Committee for Conflict Transformation Support |
CCTS
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The Role of NGOs, Local and International, in Post-war PeacebuildingConclusionWhat role then for NGOs and CBOs in post-war peacebuilding? Let us separate claims and hopes from what is necessary, likely and actual. Firstly there is the question of different organisations' will to provide for vulnerable groups, protect rights and recreate equitable relationships and opportunities; then the question of their effectiveness in realising this will. Each of the kinds of organisation I have touched on - CBOs, NGOs, local Government, central Government and the state, INGOs and other international bodies and funders - has different strengths and weaknesses in different contexts. Many of the features associated with NGOs, such as ability to work directly with local people, or will to provide equitable access to participatory political systems, can also be features of agencies that are shaped as other organisational structures, such as CBOs, or local Government. The leaders of South African NGOs or 'civics' flew into posts in the new post-apartheid Government as soon as the votes of 1994 elections were counted. The civics movement virtually collapsed. Its time had come and gone. It was not the structures of the civics or the civic movement itself that mattered, but the possibility civics offered as some sort of channel for action and interaction when there were no other alternatives. It was the people, the interests, the relationships, the commitment, the wish to improve the lot of South Africa that fuelled first the civics movement and then flowed into Government. It was not the civics that created those people or commitment. Institutional flexibility, responsiveness and ability to appreciate local actors are clearly crucial in effective peacebuilding. These features are neither restricted to NGOs, nor necessarily a feature of them. However, NGOs can have these features, especially when they are part of local institutional structures. The fact that I have doubted so many of the claims for NGOs does not mean I doubt that NGOs can make a significant contribution to post-war peacebuilding. It is to emphasise that NGOs have fewer necessary advantages than is often supposed and that other local institutions, including local Government, can play similar roles and should not be excluded from our thoughts. It is also to say that no matter how positive policy statements are about NGOs and civil society, there are dangerous and potentially damaging aspects of any institutions that are built on interests and identity. One must judge each specific situation, and each specific group of local or national actors in their own rights, in a dynamic institutional context changing over time. Policy-making (organisational and Governmental) is essentially optimistic. It is aiming to work towards a better future. It is also essentially pragmatic. The attention to civil society and NGOs is also framed as an optimistic debate, looking for the best in a situation, looking for solutions to problems of conflict, abuse of power, scale and equity. But the current lack of attention to negative aspects of civil society and of NGOs is worrying. If there must be objective criteria for selection, let those criteria be based on processes and relationships. Give fair play to the experience and impressions of staff who have built up substantial local knowledge, not someone applying guidelines from central office. I recently borrowed the notion of 'plasticity' from an article on gender and brain development. The argument runs that our brains are extraordinarily 'plastic' - that is to say that they change shape and constructions according to how we use them. Where our activities are influenced by our gender upbringing, our brains change to suit the activities we undertake, until we become more capable of certain kinds of activity than others, making it harder still to escape gender constraints in later life. I don't want to add further inappropriate terms to the debate, but plasticity is an intriguing metaphor for social change. It makes me wonder what impact we might be having on local social structures and long term hopes for peace, if we give unbalanced support to just one sort of local organisation on the basis of an idea rather than on hard headed analysis of evidence.
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