For Kenya’s NGOs, a Need to Cooperate

NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenya’s National Council of NGOs is located in an old bungalow in Hurlingham, a Nairobi suburb. At the gate, a white panel proclaims the council’s mission, to provide “leadership to the NGO sector.” But the gate opens onto a more threadbare reality. A slight air of exhaustion hangs over the institution, which officially represents the country’s non-governmental sector. After years of internal wrangles and an attempted government takeover in 2005 that saw Orie Rogo-Manduli, chairwoman at the time, barricade herself in her offices to avoid deposition, the council may finally have settled down. But its recent disarray is symptomatic for what ails much of Kenya’s NGO sector. Kenya’s NGO sector accounts for 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (approximately US$1.25 billion) and employs some 100,000 people, according to the government. It is thus one of the country’s leading “industries” by size and employment. Given its dependence on external funding, the NGO sector also has a tremendous effect on Kenya’s balance of payments, especially during emergencies. NGOs are now an integral part of Kenya’s development process and have, through the council, shaped important policies such as the country’s poverty reduction strategy and, more recently, Vision 2030, which aims to eradicate absolute poverty and achieve Kenya’s “middle-income” designation by 2030. Yet the state of Kenya’s NGO sector belies its economic importance. Incoherent and ineffective regulation, unpredictable funding, donor dependency and a lack of project design and implementation capacity are among the major structural impediments domestic NGOs face. But perhaps most telling to outside observers is the contrast between the values espoused by the country’s NGOs and the power struggles, factionalism and poor management that seem to have become all too characteristic. A lack of cooperation Kenya’s NGO sector is overseen by the NGO Co-ordination Board, a government body set up in 1992, two years after the landmark NGOs Act was signed into law. To be incorporated, an NGO must submit a request for registration, which usually includes a copy of the proposed organizational structure, area of operations, budget, names of senior staff as well as other information. The current application fee is Ksh 10,000 (approximately US$150). The board may restrict the operations of an NGO to a particular geographic region or impose other restrictions. The NGO Council was established in August 1993 - also in response to the NGOs Act - to represent the NGO community as well as draft and enforce voluntary standards of conduct. It is comprised of representatives of international and national NGOs operating in Kenya - a major concession by the government which helped to allay fears about the NGOs Act’s potential to muzzle civil society organizations. Kenya is home to approximately 5,000 registered NGOs, according to official estimates. The NGO sector has experienced rapid growth over recent years partly due to a growing pool of skilled workers, a consequence of Kenya’s relatively well-educated population and the massive presence of foreign NGOs that have made Kenya their regional operations base. Partnership and subcontracting between foreign and domestic NGOs has also served to increase the professionalism of local organizations. But increasingly, organizations are bypassing the system created by the NGOs Act to register as “trusts” and other nonprofit entities. The law does not recognize such organizations as NGOs and it provides for severe penalties in case of such an “evasion,” but neither the board nor the council have addressed the issue, said Achoki Awori, one of the NGO Council’s founding members. Many activists are deeply dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. What appears like a flourishing sector has feet of clay, according to Awori. Without the ability to secure independent sources of funding, at the very least for core costs such as personnel, NGOs will never have the influence they should have on the country’s development strategies, Awori said. This is because many NGO’s are perceived as merely advocates of policies decided by donors. Donors, for their part, often shift funding priorities and standards, which complicates the development of self-confident NGOs with clear agendas and a permanent presence in the policy debate. Competition for funding has bred suspicion rather than collaboration among Kenyan NGOs, Awori said. Local organizations often end up undermining each other rather than synergizing and sharing resources. In talks with government, the NGO sector often lacks a unified voice. Insufficient competition, on the other hand, is another problem, according to Awori. A lack of effective oversight on the part of the NGO Council has created room for corruption and mismanagement, and the bulk of funding goes to well-established NGOs, leaving few options to struggling new organizations, he said. The changing face of Kenya’s NGOs In Kenya’s increasingly open political climate, the role of civil society organizations has changed from simply demanding better governance to promoting specific policies. Similarly, donor priorities have shifted from encouraging democratization and bypassing the Kenyan government to supporting its development agenda. In this configuration, NGOs must find ways to complement the government, for instance by filling service delivery gaps. An example of this approach is Northern Aid, a development NGO whose activities concentrate on northern Kenya, where for historical and cultural reasons school enrollment is particularly low. Northern Aid builds boarding facilities to enable children of pastoralists to attend school. However, funding is increasingly problematic, since the increase in NGOs has created fierce competition for a stagnant resource. Moreover, the generalization of sector-wide planning now means that donors pool their funding for a particular sector on the basis of government funding requirements. This gives the government enormous leverage over who gets funding from donors and forces NGOs to align their programs with the national strategy. Perhaps in response, an increasing number of domestic NGOs are seeking to tap alternative sources of funding, such as the local corporate sector. The African Medical Research Foundation has been particularly successful in this respect. To be effective, many NGOs are cultivating close working relationships with government officials, including joint programming and project management. Still, the relationship between NGOs and the government is often characterised by mutual suspicion, according to Walter Oyugi, professor of political science at the University of Nairobi. The government’s view is that all aid NGOs want to offer “ought to be channeled through the relevant ministries” and, in particular, so-called district development committees, Oyugi said. Friction is often caused by bureaucratic delays and NGOs’ dual accountability to their donors as well as district development committees. Experts say that in order to shape Kenya’s NGO landscape, the NGO Council must reconcile its various constituencies and reassert its independence. Key to putting the council on a firm footing, according to Finance Officer Fred Olendo, is a direct grant from Kenya’s Treasury Department, similar to grants the Law Society of Kenya, Kenya Medical Association and other professional bodies receive. Also under discussion is a plan to have NGOs form sector groups that pool funding and exploit synergies where they exist. This may be critical to capacity-building efforts, which are now largely spearheaded by foreign NGOs. Read more international development business news.