Number 9 June, 1995 Participation and Intermediary NGOs NGOs can be effective intermediaries in Bank funded projects which depend on participation and capacity building at the community level. Successful collaboration depends on identifying an organization with appropriate characteristics, and involving its staff in decisionmaking from as early as possible in the project cycle. Steps must be taken to prevent Bank or government requirements undermining the participatory orientation of the NGO and, where necessary, to strengthen NGO capacity, encourage cooperation between NGOs, and support communication between NGOs and government. The Intermediary Role capableanddedicatedcommunityworkers,andthe greatest experience in reaching disadvantaged As increasing emphasis in Bank lending groups through innovative participatory methods, operations is being placed on poverty reduction, are found in NGOs. investment in human resources, and environmental management, so more and more Not all NGOs are participatory, and not all Bank projects depend on participation and Bank-NGO collaboration has been with the capacity building at the community level. purpose of promoting participation. Until recently, Participatory community-based development the Bank looked to NGOs primarily for capability depends in turn on intermediary organizations in service delivery. However, in approximately with the specialized skills and experience to two thirds of projects approved in recent years, provide links between community level the promotion of beneficiary participation was institutions on the one hand, and national cited as the main rationale for seeking NGO institutions and the Bank on the other. The involvement. For the task manager, the key issues intermediary functions include facilitating are (i) identifying an organization which is willing communication between project beneficiaries and to collaborate and whose capacity and orientation government; helping to identify and voice match the specific task at hand, and then (ii) community needs; supporting participation and ensuring that the influence of the Bank is to group formation; training and building the support rather than undermine the participatory capacity of community groups; and channeling character and capacity of the NGO. resources to the community level. Identifying Participatory NGOs This bridging role may be filled in different ways,dependingoninstitutionalcircumstancesand The term "NGO" encompasses a broad array the nature of the particular project. Line agencies of different organizations, varying enormously or local government units may be restructured and according to their purpose, philosophy, sectoral reoriented to fill the role of community facilitators. expertise and scope of activities. A distinction is Alternatively, the needed services may be made between operational NGOs, which are contracted out to the private sector, to multi- or engaged primarily in designing and implementing bilateral agencies, to NGOs, or to a combination of projects, and advocacy NGOs, whose main these.Often,thestrongestgrassrootslinks,themost purpose is to defend or promote a specific cause. This note is based on the paper written by Thomas Carroll, Mary Schmidt and Tony Bebbington as a contribution to the Participation Sourcebook. Copies are available from the Social Development Family in the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network of the World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20433, Fax (202) 522-3247, E-Mail: sdpublications@worldbank.org. Dissemination Notes represent the views of their authors and are not official publications of the World Bank. Some NGOs engage in both types of activity. organizations's participatory effectiveness. Non- Advocacy NGOs, such as those defending the participatory NGOs tend to regard community rights of indigenous peoples, may perform an members purely as beneficiaries, and the funding important intermediary role in supplying agencies as their clients. information, facilitating communication and consultation. Generally, however, Bank-NGO SpecificcriteriaforselectinganNGO--interms collaboration on specific projects is more likely of technical and operational capacity, outreach to involve operational intermediaries. potential, skills in community capacity building, and knowledge of conditions in target NGOs vary greatly in the extent to which they communities--need to be matched to the specific ensure beneficiary participation within their own task at hand. Guidelines for assessing the programs. At one extreme are NGOs whose participatory effectiveness of an NGO are orientation and competence are very similar to summarizedinBox1.Assessmentshouldbebased the private sector firms with whom they compete on the NGO's proven track record as well as its for contracts in project implementation or service stated objectives. Paper credentials and financial delivery. Such NGOs may be very efficient (and or organizational strength are often less important in strong demand) as service deliverers but are than dedication, commitment and enthusiasm. oriented to meeting the requirements of bureaucratic funding agencies and are unlikely Operational Challenges to use participatory processes. At the other extreme are participatory NGOs which see Supporting the Participatory Process themselves exclusively as enablers and capacity Aparadoxconfrontingthetaskmanageristhat builders and refuse to compromise their the qualities which make NGOs participatory-- objectives or independence by collaborating in and therefore attractive as intermediaries--are official programs. A minority of exceptionally incompatible with many government, donor and effective NGOs combine a high level of Bank requirements. One of the major constraints competence