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NGO MANAGEMENT & CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME FOR GLI NETWORKERS (IND)

NGO MANAGEMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING INITIATIVES FOR GLI(UK) NETWORKERS AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS IN TAMILNADU, INDIA

1. Relevance of the Action:

NGO work in India has diverse ideological origins and underpinnings. NGOs in modern India have traditions that can be traced back to the ideologies of the Ramakrishna Mission, Mahatma Gandhi, Sarvodaya movement, Jesuit Missions and even Marxism. The Indian notion of charity has its roots in religious beliefs as in the case of European or American charity, but the practice of charity has developed along slightly different lines. While the Christian notion of charity is based on love of fellow men, and the change from an undesirable state to a better state of being, the Hindu notion is slightly more inward looking.

There are many faith based and secular based International non-governmental funding organisations who have been working in partnership with numerous NGOs in India who have different orientations namely a) charitable orientation b) service orientation c) participatory orientation and d) empowering orientation. These NGOs operate at various level namely community based, citywide, rural based and tribal based. International donors may be NGOs or government (bilateral and multilateral) organisations. In many cases NGOs are dependent solely on foreign donor funding and no strategic plans have been prepared for the eventuality that such funding sources may dry up in the near. There is a notion that sustainability of NGO projects depends on funding continuity future. In India too there are government agencies, although for various reasons NGOs are reluctant to work with them.

IndianNGOs.com estimates that there would be anywhere between 1.5 million to 2.0 million NGOs working in India, It is reported in www.indianngos.com that there are around 55 000 registered NGOs registered in Mumbai, and around 11 000 registered NGOs in Thane in the state of Maharastra, North India. This will include temples, churches, mosques, gurudwara's who are also all registered as NGOs. Interestingly enough, in the southern part of India, the state of Tamilnadu, South India accounts for around 30000 NGOs, which are located in 26 districts (counties).

These NGOs are engaged in a large number of sectors. Their functions have been classified according to their involvement. Most of the NGOs are working in the areas of age care,children,agriculture,differently disabled, housing and slums,water,art and craft,education,clothing,culture and heritage,women,microfinance,population,environment and wild life, health, rural,poverty,tribals,HIV/AIDS,Disaster, Due to different reasons, the performance of NGOs at the national as well as community level has not been up to the expectation of the people. They are criticized for their lack of accountability, transparency, competency, sustainability and quality. There are many reasons for the low performance of NGOs such as: a)Lack of clarity of the vision b) Lack of knowledge on how to develop organizational structure and system c)Lack of activism d) Scarcity of institutional materials and financial resources e)Problems like, lack of confidence, assertiveness, vulnerable to repression, weak publicity, logistic constraints, and weak educational medium f)Facing the identity crisis & donor driven ness g)Lack of expertise in the field of their work etc.

One of the important reasons for lower level of performance of the NGOs is because of low level of capacities of the NGOs. The NGOs have a plenty of people with volunteer spirit and willingness to work among the disadvantaged population in difficult situations. But a large numbers of NGOs do not have competencies and capacities to deliver programme, undertake planning and management of the programme, mobilisation of local resources and their management etc. Because of lack of such competencies, most of the NGOs face questions about their sustainability and viability of their organizations.There are a few capacity building issues that need to be addressed:
which will impact the sustainability of NGOs namely 1.Leadership formation 2. Organisational skills training 2. Information and communication 4. Partnerships and relationships with other NGOs/governments/private sector/ international community and 5 Resources.

2. Description of the action and its effectiveness:

Goodwill Social Work Centre (www.goodwillsocialworkcentre.org) an Indian NGO has been actively involved in networking initiatives among NGOs/Civil society organisations in collaboration with GLOBAL LINKS INITIATIVE (www.glinet.org), United Kingdom since 2005. The Global Links Initiative is a UK based registered company and a charity, which is working in close partnership with our centre in organising networking and capacity building programmes for small and developing NGOs in the southern part of Tamilnadu, India. During 2006-2007, the centre organised two networking events for NGO administrators, project leaders, academics and social researchers in Madurai, Tamilnadu, South India.

