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Conference Report and Joint Statement
[From the NGO Networking Service Monthly Update, June 1995, produced by the InterAfrica Group, Centre for Dialogue on Humanitarian, Peace and Development Issues in the Horn of Africa. For further information please contact Vanessa Sayers Tel: 251 1 514575, Fax: 251 1 517554, E-mail iag@padis.gn.apc.org.
NNS is made possible thanks to contributions from: Community Aid Abroad, Dutch Interchurch Aid, Norwegian People's Aid, NOVIB, Oxfam Canada, Radda Barnen Ethiopia and Trocaire.]
NGOs at Work: Who needs Capacity Building? The 'teachers' have a lot to learn in Southern Sudan.
"Capacity building and relief work should go together," says Alison Ayers, co-ordinator of the Operation Lifeline Sudan Institution Capacity Building programme "in fact, we think it makes no sense to separate them". A five day workshop on June 26-30 which UNICEF/OLS and Catholic Relief Services organised, challenged local and international NGOs and donors to take a hard look at what building capacity should be about. Day one tackled the international NGOs who say "it's not our mandate" by discussing how the distribution of relief can be done in a way which recognises and builds local capacities rather than undermining them.
Some 35 people, including four Southern Sudanese NGOs, SRRA, RASS, 12 international NGOs (operational and non- operational), UNICEF/WFP and donors signed onto a final statement which called on international donors and NGOs to commit more resources to building capacity. It also set out their views on what capacity building must be if it is going to work (see text of Nairobi Joint Statement, attached).
The meeting was facilitated by staff from the UK based NGO INTRAC and the Kenyan Matrix Development Consultants. It was designed to give NGOs both general training on what real capacity building is, and specific information from Southern Sudan to see how it works (or not) in the area. Some NGOs had not previously realised the number and diversity of South Sudan's indigenous organisations which include SPLM and SSIM civil structures created in their 1994 National Conventions; the relief wings of these movements; Sudanese consultancy firms; indigenous NGOs; the NSCC and churches; community based organisations; co-operatives and ethnic group structures. Others gained a better appreciation of the type of role which the Southern Sudanese NGOs in particular could play in strengthening community organisations.
Case studies of six experiences of capacity building projects were presented: Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the Diocese of Torit; CRS and the Tilalo Barter Shop Association; World Food Programme (WFP) and Village Relief Committees; USAID, World Vision and Supraid; USAID, Sudan Medcal Care and Norwegian People's Aid; and Across and the churches.
Two experiences were particularly instructive, according to Alison Ayers. The first were village relief committees, established with help from WFP, which were designed to encourage community participation in relief distributions. The village Liberation and Economic councils created during the movements' 1994 conventions were overlooked when the relief committees were designed, producing duplicate structures. The second was a Sudanese staff member's appraisal of the ACROSS programme, which underlined that the international partner must be prepared to give up power and control if there is to be a real transfer of capacity. Few people in the region have addressed such fundamental issues in their programmes to date.
"The workshop received very good evaluations from participants, and", said Ayers, "a number of agency heads recognised that from now on they need to look first at their own capacity to ensure that they are equipped to build other's capacity". Proposals for follow up meetings include a short workshop for heads of agencies and workshops for field project staff in different areas of South Sudan are being considered.
For papers from the meeting, please contact NNS or OLS ICB (Tel:2542 621234 Fax: 215296).
THE NAIROBI JOINT STATEMENT
1. The future of civil society in South Sudan lies in the establishment and development of indigenous organisations which can enable its people to become as self-reliant as possible.
These indigenous organisations include churches, traditional community groupings, the new non-government non- profit organisations and the humanitarian wings of the movements - all having been formed to deal with the needs of the people of South Sudan.
For many years assistance to South Sudan has been carried out via international non-government organisations supported and funded by donors and the people of their countries. These NGOs have predominantly been directly operational and have only worked through indigenous organisations to a limited extent.
We, the participants in the Capacity Building Workshop at the Fairview Hotel, (26-30 June 1995) are convinced that the future of international assistance to South Sudan must be linked to the development of indigenous organisations. It must involve helping them to develop into strong, competent and effective organisations with the mission of increasing the self-reliance of the people of South Sudan.
2. The implication of this belief is that:
(i) international NGOs working in South Sudan should commit a significant portion of their resources - human, material and financial - to building the capacity of indigenous organisations, thereby improving their effectiveness and sustainability.
(ii) donors sincerely interested in the future of South Sudan should consider committing their resources to capacity building processes, either directly to indigenous organisations or via international NGOs committed to this process.
3. We recognise that support to organisations must address all the necessary components of a healthy organisation as shown in figure 1 and understand 'capacity building' to include all aspects listed in figure 2 (both attached).
4. We encourage all international agencies in South Sudan to lend their support to the processes, principles and practices outlined above.
Nairobi, June 30 1995
(Representatives of the following organisations attended the workshop: ACROSS, American Refugee Committee, Christian Aid, Community Development Association, Catholic Relief Services, Canadian International Development Agency, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Norwegian Church Aid, New Sudan Council of Churches, Norwegian People's Aid, Oxfam, Sudan Medical Care, Supraid, Swiss Disaster Relief, Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association, Relief Association of Southern Sudan, Radda Barnen, Unicef/OLS, World Food Programme, World Vision)
Figure 1
Components of a healthy relief and development organisation
Identity, Attitude, Vision, Mission, Strategy, Systems, Structures, External Relations (donor, govt and other NGOs), Skills, Abilities, Programme Performance (effectiveness and public impact), Material+Financial Resources
Definitions of 5 key terms
Identity: A conceptual framework that allows an organisation to understand its place in the world i.e. that it is an organisation with commitment to help others and that it believes it can mobilise resources through shared values and use those resources to help others.
Attitude: Confidence to act in and on the world in such a way that it can be effective and have an impact.
Vision: The organisation's view of how it would like to world to be, its hope for "reality to be" (as opposed to "the reality that is").
Mission: An organisation's purpose for existence; describes in general terms how the vision will be pursued - what it does and does not do.
Strategy: A set of concepts that guide an organisation's use of resources to pursue its mission - the leverage points where the organisation's activity will have the most impact.
Figure 2
CAPACITY BUILDING
An explicit intervention that aims to improve an organisation's effectiveness and sustainability in relation to its mission and context via organisational assessment, which identifies the need for
Technical Assistance: to build the operational or technical skills of an organisation. Through eg. skill training; seconded staff; advisory services; physical or technical resources.
Organisational Assistance: to build specific organisational capacities (short term, specific, problem solving). Through management training; leadership training; system/stratgeic planning; exposure/exchange.
Organisational Development: to build organisational capacity as a whole (long term comprehensive, organisation- wide facilitating). Through organisational change and development consultancy.
Institutional Development: Creating the enabling environment for the organisation as part of the NGO sector. Through policy reform; networking; public awareness and advocacy.
Figures developed by INTRAC for UNICEF/OLS/CRS workshop.
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Message-Id:199507201312.GAA11819@igc3.igc.apc.org
From: "APIC" apic@igc.apc.org
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 09:03:22 +0000
Subject: Southern Sudan: Capacity Building
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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