Society for the Advancement of Civil Organisations

ESTABLISHING A FOCAL POINT

Task at Hand

While the BANGO Constitution sets up a basic framework for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to fuse, in practice it has not gone the full length that is now necessary. Hence the plan is to turn BANGO into a viable organisation that would properly service (CSOs).

Goal

Activities for the development of cooperation between and among CSOs in furtherance of their participation in the Governance of the Nation.

Membership

The membership of BANGO was originally designated as umbrella organisations representing various sectors. However, in practice, BANGO is made up of like minded persons who are willing to work towards achieving consensus among and between CSOs. It is this guiging principle of working together which will lead the establishment of the Focal Point.

This is a time for cooperation and hence the idea to set up a Focal Point to service all CSOs would mean that there could be no membership of the Focal Point, it only needs to be mandated to service CSOs in the same way that a Charity is mandated to help persons outside its membership and that its members should not benefit from the charity.

The following Paper was circulated at the "Forward Together" Conference and dubbed by CARICOM Secretariat as the "BARBADOS PAPER"

The Functioning of Civil Society

What we are now calling Civil Society is a development that has come about as a direct result of the work of Non Governmental Organisations. What can be said about this work is that it has proven itself to be the champion of individual causes, when all else fails. This makes the NGO organisation one that delivers to the marginalized or handicapped in some way, whether it is physical, economic or social incapacity.

One characteristic of the NGO is that it seeks to function. In the event that it does not, then it becomes defunct. When an NGO is functioning, it means that there is some need. When that need becomes less pressing, the NGO would tend to slowly become defunct.

One could conclude that the existence of the NGO is a barometer, which expresses the human feelings such as public outrage and/or outcry, injustice, poverty and any number of conditions that lead to the unhappiness of mankind and the instability of the population.

NGOs therefore search for solutions to the myriad of problems that confront our society and seek to function to facilitate solutions. What NGOs are concerned with has nothing to do with partisan politics but all to do with the individual who is being left out, while the rest of society is comfortable. Those who enjoy the benefits of their society or those who are able to compete with success also enjoy a degree of respect and have certain expectations of the society.

The clients of NGOs do not enjoy the same respect and while they may have similar expectations of society, they are virtually refused and stigmatized by the rest of the society. What NGOs recognize is that “man to man is too unjust”.

The reason for having a government is so that society should be represented in various quarters and a mood of civility reign. While the players in the society are assumed to be mature enough to get on with their daily lives, government is there to intervene and settle matters, which, if allowed to fester would lead to total civil unrest. Hence, we have set up a Parliament with representatives of the people to govern.

There are matters where the government would not and could not intervene, for fear that destabilization sets in. It would create public outrage if government intervened too deeply in the daily lives and the business transactions of its citizens. Hence NGOs represent organisations that can touch people where government would be seen as interfering. NGOs therefore have their role in the in the order of things.

While Government is driven by democracy, Civil Society is driven by consensus. Hence we have consenting adults interacting with each other, who wheel and deal and establish their position within the civil limits of their society, but those who are less fit and prone to being left out are the concern of NGOs.

In the same way that Government assists the strong with staying organized, so is Civil Society in need of a similar hand to keep it afloat. NGOs only want to be facilitated in the work they are doing, which leads to civil stability.

NGOs are a mechanism for people of like minds to come together and champion causes that put people at a disadvantage. This has long been recognized as a useful role. When we look at the resources that NGOs call upon, they are basically skilled and expert human resources. There is no home for many of them except the homes of those who make the greatest sacrifice of disrupting their family life for the causes of others. In today’s world, this is a great sacrifice, given the technology. One has to pay a lot more attention to their families in these times.

To ask Government to provide a place so that Civil Society could establish itself is certainly not too much to ask. When we look at the Barbados position we see that many NGOs have facilities while others who are doing just as good work have none. Hence, facilities allocated to NGOs have not been properly rationalized.