in service delivery and in community to group formation and capacity building is donor capacity building. The Aga Khan Rural or government pressure to disburse and deliver Development Program in Pakistan provides an example of what can be achieved by such Box 1 organizations, committed to bottom up planning Indicators of Participatory Effectiveness and combining strong technical expertise with in Intermediary NGOs effective institution building at the village level. Using infrastructure projects as the catalyst for · A flat management structure with decentralized authority. institution building, this program reached 38,000 households and created 110 women's groups · Organizational structures at the community level to within four years. which funding and/or other decisions are delegated. An organization serves the interests of those · Use of iterative planning, involving consultation with local communities. to whom it is accountable. In this respect, national or regional level membership NGOs, including · Contributions of cash, labor, raw materials or local federations of grassroots organizations or facilities by community members and organizations, cooperatives, trades unions, peasant unions or makingthemclientsratherthanbeneficiariesoftheNGO. ethnic groups can be valuable partners in projects · Staff recruitment criteria, incentives and training requiring broad participation (although women which support participation. and marginalized groups are not always well represented). One difficulty, however, can be that · Strong field presence outside metropolitan areas with they are often more politically embroiled and high proportion of staff of local origin. subject to state regulation. Among NGOs that are · Community leaders and members have a positive not membership based, accountability to client perception of the NGO. communities--for example through community contributions of cash, labor, materials or · Turnover of client groups as they "graduate" over time and intensive field attention is transferred to new facilities--is an important indicator of an groups. servicesquickly.Unlessproceduresaremademore decision making from very early in the project flexible, and both the Bank and the government cycle. If NGOs are to participate in a Bank are committed to supporting participatory financed project in a significant way, it is processes, the NGO is pressed into a service important that they have a say as early as possible delivery rather than capacity building role. This in the design of the project and in defining the has happened in a number of Bank funded terms of their involvement. projects, including Liberia's Second Education Project. Under this project, schools were The Question of Scale constructed rapidly and at low cost; however, no Highly participatory NGOs tend to work on a attentionwasgiventosupportingtheintermediary verysmallscaleandsomeoftheirprogramsdepend NGOinbuildingcommunityownershipofschools on staying small and resource-intensive. In other and planning for maintenance. As a result, many cases, NGOs have established participatory schools deteriorated and some went unused. processes which they have themselves extended to Similarly, in the Zambia Squatter Upgrading large scale programs, or which have proved Project, it was agreed in principle to pursue long replicablebyotherorganizationsorbygovernment termcommunitydevelopmentgoalsbypromoting agencies on a large scale. Various approaches have active beneficiary participation; however, a been used to enable successful NGO programs to stipulation was included in the final agreement be scaled up and "mainstreamed", where possible, that, if the collective self help approach to be used withoutlosingtheiressentialparticipatoryqualities, by the two intermediary NGOs interfered with the and without individual NGOs having to grow to predetermined project schedule, then contractors the point where they become hierarchical and would be employed to carry out the work. bureaucratized.Thismayinvolvestrengtheningthe capacity of NGOs, both through training and Creative TMs have found ways to ensure that through promoting NGO partnerships between they support rather than undermine the NGOs. participatory strengths of NGO partners by introducing mechanisms which permit revisions Scaling up may also involve training in project priorities, greater flexibility in the timing government staff in participatory methods and and scale of implementation, and alternative relaxing some government regulations. When procurement procedures, or which allow NGOs to working with governments to encourage NGO design and implement their own programs. linkages, it is useful to consider that government agencies, as well as the Bank, may have to scale Consultation from the outset concerning down in the sense of decentralizing and building development objectives can help resolve the flexibility and micro-variability into their tension between the short term project focus of operations. This not only pushes decisionmaking the Bank or government and the long term down closer to the populations most affected (and community development goals of NGOs. The is in this sense itself more participatory), but also most successful cases of Bank-NGO collaboration makes it easier to work with regional and local have involved mutual transparency and shared NGOs. The community support process under Box 2 Mainstreaming a Successful Participatory Process The Community Support Process, included in the Baluchistan Primary Education Program, is establishing new community girls' schools in remote rural villages. The process began in 1992 with a pilot project by a small national NGO whose community workers went door to door, urging parents to form village education committees, identify a potential