The institutionalized perception of Somali National NGOs Lacking Capacity.

Background.

Somalia a country of 15 million population according to Work Bank (WB) which mainly depends on humanitarian aid and the presence of INGO goes way long before 90s when there had been a stable government in power by then then the civil war broke out and the livelihoods of the population is entirely disrupted and infrastructures destroyed. Fast forward came the aftermath of the famous 1992 drought country wide that attracted the attention of the world and that is when vast number of INGOs fully operation in Somalia. This came at time of absolute chaos and surely it was a hard environment to operate to extreme extend.

Somali National NGOs most were formed during this hard times to facilitate aid and humanitarian service delivery while working alongside the INGOs, Due to the nature of the situation at the time forced INGOs support to NNGO be based on the aspect of primarily accessibility which basically meant any certain NNGO will be contracted to facilitate a certain work in a specific location / region.

As years when by and the security of the country improved bit by bit; the humanitarian works in Somalia has also changed gradually and improved on different capacities, Different phases of droughts came across few to name is the 2011 famine.

NNGOs contribution to Humanitarian works in Somalia.

When any emergency strikes in Somalia, the NNGOs played a key role and having a strong presence in areas where most INGO can access or have to footprint at all thus is the NNGOs that often at the fore front to attend to avert the famines in partnership INGOs/Donors.  In Somalia, Aid distributed in hard-to-reach areas can be challenging and as much the risk if higher at times when National NGOs staff had been killed or kidnapped while delivering services to the community.

Somalia National NGOs partnership with INGO.

For years the relationship between INGOs and NNGO in Somalia had been named “Partnership” but in the real sense this is a term that isn’t met with its full definition and expectation as most of what seems to be partnership is actual a contractual model which with slight sugar-courted in PARTNERSHIP because quite often the NNGO is given to a small task to facilitate with the thinking that the NNGOs don’t have CAPACITY!!! Lets Pause there for a second, when we talk of National NGOs not meeting nor having the capacity expected by fellow INGOs / Donors then we need to break it down and ask our selves how much does these INGOs invest in building the capacity of the NNGO. A simple example, when an INGO get a grant / certain project they are given an overhead cost which allows for the INGOs to invest and improve its capacity based on their needs and when the same INGO sub-contracts a NNGO its not being given so the question comes, How we expect for NNGO to growth, build its capacity and have a strong system so it meets the expect level of capacity by Donors/INGOs. Lets say for the past 30 years NNGO had been around and immensely contribution to the significant work of Emergency response and the humanitarian work in the country and we ask what is the defined timelines in which NNGO can be said are equally good and have the capacity expected of them, Is there a timeline 20, 30, 40 or 50 more years?

The NEGATIVE perception of the locals lacking CAPACITY.

The negative perception being as the locals in this regard doesn’t only limits to national NGOs but also for national consultancy firms / Individuals too. Its time to accept the reality that this perpetuated perception that the locals ain’t got capacity needs to STOP. To enlighten more on this lets look a scenario when a national consultant applies for a specific consultancy from INGO/Donors and since the other competitors are foreign then there is the automatic assumptions that there is capacity gap for the local consultant and when the same consultancy is being awarded to Foreign firm probably based in Nairobi to be closest is sub-contract local researchers / local consult to do the same work; the same applies to NNGOs.

What creates the capacity limitation of local / National NGOs? If you closely look into the staff that works in most INGOs/UN at some point significant number of those staff had worked for a national NGO / CBO that where is they gain experience to say so but again what creates the big gap is due to the lack of better opportunities at local / national level where staff don’t get equal pay to that of their INGO counter parts, No allowance I,e, medical or Idd Bonusses among others. This force nationals to seek better opportunities and career development that the local can provide thus such systemic vacuum results local NGO to lose their most talent and qualified staff to INGOs.

The Grand Bargain - Aid Localization

Back in 2016 at the World Humanitarian Summit in Turkey, over 30 of the biggest donors and aid providers had attended where the Grand Bargain had been launched and key commitments reinforcing national and local systems and ensuring accountability to affected people was agreed. A significant outcome of the grand bargain was committed donors and aid organizations to providing 25 per cent of global humanitarian funding to local and national responders by 2020. This had been committed to didn’t take effect on ground though at certain donors insist the inclusion of National NGOs in the multi-year grants that they fund which itself question on the percentage in which a local NGO is allocated in such big grants unlike INGOs counterparts.

Recommendations.

-          TRUE partnership: The partnership with NNGOs needs to mutually a true which is based strategic model that can truly building the capacity of the local NGO.

-          Provide multi-year funding to local responders so that they can invest in staff, training, and equipment, building local capacity. It will also allow them to be better prepared to respond efficiently and at scale when a crisis strikes.

-          Overhead costs being given to NNGO which allows to invest in administrative costs and emergency preparedness, strengthening its capacity.

-          Capacity strengthening: This doesn’t only mean about in-house staff training but also investing in local NGO systems and operational procedures.