The Kandy News Online Edition
September / October 2005
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Role of NGOs

The role of Non Government Organizations (NGOs) in our society has become a controversial issue. In our definition any non-profit voluntary organization other than a political party is an NGO. They are essential for a properly functioning democracy because they give voice to political concerns of the citizens. The Free Media Movement that works to protect media freedom is a good example of such an NGO.

NGOs are also established for developmental (e.g. Sarvodaya), educational (Marga Institute), social (Kandy Club) or religious (YMBA) or cultural (Sri Lanka-India Cultural Association- Kalyana SLICA). Many NGOs have multiple-goals. NGOs can vary in size from small Maranadhaara Samithi (Funeral Aid Societies) to giant organizations such as Sarvodaya.

Nobody has an accurate count of the number of NGOs that exist in Sri Lanka. Depending on what is counted the number probably varies between about 4,000 and 50,000.
In the past two decades international NGOs (INGOs) have also become increasingly prominent. Official donor agencies such as USAID have increasingly funded INGOs such as Oxfam and CARE to do development work in developing countries. These INGos have become very prominent in Sri Lanka following the tsunami when they collected hundreds of millions of dollars from ordinary people in their home countries to assist tsunami victims in Asia.

NGOs have also raised many complex and controversial issues. Accountability and transparency are two such important inter-connected issues. Some NGOs are accused of being not accountable and transparent. NGOs in turn claim that they are “private” organizations that are accountable to their members, directors, donors, and perhaps beneficiaries of their assistance. The degree of transparency varies a lot among NGOs. Some publish their accounts and activities for public scrutiny bot others do not.
The degree of government control over NGOs is also a matter for debate. When President R. Premeds was in office he wanted to exercise greater government control over NGOs. But he failed in his effort. NGOs argue that the very rationale for their existence is to be free of government control to allow independent thinking and action for citizens. If NGOs are brought under rigid government control, they will be no different to government agencies or so called NGOs that existed in former communist countries under the control of the governing Communist Party.

The fact is that NGOs and governments do not always agree. The former sees government as intrusive and sometimes even as an obstacle to their work. Governments sometime see NGOs as a challenge to their authority.

The conflicts that exist within societies also get reflected in NGOs. In Sri Lanka some NGOs have become very controversial on account of their involvement in the peace process. The “unethical conversion” controversy is another major source of friction that confronts some NGOs. Some of these contentious issues have led to the establishment of new NGOs by opposing groups that are essentially designed to counter each other.
It is idle to believe that we would have NGOs sans controversy. But such controversy is mainly a reflection of the complex and contradictory nature of present society.