Development Forum Archives

Title: Meeting of Civil Society Representatives

Speaker: Dr. David Brown of Hauser Centre for Non-profit Organizations, Harvard University, USA

Venue: Civil Society Resource Centre
D – 114, Block 5, Clifton, Karachi – Tel 5865501-2
Saturday – May 9, 2009 (4-6 pm)

Civil Society Resource Centre (CSRC) - formerly NGO Resource Centre (NGORC) - organized a meeting of civil society representatives with Dr. David Brown of the Hauser Centre for Non-profit Organizations of Harvard University, USA at CSRC office, Karachi on May 9, 2009.

Dr. Brown was in Pakistan for a mid-term evaluation of the new Civil Society Programme of Aga Khan Development Network. The purpose of the meeting was to seek the views of the key leaders of civil society on the state of and challenges faced by civil society in Pakistan and how the future programmes of the AKDN in civil society can be oriented to address some of these challenges.
 
Participants gave interesting and thought provoking views in reply to the critical questions put forward by Dr. Brown. Most of the participants pointed out that Pakistani civil society is facing a lot of challenges, but despite passing through difficult times, it has achieved some successes as well. The successful movement of lawyers for restoration of judiciary was an obvious example, though interestingly most NGOs were missing from this movement.

Participants were of the view that Pakistan’s civil society is vibrant because of the variety of organizations it has. There is the public sector along with private firms, a thriving media, professional organizations, NGOs, faith based groups and charity organizations such as Edhi Foundation.

Another participant said Pakistani organizations mainly carry out the three functions; service delivery, capacity building and awareness-raising or advocacy. Unfortunately, most of NGOs have focused on service delivery only and completely ignored the other two important functions.

A participant said presently the civil society in Pakistan is still at a nascent stage if compared with the regional countries like India and Sri Lanka. The reason for lack of growth was cited as presence of non-democratic governments and dictatorships. The democratic institutions never had a chance to grow in the country and the civil society of Pakistan remained undeveloped as an institution.

Another participant was of the opinion that one of the dilemmas of Pakistani civil society is lack of cooperation and coordination among various segments of civil society and with public sector authorities. Public sector plays an important role in guiding the civil society or giving the overall agenda for development, but all this is missing in case of Pakistan, he added.

Some participants mentioned few achievements of the networks of civil society in Pakistan. In 1994, the government planned to draft a new law for controlling NGOs. “After a lot of discussions we formed a network called Pakistan NGO Forum,” said one of the participants. He said because of that network, the government had to withdraw the proposed legislation.

Presently NGOs in Pakistan are facing a lot of problems, particularly in the North West Frontier Province and adjoining FATA area. Employees of CSOs are being attacked and in severe cases, some of them have been killed as well. Insecurity and misconception about civil society organizations and polarization on ideological grounds have made it almost impossible for civil society organizations to work freely in parts of the country.

One of the participant believed that there is a conflict at the ideological level and Pakistanis are torn between the decision to become a democratic and civil society or a theocratic state. “Unless we resolve this philosophical debate, the operational fault line will never be overcome,” he said.

Most of the participants agreed that NGOs do not have access to the media. Most media houses are either looking for negative news or for sensational news which the civil sector cannot provide. One participant said that media is highly politicized and in some cases, polarized. As CSOs are apolitical bodies, media does not see any relevance in engaging with them. In Pakistan, participation in politics is considered as something negative. That is why most of the CSOs stay away from the politics and media consequently looses interest in them. He said the development is politics but for developing this understanding among NGOs some time is required.

Earlier, in his introduction, Mr. David Brown said that he is a Senior Research Fellow and currently the Associate Director for International Programs at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations. He also worked as Professor of Organizational Behavior at Boston University and was President of Institute for Development Research, which is a non governmental think tank. His research and consulting has focused on institution building, particularly for civil society organizations and networks that foster sustainable development and social transformation.

In his welcome remarks, Mr. Gul Najam Jamy, Programme Manager, Civil Society Programme, Aga Khan Foundation (Pakistan) gave a brief overview of the objectives of the meeting and also gave an introduction of the Civil Society Programme of AKF (P).

The following were the participants of the meeting (in alphabetical order):