This however, represents a trend of political expediency. Indeed, many of the NGOs that now receive annual subventions may feel rather comfortable with the recognition they have achieved. Those who have been allocated government buildings would not want to be disrupted at this time. What is obvious is that the general business of Civil Society cannot be conducted in the streets.

An NGO, whether or not it is an umbrella should not be targeted as a focal point for Civil Society in any of the member states. Civil Society business needs to be conducted where the umbrellas can convene on neutral ground. Where the records of Civil Society are not in the hands of an NGO that is under the umbrella of Civil Society.

In terms of the proper functioning of Civil Society neutrality is a key feature. The organisation of Civil Society has two guiding principles. One is Democracy and the other is Consensus. It must choose its officers by democratic methods and its business must be conducted to find consensus. Maybe we can call it Consensus Democracy if we need to find a term. Both these guiding principles would demand that parties be void of any external influence.

The organizational structure of Civil Society starts with the wide existence of NGOs (see flow chart on page 4). This represents the base of the structure and it is from here that everything else flows. It would be necessary to continue the feature of creating umbrella organisations so that we can move to the next level of consensus, where all the leaders of NGOs get together to collaborate at the national level on a particular concern. These we can call sectors with each umbrella body representing a sector.

The next level is where all the individual concerns or sectors/umbrella bodies come together at a level of national cooperation between the sectors. Here is where the different sectors come together to see how, by working together, they can enhance each other’s work or equally benefit from this alliance. NGOs will be in a better position to share resources, avoid duplication, have a mailing address, full communications and access a workstation. This would enhance the ability of individual NGOs to function and stay in touch with the region and the rest of the world. This organisation would be the umbrella of umbrellas within each member state and could be conveniently called a National Council or Chamber of Civil Society.

The regional level is where the national councils come together into one Regional body that can be called the Regional Council or Conference of Civil Society. Each sector from each state should first come-together through working sub-committees of the Regional body. These sub-committees are Regional Umbrella bodies.

Representatives or heads of these Umbrella bodies will then come together to address regional issues, including concerns of Government at that level. This is the Conference where the heads of the Civil Society Sectors adopt Regional Positions and channel information on Civil Society to the CARICOM Heads.

While some may say that the chart seems very bureaucratic, I would agree, but then go on to say that we have to show that we are arriving at decisions by proper means. We need to show responsibility and credibility. Most of all we need to show legitimacy and this presupposed that participation starts with the mass membership of NGOs participating in the processes of Civil Society (the organisation).

It should not be assumed that all NGOs will be or will want to be part of Civil Society. What we can do is encourage them to be part of the organisation by making our structure appealing, by guaranteeing each member the equal right and an equal opportunity to participate. This must be demonstrated in our proposed structure.

If we agree to go this route we can do so by declaration. We need to fill in the gaps and recognizing all the players of Civil Society that now exist. We will find that we have a proliferation on NGOs, we have national umbrella bodies and we have regional umbrella bodies. It is recommended that we start with these as the founding members of the structure and build on it by encouraging groups and organisations to establish umbrella bodies in order to have representation in the structure.

We are all here under five sectors. Let us therefore propose to start by calling this the Regional Council on Civil Society and maintain it. When each of the sectors from each of the states get together, these become the Regional sub-committees. The umbrella bodies that fall under all the sub-committees will become the Regional Assembly of Civil Society.

Nationally, the umbrella bodies that now make up the five sectors will become the members of the National Assembly of Civil Society and the General Body of Civil Society will be those groups and organisations, which make up the umbrellas.

Hence, Civil Society can be identified immediately as in existence, if we so agree. Once identified, we can all return home and start the process going immediately. I believe that we have the political will of our governments behind us and that gives us legitimacy as well. I believe that with the general prevailing mood that we will now get cooperation and respect in places that would not have previously entertained us.

The structure calls for close relations with Ministries at the national level and with the CARICOM Secretariat. These are working relations, which need to be established through the National Assemblies. Therefore NGOs would need to come through their umbrella bodies, which will play a coordinating role and depending on the level and type of programming with which it is collaborating with the relevant Ministry, it will involve the NGOs under its umbrella.

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