Who Should Own Development?
A strong, confident NGO community will be central to mediation between the state and the private sector in a democracy that is facing the risky politics of social welfare.
By Gail M. Leftwich
As the aid window closes for Africa, it is imperative that South Africa’s NGO community “gets its act together” in order to provide a coherent vision of the development challenge and innovative ways to meet it. Events seem to have overtaken all the institutional players in South Africa, especially the NGO (Non-Government Organisations) community. With economic growth and job creation slowing, and poverty levels rising among all groups, there is a critical need for serious, focused examination of the needs and priorities which should comprise development policy in a democratic South Africa. And, it is South Africa’s historically robust NGO community which must play the leadership role in the defining development policy, as it is, and should continue to be, the main provider of social welfare services.
With the establishment of a National Development Agency to channel funds to NGOs, seen by many as government’s acknowledgement, appropriately, that it could not claim sole responsibility for development, the NGO community is drawn directly into the risky politics of social welfare. This is a circumstance which poses a very real threat to the continuing independence of NGOs unless they are shrewd and united. As the election looms, South Africans’ frustrations, over unfulfilled (and unrealistic) expectations that a new ANC government and democracy would be able to deliver all the good things the majority of South Africans had missed, will put pressure on the government to act, possibly precipitously. There will be a desire to lay the blame for non-delivery of goods and services elsewhere, and use this as the basis for asserting strong political control over development and its funding. As the aid window closes for Africa, it is imperative that South Africa’s NGO community ‘gets its act together’ in order to provide a coherent vision of the development challenge and innovative ways to meet it. A study on poverty in Pretoria by the Centre for Development and Enterprise concluded that traditional corporate and bureaucratic responses to the looming economic challenge to create more jobs will not succeed. It is the NGO community which possesses the legitimate experience and understanding to craft creative alternatives, yet to do so NGOs must transcend petty political divisiveness, embrace the richness inherent in their diversity and concentrate on tasks, such as raising the level of financial accounting and management skills, which are key to institutional development and capacity-building. A strong, confident NGO community, central to the vitality of the critically important civil society which serves as the mediator between the state and the private sector in a democracy, will be able to engage other institutional players in development, including the business community labour, and bi- and multi-lateral aid donors in a serious discussion about the issues and priorities which shape the agenda for development. And, especially important, the NGO community will then be in a position to approach the government as equal, rather than supplicant.
GAIL LEFTWICH is a founder/principal of Strategic Business Consultants, a US South African-based consulting company. Leftwich, formerly a commercial real estate lawyer, recently completed two years as associate director of Harvard University’s Programme on South Africa
South Africa, The Journal of Trade, Industry and Investment
Publisher, David Altman
Writer, Gail M. Leftwich