The first GLI-NGOs MEET for NGO administrators, project leaders, academics and social researchers was held at Madurai in November 2006. About 120 participants representing 90 organisations/institutions were in attendance. Following the overwhelming response from NGOs and institutions in and around Madurai and its neighbouring districts, the second GLOBAL LINKS INITIATIVE (UK)-NGOs MEET was organised by the Goodwill social work centre, hosted by GLI on 18th April 2007 in Madurai. As many as 317 NGO Administrators, project leaders, academics and social researchers representing 257 organisations/institutions from 15 districts in the southern part of Tamilnadu participated in the GLI networking event. Photographs of the networking and NGO capacity building events organised by the Goodwill Social work Centre in association with Global Links Initiative, UK can be viewed at http://picasaweb.google.com/chrisdangswc/GLIUKNGOsMEET200607OrganisedByGOODWILLSOCIALWORKCENTREMADURAIINDIA

Our experiences in organising the above networking and capacity building programmes for over 370 NGOs/Institutions with an attendance of 337 NGO administrators/management and development workers in partnership with the Global Links Initiative, UK have revealed the fact many NGOs which have had participated in the above networking and capacity building events are either a nascent, emerging or expanding stage lack knowledge on the need to build institutional capacity for their sustainability. Most of these Indian NGOs need to focus on building the capacity of their entire organisation and need to dedicate them to raise institutional capacity building to the same level of importance and attention as programme development and management.

Highly impressed by the professionalism in GOODWILL’s governance and management of programmes, the Global Links Initiative(www.glinet.org) ,a registered company and a charity in the United Kingdom has entered into a partnership agreement with GOODWILL on 6th October 2007 to work together to provide services and capacity building programmes for GLI Networkers in Tamilnadu, now numbering over 370.This formal agreement deepens and strengthens the friendship, respect and collaboration that already existed between our two organisations and enables us to work even more closely together on practical local initiatives, exchanges and projects. Goodwill social work centre is taking on the role of GLI representative and ambassador in serving the needs of GLI Networkers and local NGOs in Tamilnadu. Part of this new role is to take over the management and creation of the Tamilnadu content for the GLI English Language Website recording the inspiring stories of local GLI Networkers, news of their projects and activities and sharing their experiences and expertise with the wider GLI Global network.

Realising the need to improve performance in governance, management practices, human resources, financial resources, service delivery, external relations and sustainability, the Goodwill social work centre in partnership with the Global Links Initiative,UK has been organising a series of capacity building programmes for the GLI Networking members and NGO Administrators/ development professionals whose organisations(NGOs and civil society groups) are at the start-up or nascent stage,development or emerging stage and expanding,growth or consolidation stage with a view to equipping them with a broader range of organisational skills to capacity building to be effective in their work.

Under the ‘Capacity Building Series 2008-2009’ the Goodwill social work centre in partnership with the Global Links Initiative, United Kingdom has organised 10 capacity building training events during March 2008-January 2009 covering 150 participants representing various organisations within the state of Tamilnadu ,India on the theme “NGO Management & Capacity Building Programmes for GLI Networkers, NGO Administrators / Development Professionals” under the aegis of The Funding Network, United Kingdom in the state of Tamilnadu ,India.

The various programmes organised can be viewed on our web albums:

Following the success and effectiveness of the above capacity building programmes organised for social entreprenuers,NGO Administrators and GLI networkers in this region, it is greatly being realised the need to organise a series of such programmes to cater to the growing needs of many NGOs in the state of Tamilnadu who are at the start-up or nascent stage,development or emerging stage and expanding,growth or consolidation stage.Our records show that there are many NGOs in Tamilnadu,India, whose organisations are mostly at the nascent and emerging stage. Obviously enough, there is an imperative need for building the institutional capacity of these organisations. Knowing the importance of building institutional capacity of NGOs,the Goodwill social work centre proposes to conduct a series of Capacity building programmes keeping in view the folowing objectives:

Objectives:

1.To assist in improving organisational effectiveness focussing on ,governance,management practices,human resourcw,financial resources,service delivery,external relations and sustainability.

2. To facilitate a process of internal capacity strenghtening of their’ organisations/NGOs/Civil societies to enable them deliver more effectively and efficiently in their work espcially in the above dimensions.

3. To develop skills in organisational development(OD) methods and how to apply these skills, to improve organisational effectiveness.

