One can argue, that the crux of development sector mainly works on the premise of twin pillars, (1) To work for the poor and marginalized in order to alleviate the level of poverty and other vulnerabilities of rural and urban poor (2) To generate and mobilize the resources for that purpose and use it in with specific objective. The concept appears simple and easy to execute but when a some one will be willing to contribute and work for the sector, this come as zero- sum game. In modern developmental sector, the rule of the game has changed totally.
The third factor has also came out, is not mentioned above. The factor is the interest of many powerful organizations, their human resource personnel, government role and responsibilities and community at large who understand the nuisance of development sector now. As during one of my field visit on behalf of my organization, we went for base line survey to find out the level of intervention required from organizational point of view were planning to do. Before when we reach, naively we spoke to the local mukhiya about our planned visit. After visiting the place we were astonished to find out villagers were more interested to know about how much money organization would be bringing in and what are other prospects of being associated with forthcoming project. It is inspite of that we have been telling them that team is here only to assess the situation and final decision will take place after consulting the seniors and other stake holders.
There is another growing concern which few of my friends would be happy to disagree. The sense of helplessness among the committed professionals who spends lot of time to in balancing the point of view of donor, implementing agency and the community at large. He may not be understood by the organization for he works because of the difference in perception. For an organization spending money within a stipulated time may be a top priority but for an individual project design and deliverables may comes first rather then exhausting the resources. Because we all know that “always love your work not the organization because you never know when organization will stop loving you’. I mean to say difference in the perspective is always important. How an individual approach a programme and project or vise- versa.
The process of resources mobilization has and its linkages has also gone sea changes in coming years. While seeing in the context of India it can said that there is always a mis- match between demand of community, response from the government and national and international NGO’s. I am without being prejudice to my country men and women the fund flow for relief and rehabilitation during TSUNAMI was much greater than in comparison to resources generated for the river koshi flood in Bihar. I am not sure about the factuality of statement but it was said that devastation at Koshi was larger than TSUNAMI. The whole argument is that how international and national community responds to the crisis is matter of serious debate. The role of government in-terms resource mobilization during these periods is also an issue to ponder on. Thanks to growing economic liberlisation and increasing business of number of Indian companies is in a better position to contribute for the development sector. But most of them prefer to play different ball game. In a view to appease the prospective state governments they heavily fund in the Chief Minister Fund and sum up their responsibility. While doing so they can rightly claim that they have done their duty but they have ignored the organizations that have got the specilisation in relief and rehabilitation works for which they have established themselves. The point of matter is not to oppose the funding to the concern government but look at the larger picture. These funding to local and national NGO will not generate jobs at their level but also develop the capacity of local organization starving for resource crunch. The aspect of monitoring and evaluation also goes out of purview from the donor.
The advent of globalization and its impact has also its pro and cons. It had a wider ramification on most of developmental international organization. Because of their own institutional arrangements and poor liasoning and networking capacity within the country where they implement the prg, most of them are depended on resources from abroad but the due to current economic recession where profits have dwindled and number of jobs are axed heavily contribution to the developmental sector would be the last thing in the mind of CEO’s and board members. This makes task of resource mobilization arduous. In a current scenario there is growing concern to recognition and pursue pro-poor agenda for development. While doing so most of the developmental organization missed or ignored the market intervention that directly linked with growth. What matters is the degree to which economic growth provides opportunities for the poor, and the extent to which poor men and women can take advantage of those opportunities. In this area lot can be done by the developmental sector community. Instead of running and completing the projects in specific time period and leaving the area of intervention in huff, the emerging agenda should be more holistic and broader, focused on supporting enterprises and entrepreneurship considered important for the poor. Expanding market access to all and improving how markets function can lead to more satisfactory level of intervention. This influence the rate and pattern of economic growth. For growth to be “pro-poor”, the rate has to be high and sustainable and the pattern broad and inclusive. Institutions and policies shape market outcomes and so determine the degree to which they are pro-poor. The role of developmental sector in shaping the plan and policies for market reform is also unclear. But there are some areas where , developmental sector is working in tandem joining hand to hand with many and may be able to provide an alternative point of view , eg India based network on Disaster Management and UNDP supported solution exchange network is gaining wide access to number of policy makers, leading to more democratic development of policies and planning. The development and implementation of RTI act in India can be termed as classic example of government and development sector contribution.