female teacher, and select a site for a school. The success of the pilot led to full acceptance and ownership of the program by the government which is now funding the program on a province-wide basis using IDA credit. Because of the experimental nature of the project, Bank support has only been possible through the new lending approach which supports the entire primary education program rather than selected components. So far, the NGO has succeeded in mobilizing community members to establish 200 schools. Replicating the process on this scale, and incorporating the schools and their teachers into the government system once the school has proved viable, has depended on the willingness of the Ministry of Education to relax a number of its regulations, so that girls with as little as eighth grade education can qualify as teachers and can receive training at home by mobile training teams. Baluchistan's Primary Education Program (Box As the examples in Box 3 demonstrate, 2) illustrates how flexibility on the part of facilitating cooperation and partnerships between government can allow an innovative pilot project NGOs can be a highly effective means of by a small NGO to be expanded successfully and organizing training, as well as enabling small linked into government programs. organizations to contribute to large scale projects, and developing the capacity of the local NGO Enhancing NGO Capacity sector as a whole. Training of NGO staff is often needed, to ensure that the institutional capacity of an NGO Strengthening NGO-Government Linkages partner matches the scope and demands of the RelationshipsbetweengovernmentandNGOs project. Although it is very difficult to generalize vary greatly between countries (and between for the sector as a whole, common areas of NGOs), on the basis of historical, political and weakness in NGOs are: limited financial and ideological differences. Simple lack of management expertise; limited number of staff communication, however, is often responsible for with training and experience in community mistrust and misunderstanding about the other's mobilization; lack of technical capacity; limited objectives, concerns and constraints. The Bank can coverage, in terms of scale or area; concentration help to promote state-NGO communication by in urban centers; lack of communication or sponsoring joint training, workshops and coordination with other organizations (including conferences in advance of project appraisal and, government agencies); and limited in particular, by including both government and understanding of the broader social and NGOs as stakeholders in project design. economic context in which they are working. Since institutional gaps can be difficult to foresee, A number of Bank projects (the West Bengal it is important to build flexibility into the Population Project, for example) have also led to provision of training. the creation of NGO liaison units in government. Box 3 Encouraging NGO Partnerships In the Benin Food Security Project, partnerships were encouraged between stronger, larger NGOs and weaker, newer NGOs to stimulate the transfer of methodologies and technology. This project began as a pilot which involved international NGOs and a few Beninese NGOs. After two years of the pilot experience, NGOs were brought together with government and donors at a workshop to design a new project based on the pilot phase. One of the findings at the workshop was that geographic concentration in the capital isolated many large NGOs from target communities. International NGOs had the human and financial resources to submit competitive proposals for inclusion in project activities; however, they often had the least recent or direct experience with potential client communities. Where local NGOs lacked transport to access project areas, international NGOs had the necessary equipment and staff, but lacked the local contacts. At the workshop, consensus was reached to modify the project in several ways, including creating incentives for NGOs to establish field offices in the project area, giving regional offices the authority to approve microprojects and disburse funds, and requiring international NGOs to partner local NGOs to facilitate technology transfer and information sharing. For the Bank-financed Improved Environmental Management and Advocacy Project (IEMA) in Indonesia, an international NGO teamed up with twelve Indonesian NGOs to strengthen the capacity of local intermediaries to address the environmental consequences of pesticides. The international NGO assists local counterparts in developing primary learning approaches to educate local people about environmental problems and solutions. This collaborative NGO effort is a broad- based initiative to develop education and training programs for farmers, consumers, and provincial-level regulatory officials. It also serves to transfer skills and knowledge among NGOs. The goal of the Uttar Pradesh Sodic Land Reclamation Project is to reclaim salt-affected lands using participatory management techniques that could serve as a model to be replicated more broadly in the future. Farmers' water management groups will be organized and community volunteers will be trained in technology transfer by small local NGOs. The staff of these grassroots NGOs will be trained in turn by larger intermediary NGOs with previous experience in participatory management. Other projects, such as the Participatory Forest Development Project for Bangladesh, are using a similar structure in which advisory NGOs coordinate the implementation activities of small locally-based NGOs. These projects are coordinated at the national level by a single organization that works directly with the government to ensure compatibility with national goals and policies.