12th may 2010 : Launch of Civil Society Accountability Toolkit for India

VANI along with the Commonwealth foundation has released the India Toolkit on “Civil Society Accountability: Principles and practices”. This toolkit was released on May, 12, 2010 in a day long meeting at India International Centre, Delhi. The toolkit is the outcome of a year-long project between VANI, the One World Trust and the Commonwealth Foundation to identify the principles and practice of accountability for civil society in India. This seminar was organized to have discussions around the need of promoting CSO Accountability and credibility in India. A total number of 45 participants from various Civil Society Organisations attended the seminar.

The CSOs with a new found power and influence need to be more careful about their own conduct and activities. Worldwide the CSOs are facing growing pressure from the government and the public to be more open about their activities and funding sources. Most of theses types of voices are coming from within the sector itself. Most of the people are asking this question in an effort to strengthen the sector and make it more accountable towards its duties and projects.

Within the context of the above mentioned fact, the One World Trust and the Commonwealth Foundation initiated a project across three Commonwealth countries Belize, India and Uganda, and one region, the Pacific Islands to stimulate discussion among CSOs on what it means to be accountable. For this project VANI became its partner in India. The project engaged CSOs in each location in developing a set of common principles for accountability and developed a set of country toolkit that provides assistance to organizations in putting accountability into practice.

While speaking in the seminar various heads of CSOs based in India stressed on the need of the emergence of a new policy for the regulation of NGOs. They were of the view that the opportunity of partnership between the government and the non governmental organizations must be increased and new areas should be explored in which both can share their experience. Self regulation should be focused towards the increasing of the credibility of the organizations among the stake holders. Some were of the view that, there is need of information sharing which will only enhance transparency and increase in public awareness.

All of the speakers were unanimous in their view that, it must be a duty of various CSOs to come together and highlight the sector by adopting good practices as a collective measure.

VANI has decided to take forward this debate about accountability and self regulation within the CSOs .

The meeting was well appreciated and received by the group.  We will soon be sharing a detailed report with you.

Background:

In the current global situation India is playing a significant role in official and non- official diplomatic areas. On one hand India is positioning itself as the major global player in the field of international economic growth and on the other strives to open its gates for sharing of global learnings.  The Voluntary Organizations in India have been playing important role as the non-official diplomacy power of the country.  This cross learning takes place by Indian non-official experts participating in global educational events and also foreigners visiting India as experts, students, delegates, etc.  Many voluntary organizations organize international conferences; study cum exposure visits to show case Indian development projects, engage interns for field learnings and also visits of support providers.

During the last few months the requirements for soliciting visa has been changed by Indian Government. We do appreciate the security concern of the government, but these procedures need to be simplified to facilitate the process and reduce the hindrance. Now clearance from three ministries is required before proceeding for VISA.  There is no clarity on who to submit this information, what information is to be submitted and how much time it will take for approval, etc. In order to get more specific feedback VANI organized a consultation in its office on April 15 where major voluntary organizations of Delhi participated. We would like to suggest following facilitating steps:

Suggestions:

1. If government of India can identify nodal ministry and nodal officer responsible for this procedures.
2. If the identified ministry can upload clear guidelines on its website to guide the organizations seeking VISA for its visitors.
3. If on-line submission of application and uploading of required information is made. This will also help organizations which are not in Delhi to follow this procedure without delay and harassment.
4. If government can prepare list of major organization which organize international events, this will reduce the time taken while entertaining each application.
5. Many of Voluntary Organizations are already registered with Ministry of Home Affairs under FCRA; this can also be a facilitating factor.
6. And finally we believe that it has to be an open and transparent procedure.

VANI, being the largest apex body of voluntary organizations in India would like to extend all possible support to Government of India in simplifying the procedure which helps its members to continue playing important role in international development.

Meeting of the Facilitation Group of the International Forum of national platforms of NGOs, Madrid, 22nd and 23rd of March 2010.

The second meeting of the Facilitation Group of the International Forum of national platforms of NGOs (IFP) was held in Madrid on 22nd and 23rd of March 2010.  

After the first meeting held in July 2009 in Washington, at the occasion of the annual Forum of InterAction, this second meeting of the Facilitation Group allowed the members to make a balance of the activities led during the last months, going back over the processes and meetings of the regional coalitions, the 6 non governmental diplomacy exercises, the communication tools. This meeting gave the opportunity to talk about perspectives and orientations for the future of the Forum, its governance, its funcioning and its funding. It also gave the opportunity to talk about the membership process as well as the preparation of the General Assembly planned at the beginning of 2011.

What is more, an editorial meeting of the ong-ngo website coordinators was held on Sunday 21rst of March. The results of this meeting were presneted to the Facilitation group.

Minutes will soon be available at the IFP secretariat.

53 organizations were represented by around 60 participants in the state level meeting, which was inaugurated by the Sh. Surya Narayan Patro,  Minister, Revenue and Disaster Management, Government of Orissa.  The focus of this meeting was to share the opportunities and challenges face by VOs in Orissa, the status and need of developing state policy and concrete action plan and modalities to take agenda forward.