The third factor has also came out, is not mentioned above. The factor is the interest of many powerful organizations, their human resource personnel, government role and responsibilities and community at large who understand the nuisance of development sector now. As during one of my field visit on behalf of my organization, we went for base line survey to find out the level of intervention required from organizational point of view were planning to do. Before when we reach, naively we spoke to the local mukhiya about our planned visit. After visiting the place we were astonished to find out villagers were more interested to know about how much money organization would be bringing in and what are other prospects of being associated with forthcoming project. It is inspite of that we have been telling them that team is here only to assess the situation and final decision will take place after consulting the seniors and other stake holders.
There is another growing concern which few of my friends would be happy to disagree. The sense of helplessness among the committed professionals who spends lot of time to in balancing the point of view of donor, implementing agency and the community at large. He may not be understood by the organization for he works because of the difference in perception. For an organization spending money within a stipulated time may be a top priority but for an individual project design and deliverables may comes first rather then exhausting the resources. Because we all know that “always love your work not the organization because you never know when organization will stop loving you’. I mean to say difference in the perspective is always important. How an individual approach a programme and project or vise- versa.
The process of resources mobilization has and its linkages has also gone sea changes in coming years. While seeing in the context of India it can said that there is always a mis- match between demand of community, response from the government and national and international NGO’s. I am without being prejudice to my country men and women the fund flow for relief and rehabilitation during TSUNAMI was much greater than in comparison to resources generated for the river koshi flood in Bihar. I am not sure about the factuality of statement but it was said that devastation at Koshi was larger than TSUNAMI. The whole argument is that how international and national community responds to the crisis is matter of serious debate. The role of government in-terms resource mobilization during these periods is also an issue to ponder on. Thanks to growing economic liberlisation and increasing business of number of Indian companies is in a better position to contribute for the development sector. But most of them prefer to play different ball game. In a view to appease the prospective state governments they heavily fund in the Chief Minister Fund and sum up their responsibility. While doing so they can rightly claim that they have done their duty but they have ignored the organizations that have got the specilisation in relief and rehabilitation works for which they have established themselves. The point of matter is not to oppose the funding to the concern government but look at the larger picture. These funding to local and national NGO will not generate jobs at their level but also develop the capacity of local organization starving for resource crunch. The aspect of monitoring and evaluation also goes out of purview from the donor.
The advent of globalization and its impact has also its pro and cons. It had a wider ramification on most of developmental international organization. Because of their own institutional arrangements and poor liasoning and networking capacity within the country where they implement the prg, most of them are depended on resources from abroad but the due to current economic recession where profits have dwindled and number of jobs are axed heavily contribution to the developmental sector would be the last thing in the mind of CEO’s and board members. This makes task of resource mobilization arduous. In a current scenario there is growing concern to recognition and pursue pro-poor agenda for development. While doing so most of the developmental organization missed or ignored the market intervention that directly linked with growth. What matters is the degree to which economic growth provides opportunities for the poor, and the extent to which poor men and women can take advantage of those opportunities. In this area lot can be done by the developmental sector community. Instead of running and completing the projects in specific time period and leaving the area of intervention in huff, the emerging agenda should be more holistic and broader, focused on supporting enterprises and entrepreneurship considered important for the poor. Expanding market access to all and improving how markets function can lead to more satisfactory level of intervention. This influence the rate and pattern of economic growth. For growth to be “pro-poor”, the rate has to be high and sustainable and the pattern broad and inclusive. Institutions and policies shape market outcomes and so determine the degree to which they are pro-poor. The role of developmental sector in shaping the plan and policies for market reform is also unclear. But there are some areas where , developmental sector is working in tandem joining hand to hand with many and may be able to provide an alternative point of view , eg India based network on Disaster Management and UNDP supported solution exchange network is gaining wide access to number of policy makers, leading to more democratic development of policies and planning. The development and implementation of RTI act in India can be termed as classic example of government and development sector contribution.
