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4th Full Meeting Statement |
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On January 17-18, 2010, the fourth full Board Meeting of NGO Federation of Nepal has passed the following resolutions 1. NGO Federation of Nepal calls upon the government of Nepal to bring Social Development Act into immediate effect in order to regulate Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) effectively and make them more accountable and transparent. NGOs and social organizations in Nepal have been facing a number of obstacles owing to the lack of appropriate Act commensurate with the changing context. NGOs in Nepal are still being regulated by the Social Organization Registration Act 1977 (2034) which was brought in a socio-political context very different from now. 2. As reported by the member NGOs of NFN from various parts of the country, some of the INGOs, bilateral and multilateral agencies have been found to be directly implementing projects by creating parallel structures and sub-structures at sub-national/regional and district levels. This has violated the law of the land which has restricted international agencies to directly implement the projects. Direct implementation of projects by the International Development Organizations has also violated their commitments made in different international conventions such as Paris Principles 2005 and Accra Agenda for Action 2008. On September 2-4, 2008, in Accra, the donor governments, UN and International Development Agencies have agreed to use the country system and to promote country ownership in their development assistance. The Accra Agenda for Action (AAA) stipulates: “Partner country systems will be used to deliver aid as the first option, rather than donor systems, and donors will share their plans on increasing use of country systems.” The board meeting of NFN strongly appeals to the International Development Agencies to follow the rules and laws of Nepal and also the international commitments they already agreed on. Similarly, it also urges the Government of Nepal to develop an effective mechanism to monitor whether the international agencies have been implementing the programs according to national laws and international commitments. 3. For the past few years, there has been an increasing trend where INGOs have been changing their identity as local NGOs by registering at Local Administration Office in the same name, while keeping their international identity as usual. This kind of dual identity of INGOs is obviously an opportunistic response, as one of the objectives to be registered locally is to compete for local resources. This has undermined the institutionalization and capacity development of locally organized NGOs and civil society organizations in Nepal. Moreover, the locally registered INGOs continue to be accountable to their headquarters, thus blurring the norms of accountability and responsibility of INGOs. This has violated the Paris Principles and AAA. In view of this, NGO Federation of Nepal urges the Nepal Government to issue a regulatory framework to stop INGOs from being registered as local NGOs and also issue an order to keep their international identity as the legal status of their existence in Nepal (including an immediate reversal of those that have already converted their identity as local NGOs). 4. In principle, INGOs should raise funds from their country of origin. Nevertheless, many INGOs are raising funds from various donor agencies ‘earmarked money‘ allocated for Nepal. Some of the INGOs are raising all or most of their funds from Nepal in the name of “Consultancy Service”. Some international agencies have directly violated the ‘Paris Principles 2005′ and ‘Accra Agenda for Action 2008′ by bringing their own international agencies as lead agency for the implementation of projects in Nepal. NGO Federation of Nepal strongly urges the Nepal Government to develop a regulation that makes International agencies ineligible to apply for the funds where Nepal government and Nepali NGOs are eligible to apply. 5. Government’s recent decision to convert NGO’s saving accounts into current bank accounts and preventing them from opening saving accounts has severely undermined the non-profit organizations, particularly local social organizations operating at the village level. Many village level organizations have used the interests earned on their savings for many social and development works like providing scholarships to the poor and intelligent students, awards and prizes for poem competitions, quiz competitions, sports related programs and many other social works. This decision of the government has undermined and badly affected the small community-led social and local development works. NGO Federation of Nepal calls upon the government to withdraw this decision immediately. (An unofficial translation from the official Nepali version). |
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