The Landship Example - No Way to Treat CSOs

In recent times many Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have been complaining that Government has been stealing their ideas and implementing them before the CSOs could get their programme fully off the ground. What can be said is that much of the social work undertaken by government originally started by CSOs.

When government does this, it takes the services being offered out of a cultural and social context and places it in the realm of the impersonal, developed out of a history of colonial rule that could only be described as hostile to our culture and society.

The Landship is a good example. It has a history of taking care of its members' welfare. From the small contributions collected weekly and other small fund-raising drives, the Landship offered assistance to fire victims.

It gave its members a bonus at Christmas. It paid for the turnout of members that passed on. It offered assistance in times of crisis and this ranged from loans to paying utility bills and supplying food.

Much of this work is now undertaken by government on a national scale and government is able to collect taxes and put systems in place that entrenches these kinds of social support services in the system of government.

However, there were and still are many 'hiccups'. A person becomes a case rather than a human being in need. Delivering social services becomes a job for which somebody is paid rather than an unacceptable social condition which concerned citizens are seeking to address.

Spontaneous delivery of aid becomes a time consuming bureaucratic procedure to determine whether or not the person qualifies for assistance and under what scheme they fall or which department can assist them.

While Government may have the funds to foot the bill, it certainly lacks the capacity to deliver as it is required. Herein lies the essence of CSO partnerships with government where one set of resources compliments another set of resources to effectively deliver social services.

Using the same example, if government had said to the Landship, we like what you are doing and we will assist you with the resources to do it better; we will help you establish a ship or dock to service the communities as required and assist you with the training of personnel, then the Landship would have been empowered to become a deeply entrenched cultural system and a model of government/CSO partnership.

Today we are working desperately to save the Landship now that we have discovered that it is indigenous to Barbados and probably the only cultural icon that is so. This was inevitable and is a perfect example of how the rise and fall of CSOs represents a social barometer that measures the shifting of needs and social concerns.

On the one hand, the increase in taxation coupled with a national system that introduced the Welfare and other social service departments including the NIS , removed the welfare need from being further developed by the Landship.

On the other hand, the development of private sector banking services and the rise of credit unions, also removed the need for Landship to hold money in savings for their members and to develop this aspect of their organisation.

Had it not been for the cultural component which drives the Landship and the determination of dedicated members like Captain Watson who knows the cultural value of his organisation, which is now down to only one dock, it may very well have died a natural death already and we would be thinking of resurrecting rather than saving it.

What the Landship represents today is a shift from the needs of the community for social services to a national need to preserve our cultural heritage. What it lost was its true meaning as a deliverer of social services within a rich cultural context and what it has become is a spectacle to behold and one that we wished we had taken better care of.

The Landship is no different to existing CSOs which interact with members and communities in a special way. This interdependency is the community's way of looking after itself and this can result in savings to the government. We should therefore use the Landship as a reminder that we should treat our CSOs with greater respect.

If we are agreed that CSOs are important to the effective delivery of social services and developmental programmes, and that by including them we would have deepened the democratic process, then we must find a way to close the divide and the best prescription that can be offered is through consultation, collaboration and training; in that order as one leads to the next.

Roosevelt O. King
Secretary General
e-mail: admin@bango.org.bb