Programme implementation: The beneficiaries include GLI(UK)-Tamilnadu Networkers registered with www.glinet.org, NGO Administrators, social entrepreneurs, Development professionals and members representing various civil society groups namely School children’s forums, Teachers’ and parents’ associations, farmers’ associations, Co-operatives, women’s groups, self help groups (men and women), rural youth clubs/Associations, Residents’ welfare associations and student volunteers of National Social service etc. in the state of Tamilnadu,India. The Goodwill social work centre will identify NGOs/civil societies within the state of Tamilnadu and make a rapid need assessment to select participants for the capacity building programmes. It is expected to cover 6000 beneficiaries (2 capacity building event per month x 12 months x 5 years=6000 participants). The centre has a team of professionally trained specialists under the leadership of Prof.Dr.J.Christopher Daniel, Executive Director and HRD Trainer,Goodwill social work centre,which will conduct all the capacity building training programmes.
A series of training modules on various themes namely I Building NGO capacity: NGO governance and management: 1. Introduction to “Laws Affecting NGOs”: The role and purpose of the nongovernmental sector- The relation of laws affecting NGOs to other laws 2. Legal existence of NGOs; registration and operations: Benefits of legal entity status- Registration requirements- Various other aspects of the life of an NGO 3. Structure and governance of NGOs: Internal corporate governance: Duties of governing bodies and management- Conflicts of interest- Self-dealing 4. NGO accountability – reporting and supervision 5. NGOs and public policy: Political activities- Other NGO-government relations-Foreign NGOs and foreign funding 6. Financing NGOs: Fund raising- Economic activities- Nondistribution constraint 7. Taxation of NGOs and their donors: Tax exemptions- Donor benefits-Corporate social responsibility

II. Basic course on the ‘Fundamentals of project management’: principles, methods, practices and skills required for successful project management III.Logical framework analysis
III. Project monitoring and evaluation
IV. Fundraising V. Process Documentation, reporting and Communication VI. Basic computer applications to NGO management
VII.Qualitative Research and its use in project management VIII.Organisational Development for social enterprise I
X. Social research/survey and its application to project management
X. Soft skills development.

Each training module includes the course content, training methodology to be used, participant levels and programme evaluation methodology. The pedagogy includes lectures and interactive sessions, PowerPoint presentations, hand outs etc. Detailed course syllabi containing relevant units of lesson are prepared. Both pre and post training evaluation surveys are undertaken for each capacity building programme. The Centre uses an organisational capacity self assessment tool developed by Dr.Jean Ellis and Libby Cooper from Charity Evaluation services, UK to identify the areas requiring development and training and to facilitate development and implementation of training plans in the future. After the identifying training needs of each organisation, a nomination form are sent to gather relevant data the participant and his/her organisation. An evaluation form is used at the end of each training programme and participants are asked to give their feed back. The Centre documents all the programmes and prepare narrative reports for its use and submission to the European Commission.

The project is jointly undertaken by the Goodwill social work centre and the GLI (UK)’s Tamilnadu Networking Initiative, an outsourcing unit of the Global Links Initiative, United Kingdom (www.glinet.org) attached with GOODWILL, which is based at Madurai, Tamilnadu, India. The Global Links Initiative, UK provides professional and technical support in the organisation of the project namely a) publication of reports, stories, and case studies on its website: www.glinet.org. b) Professional expertise and experience from GLI (UK) Trustees and members of the GLI (UK) International Advisory Board.

3. Sustainability of the action:

1. NGOs in particular are criticised for their lack of accountability, transparency, competency and sustainability among NGOs and Civil society groups. This capacity building programme will significantly enhance Tamilnadu NGOs’ and civil society groups’ immediate and long term ability to deliver effectively and sustainably to the many thousands in dire need that they support.

2. GOODWILL organises a series of extremely cost-effective, basic capacity building programmes for social entrepreneurs, NGO Administrators and development professionals to equip them with broader range of organisational management tools and skills to enhance their ability to deliver their vital support in their communities.

3. Participants who are geographically based at different locations within 26 districts in the state of Tamilnadu, India cannot possibly attend the programmes. GOODWILL will organise the programmes at different locations within the State of Tamilnadu so as to enable the participants to attend.

4. GOODWILL cannot sponsor all programmes financially and hence may have to charge the participants a nominal fee. Some deserving NGOs and civil society groups cannot afford to pay for their participants even if the cost is nominal since most of them are financially not sound. But nevertheless, the centre will charge each participant a nominal fee to defray training expenses.

5. Goodwill social work centre in partnership with the Global Links Initiative has already been involved in conducting a series of capacity building programmes for the Tamilnadu(India) Networkers of Global Links Initiative, United Kingdom. Various sustainable measures are being taken to overcome possible risks for the continuance of the programmes to benefit over 370 GLI Networkers in Tamilnadu, India. Based on our experiences in organising these programmes for GLI Networkers, NGO administrators, social entrepreneurs and Development professionals GOODWILL is confident of meeting any foreseeable risks in the implementation of the project in this region.

Prof.Dr.J.Christopher Daniel,M.A.,Ph.D
Executive Director
Goodwill social work centre
Madurai,India

www.goodwillsocialworkcentre.org

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