Personal Page of Society for the Advancement of Civil Orgainsations

Establishing A Focal Point

Society for the Advancement of Civil Orgainsations

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

BANGO

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

Civil Society

CSO Directory

News

Membership

CSO Forum

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.

National Organisation of Women

National Council for the Disabled

Kornerstone Organic Farms

ICAR

The Paper below 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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