BANGO Here to Serve and Empower
Part I

One of the greatest challenges to Civil Society in Barbados is to come together under one umbrella organisation that will be representative of this sector.

BANGO, formed to fulfill that role, quickly found this to be an ideal as it became clear that organisations were not looking for somebody to speak on their behalf and thereby restrict them from representing themselves.

It was also clear that groups wanted to retain their independence and autonomy as Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) formed voluntarily and under the control of their membership.

If any lessons can be learned from the above, a clear message is that the CSOs are in need of the kind of leadership and advocacy that will allow them to participate. BANGO therefore was forced to review its role as a rallying point for CSOs.

Over the past three to four years BANGO has been developing as a Focal Point for CSOs. We have been studying CSOs: how they operate; what makes them important to addressing problems and finding solutions; what makes them responsive; their character as an institution of democracy and how they work to deliver social and economic justice.

The strength of these characteristics is the fact that CSOs are voluntary and are controlled by the citizens. Hence it would be improper for any organisation to try to take away any of these characteristics from the CSOs, causing them to lose the essence of their being within the framework of democracy.

When CSOs in South Africa came together to fight apartheid they gave up their autonomy and independence in order to be under the umbrella of the ANC in a determined effort to recapture their country.

However in Barbados there is no overriding national cause that will bring CSOs under one umbrella and hence BANGO found itself with about fifty organisations out of 846 coming under its umbrella.

The important point here is that all of those 846 organisations have important information that if fed into the national policy-making grid, can only result in better and more democratic decision-making. Therefore none should be left out, but even if all are not included, to leave out nearly 800 organisations is more than a travesty of social justice.

BANGO therefore has set out to embrace as many CSOs as possible (without them losing their autonomy and independence) by serving as a Focal Point for Civil Society. In this scenario only those groups which decide for one reason or another not to associate with BANGO may find themselves outside the net, but they can enter at any point in time because the door remains open.

BANGO was therefore recently re-registered to move its status from being a non-profit company to a charity with the mandate to serve Civil Society. Its main objective reads:

"The Charity is established for the purpose of assisting and facilitating the work of non-profit and non-governmental organisations that are operating for the public good. Such organisations include NGOs, CBOs, Groups, Associations, Charities and other organisations which can be classified as voluntarily established by ordinary citizens to address developmental, social and economic problems in the society."

The main feature of the Constitution is that the new Charity "shall establish, maintain and service a Council of Civil Society Advisors" which is to be made up of all the Presidents, CEOs and Executives (or however titled) of CSOs.

It is also mandated to keep an updated register of all organisations and maintain a network so that organisations can be easily located. Other objectives include to:

1. act as a focal point to facilitate easy communication amongst CSOs and between CSOs and government and between CSOs and developmental agencies in order to further the objectives of the Civil Society Sector;
2. assist CSOs with the process of registration and recognition in order to empower them to participate in national and regional development;
3. make representation for local CSOs to input into a process of governance by their participation in decision-making and policy development at the National and Regional levels;
4. promote, encourage, conduct, facilitate and organise training, seminars and other programmes for Sustainable Development, thereby enhancing CSOs capacity to participate;
5. network amongst CSOs locally, regionally and Internationally, to enable exploration of opportunities for sharing and combining human, technical and financial resources for undertaking joint national developmental projects that are sustainable;
6. maintain a database of national and other CSOs operating in Barbados .

With its new status, objectives and management structure, BANGO is better able to serve CSOs without them having to be members of the Association.

Roosevelt O. King
Secretary General
admin@bango.org.bb