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While shifts have been underway for some time in the donor environment in Ghana, the year 2004 saw these emerging trends come through in an overall shift in donor practice. The most apparent and pronounced trends were:
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A general increased funding for civil society activities, coupled with an increased emphasis on support for community initiatives, i.e. Community Driven Development (CDD). |
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Shift from service delivery to advocacy delivery. |
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Increased demands on international NGO’s, often in partnership with local NGOs and consultants to manage civil society capacity development funds, including OD services. |
| 4. |
The universal adaptation of tender procedures by major donor agencies. |
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A shift towards basket funding among most bilateral donors, this shift is closely related to a previous trend towards Multi Donor Budget Support, and a sense of urgency on the side of the donors to ensure that civil society can play a role as watchdog in respect of the funding provided. |
The above trend had implications on the roles now being carved out for some of the OCB’s partner organizations, namely the Rural Media Network (RUMNET) and the Northern Ghana Network for Development (NGND). These organizations were given key roles to play in leading and supporting community driven development and acting as watchdogs in respect of international funding provided to their local government agencies. OCB’s rights-based partner organizations, such as The Ark Foundation and the Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE) also sought out the above-mentioned basket funding towards developing their role in promoting human rights.
These developments, though they were in harmony with the OCB’s program objective of civil society empowerment, were not initiated by the OCB program. Again, the roles, funding and activities of OCB program partner organizations within the above programs did not necessarily involve the OCB program. Nonetheless it can be expected that in-roads that may be made by these partner organizations in terms of civil society empowerment and within the OCB program’s domains of change, will not solely be attributable to the support received from the OCB program, but will be attributable to a myriad of factors, including the elements of support they have received from such donor programs as described above.
In the year 2003 a key question that faced the OCB program was whether demand for OD support and interventions within the CSO environment could be stimulated and developed though the OCB program’s training programs and networking activities.
Developments over the year 2004 largely answered this question in the affirmative. In that year, there were consistently more applicants than seats for the program’s training courses. The demand for the program’s Facilitation development program (FDP) continued to grow, as did demand for its OD Introduction program. There was in addition a growing demand within the Ghanaian CSO environment and the Ghanaian private sector, for a full training program in OD to be carried out in Ghana.
The demand for OCB’s training programs further developed into a demand from the external environment for the OCB program to direct its services towards the facilitation of key internal processes of development organizations. Though the program was not able to meet each of these demands, their emergence has been an indication of a growing interest within CSO’s of OD support.
Today, the OCB program considers itself to be in an environment where there is an undoubted demand for its OD training programs.
Another element of this demand has arisen from Ibis Ghana having embarked on a new development of bidding in tenders by international donors. Each of Ibis’s tendered proposals has incorporated the provision of OD support by OCB program as a key element. In the 2 successfully tendered bids, The Ghana Research and Advocacy Program (GRAP) and the Danida Good Governance and Human Rights program (GGHR), there has been no doubt that the provision of capacity building with the OCB program’s OD approach has been a major contributing factor to Ibis’ successful bid.
In one un-successful bid, the Rights and Voice Initiative (RAVI), again, the international donor, DFID, indicated a keen interest in the OD element of Ibis’ tendered bid.
With the current donor trends in relation to civil society, there is no reason to believe that the demand should dwindle again in a foreseeable time, on the contrary, new demands for OD are materializing.
For more information contact….dorcas@ibisghana.com; Dzifa@ibisghana.com
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