stronger civil society and promote good governance.
Overall, NGOs have a special ability to do the following:
• Reach the poor and other populations not served by the public or private sectors. This function reflects their commitment to helping the poor and other disadvantaged groups in society.
• Facilitate the mobilisation of local resources and the development of private organisations through which the poor can participate in their own development. Non-governmental organisations are very versatile and can easily identify and adapt to local needs and circumstances.
• Provide basic services at a low cost. This is related to the ability of NGOs to galvanise local resources and voluntary labour.
• Find creative solutions to unique problems and support successful innovation in government programmes. This capacity is related to their small size, administrative flexibility and relative freedom from political constraints (Brown & Korten quoted by Du Toit et ai, 1998: 265).
The government's inability to fulfill its campaign promises and to meet its social development targets has, however, accordinr, to Tapscott (in Maharaj, 1999: 237), given a new lease of life to the NGO sector. He says the failure of the RDP to deliver, in particular, prompted government departments to engage NGOs on a far more serious level than in the past. This has raised the prospects for a more fruitful partnership with the state.
One of the barometers of the status of democracy in any country is the number of NGOs it has, and their influence. NGOs often are an anathema to authoritarian regimes (whether of the extreme Left or the extreme Right) because they challenge the absolute grip the regime has in every area of life. Democracies are by nature pluralistic, checks and balances within government being
complemented by checks and balances outside it (The Mercury, February 2004).
The establishment of the South African National NOO Coalition (SANOOCO) in 1995, in particular, gave a new voice to the NOO community, and its formation "represented an important historical moment for civil society in South Africa".
3.10.3.2 Challenges facing NGOs
The challenge facing NOOs, together with governments and the private sector is to redefine the principles of development, demClcracy and sovereignty in the light of mounting poverty, growing inequalities, looming environmental threats and the ever-clearer interdependence of nations.
Co-operative governance and institutions involved pose interesting challenges to legislators and NOOs. One important challenge, according to Oordhan (in Maharaj, 1999: 207), is to find in the new governing culture and practices, the balance between, on the one hand, innovation, diversity and competition and, on the other, uniformity and co-operation.
Ordinary citizens at the community level have always been important actors in South Africa's political economy and this has not changed.
One of the key challenges is for government to find ways to draw all other stakeholders in at the right level to promote good governance, peace, growth and development.
NOOs, therefore, have a vital role to play in empowering ordinary people by presenting alternatives to the options offered by sham democracies and by playing a watchdog role over standards ~-md
practices. Legal, medical, developmental and environmentalist NGOs are good examples, setting standards and creating value systems and lobby groups that support true democracy across international boundaries (The Mercury, 2004).
3.11 THE CHALLENGE OF IMPLEMENTING GOOD GOVERNANCE