The Minister in his inaugural speech highlighted the challenges faced by government in identification of good NGOs in the state. He informed the house that almost 3000 crores are being spent by the state government from its own budget towards various schemes in the state. Manu International NGOs have started their operations in the state which has raised the bar for the local NGOs. He mentioned his experience of working with SDC many years back. He accepted that there are bad and good apples in every profession so we must weed out bad NGOs. He assured all help in formulation of state policy. Mr. AV Swami in his address mentioned the status and contribution of VOs in state. He mentioned that there used to be structured body to interact with VOs at state level and district level. It needs to be revived again. Mr. Harsh in his address expressed the objective of the workshop and linked the national agenda with the state agenda. Mr. Digambhar Sathpathy from Tagore society, focused on the need of formation of state level network of NGOs. Many NGOs are co-opted by the government and private sector and there is creditability gap with NGO. He stressed the need to from a system of support to each other. There were questions and comments by the audiences. It was discussed the state Planning and Coordination Department should be made the nodal department. Download Report 

STRENGTHENING LINKAGES WITH CIVIL SOCIETY PLATFORMS IN ASIA
Voluntary Action Network India (VANI), the national platform of Indian civil society organizations has been making efforts to begin a process of working with national platforms in the Asian region on non-governmental global diplomacy. In developing this association, VANI involved several national platforms in Asia in various meetings in such as World Trade Organisation (prior to WTO Ministerial), legislation and there effect on civil society organisations in Asian countries, etc. to develop common understanding/positions on international development and non-government diplomacy.

Following the initiatives of association, a formal meeting of various national platforms in the Asian region was held in Bangkok in 2008, which was attended by 10 Asian National Platform representatives and it was decided to formally begin the process of establishing an Asian Coalition. It has been a constant effort of VANI to develop linkages among the Asian (National Platform) members and linkages with other regional coalitions, working on non-governmental diplomatic advocacy on issues of interest to the region and sit at one platform to discuss and develop a process of having a formal structure for decision making and taking forward the work of the coalition in the region. To take this initiative forward, VANI in association with Coordination SUD, its equivalent in France, organised a two-day meeting of the members/prospective members of Asian Coalition on 20th & 21st January 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand. The aim was to work in cooperation with other national platforms of their region with the objective to initiate and/or strengthen the process of developing a regional coalition that will serve as genuine civil society voices on issues relevant to their respective regions, to develop linkages among the Asian (National Platform) members working on non‐governmental diplomatic advocacy on issues of interest to the region, to sit at one platform to discuss and develop a process of having a formal structure for decision making and to take forward the work of the coalition in the region.

UPVAN organized a two day AGM/ discussions on the 10th – 11th October, 2009 at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The meeting focused on issues of NREGA, Social Audit, CSR, and State Policy on voluntary sector and last bur not the least the very recent Direct Tax Code and its implications on the voluntary sector. Around 150 participants were present in the meeting. Good discussion took place on the issue such as:-

1. Usage of social audit in NREGA as well as exploring the new areas of engagement of civil Society in CSR. 
2. However, the smaller NGOs had no idea of Direct Tax Code, after knowing its implications they also shared the concern and got motivated to approach Finance Minister.
3. UPVAN announced that although slow, but the state government has recently formed a committee comprising two members from Civil Society to work further on the policy document.
4. Discussion also took place during the AGM of UPAN about its boundaries in thematic areas and mandate. It was felt that UPVAN should explore new areas like CSR, Climate Change and visualize things before hand for voluntary sector.

The outcomes of the meeting were to have more such follow exercises in other states to push up the policy and very importantly recognize the need to organize dialogues around new taxation regime.

Rejuvenate India Movement (RIM) organised a meeting of the Drafting Committee members of Tamil Nadu Voluntary Sector Policy on 22nd September, 2009 at Chennai. Drafting committee members were invited to discuss the following points regarding the policy:

1. To consider the first draft evolved.
2. To consider all suggestions those have come so far on the policy and way forward from here.
3. Also included there was a brief discussion on the Direct Tax Code and its implications for the Voluntary sector.

The team worked on editing the Draft policy after going through a presentation which was a compilation of responses. This draft now shall be circulated to many organizations in the state for suggestions and feedback.
Also, the team felt the urgency to act on sending as many representations as possible to the Finance Ministry to drop the new provisions added for Charitable Institutions in the proposed Direct tax code. The appeal was jointly signed by the group and sent. A representative from VANI was also present in the meeting.

Voluntary Action Network India (VANI), New Delhi and SAHAYI, Centre for Collective Learning and Action, Kerala jointly organized a Southern Regional workshop on Good Governance in Civil Society Organizations on 8th and 9th of September 2009 at Hotel Geeth International in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. It was attended by delegates representing 31 voluntary organizations in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The two-day workshop was aimed at enhancing common understanding among the participants on issues of legitimacy, transparency and accountability, leading to the creation of an enhancing environment for promoting good governance practices among the CSOs.

The group learning processes of the workshop were facilitated by a conducive learning ambience.  The sessions were interactive, the facilitators were presenting their views and inviting group interaction and discussion. The summary power point presentations were effective in igniting thinking and eliciting responses. Ample time was allotted to open house sharing and discussion after each presentation. Extensive reading materials provided conceptual inputs for discussion..

On behalf of the voluntary sector, VANI made a renewed representation to the Hon'ble Finance Minister on Monday, 13th July 2009 regarding the recent amendments to the definition of 'charitable purpose' that he introduced in the Finance Bill 2009 in the Parliament on 6th July 2009. VANI has also sent appeals to several MPs to raise the concern of the sector with the Hon’ble Minister.

VANI has also appealed to its members and other civil society organisations to raise this issue with the Finance Minister urgently through various contacts/channels like government, private sector and media.

Representation to the Hon'ble Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee.