Partnership in Question
A CIDA/CCIC Roundtable Discussion

(disponible en anglais seulement)

August 27, 1999


Table of Contents

Introduction
Roundtable Discussion
A Southern Roundtable at the CIVICUS World Assembly


Introduction

At the end of August, CIDA and CCIC co-hosted a Roundtable discussion on issues in the roles and relationship among Northern and Southern NGOs and donor agencies such as CIDA. The Roundtable is one of a series of meetings and forums hosted by CIDA’s Canadian Partnership Branch (Policy, Strategic Planning and Operations section) during the early Fall in preparation for an "Issues Paper" to be presented during CIDA’s 1999 Development Days Conference in November. Further meetings have been held within CIDA and at the World Assembly of CIVICUS at the end of September in the Philippines. For CCIC, the Roundtable was an opportunity to pursue issues related to its proposed "Civil Society Initiative" outlined in the March 1999 Background Policy Paper on Renewing Canadian Aid Policy and Practice.

For its part, CIDA commissioned two in-depth discussion papers to assist in identifying key issues. Charles Abugre from the Third World Network in Ghana prepared: "Partners, Collaborators or Patron Clients: Defining Relationships in the Aid Industry, A Survey of the Issues", and Alison Van Rooy from the North South Institute presented "Changing Liaisons: Hot Topics in Canadian NGOs' Relationships with CIDA, the private sector, each other, and their Southern counterparts". [Both papers are available in English and French on CCIC’s Web site www.web.net/ccic-ccci. ]

Abugre’s paper offers a thoughtful and provocative dissection of the notion of partnership and its applicability to current aid relationships and policies for both NGOs and official donors. Roundtable participants were very impressed by the strength of the analysis of the paper and its discussion of a growing donor consensus for a comprehensive development framework. A useful suggestion was made to elaborate his notion of "solidarity" as his alternative to partnership.

Alison Van Rooy’s paper focuses on the "hot" issues that are shaping NGO relationships with each other, with their "partners" in developing countries, with CIDA, and with Canadian private sector organizations. Among others, she raises the policy capacities of Canadian NGOs to deal with the growing agenda of globalization, corporate social responsibility and relations with the private sector, the quality, quantity and management of Canadian ODA, and questions about NGO special competence in addressing poverty.

Esperanza Moreno from CCIC and John Saxby from CIDA chaired and provided some opening comments for the Roundtable. John provided some organizational background on issues paper on questions of partnership for Partnership Branch, to which the group responded briefly (see below).

Esperanza drew attention to some strategic issues facing NGOs, government and the private sector. She pointed out that these are not new issues – several Canadian NGOs have been exploring new ideas and organizational forms that put into practice the ethical imperatives of equity, ownership, transparency and solidarity in their global relationships. But we share many of the questions about the practice of "partnership" highlighted in the Abugre paper. She drew attention to CCIC’s proposal for joint CIDA/ Voluntary Sector "Civil Society Initiative" for learning and policy leadership on civil society and roles in poverty reduction. Pro-poor development is ultimately about the interplay of politics and rights – organized action by those living in poverty and the marginalized to redress unequal power, capacity and access to society’s economic and social resources. In this context the relationship of civil society to government is "contested terrain". These are issues that need to be reasserted into emerging donor discussions of the comprehensive development agenda and of appropriate roles of northern NGOs.

Roundtable Discussion

Approximately 25 participants from among NGO members of CCIC, knowledgeable observers of the voluntary sector, and CIDA officials held wide-ranging discussions of their reflections on issues in North/ South NGO and donor relationships. While welcoming this initiative by Partnership Branch to examine more closely the quality of these relationships, the Roundtable suggested that the CIDA "Issues Paper" for the November meeting reflect equally on the roles and the quality of relationships of the private sector in development partnerships. All issues need to be framed in terms of their contribution to the goal of ending poverty.

Participants also hoped that the November "Issues Paper" would not end in an abstract discussion of issues. Instead, many were engaged because they wanted systematic dialogue to ultimately affect the practice of the Agency in its relations with civil society actors, perhaps along the lines suggested by CCIC’s proposal for a joint CIDA/civil society anti-poverty initiative.

The Roundtable did not try to come to consensus. However ideas provoked by the two excellent discussion papers and the flow of discussion revolved around several key messages or concerns.

• There was a strong consensus that "partnerships" is used far too loosely and that it obscures unequal relationships of power and interest, among NGOs, and between NGOs and government. CIDA’s power and its resources, and its ultimate accountability to Parliament, unavoidably blocks real partnership (as defined by Abugre) with civil society organizations. Similarly on the NGO side, the northern model has not moved very far from the paradigm of the "gift".
• Long-standing NGOs in the North are being challenged, even bypassed, by both new international actors in the North and the growth and maturity of Southern NGOs. Nevertheless northern NGOs still see themselves as important "mediators" between the Canadian population and people living in poverty in the South.
• NGO/private sector working relationships may be more difficult than NGOs have encountered with government. More systematic examination of the experience of relations between government / the private sector / the voluntary sector is essential. What is the role of the private sector, its efficacy, its legitimacy and accountability in programs to end poverty?
• Questions about NGOs’ development roles and purpose apply also to CIDA and Canadian Partnership Branch. What is its place among all the government, business and civil society linking with developing countries? What useful roles can CPB play in encouraging links between Canadian society and developing countries in the context of radically changing roles for both government and NGOs? But often the experience and perception of CIDA from the outside is an Agency that is highly defensive and open to little critique, and with a lack of leadership for learning and change.
• Partnerships and other working relations among organizations are only a means, to be assessed in light of their ends in their contribution to ending poverty. The core issue are our assumptions about "what is development?" and "how does change to end poverty occur?" Organizations, North and South, need to take responsibility to redefine the nature of their relationships as equals.
• In determining new roles and capacities, Canadian NGOs are increasingly facing multiple responsibilities and profound dilemmas in complex civil conflicts and in an emerging human security agenda. Who is questioning the assumptions behind the "capacity-building strategies", promoted by northern NGOs and agencies alike? Financial stability affect both northern and southern NGOs, but among northern NGOs, a key question is "who will pay for the capacity for effective policy development and advocacy?" How is globalization affecting the impact of traditional NGO strategies, governance and accountability to local constituencies? Has the "NGO bubble" grown too big?
  

A Southern Roundtable at the CIVICUS World Assembly

John Saxby has produced for CIDA a short summary of issues coming out of the "Partnership in Question" Roundtable at the CIVICUS World Assembly in Manila at the end of September. This meeting of about 20 mainly southern participants was convened by CIDA with the cooperation of the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), who also is the secretariat for the International Forum on Capacity Building. The CIVICUS Roundtable conclusions parallel those of the Canadian meetings:

• "Partnership" is a highly problematic word and should probably be abandoned. It is used too loosely, covering many different types of organizational relationships and obscures important issues of power and interest, particularly unequal resources between Northern governments and NGOs on one hand, and Southern NGOs and communities on the other.
• The financial sustainability and stability of Southern NGOs and civil society organizations (CSOs, in the jargon) is critical to their ability to survive and to negotiate with outside organizations as independent entities.

All parties need a substantial reworking of current patterns of accountability. This redefinition should include a change in who sets the agenda for development co-operation (towards more power and authority for Southern organizations), and more systematic accountability of Northern NGOs and donors to the communities of poor people who are supposed to be the 'ultimate beneficiaries' of their programs.
Partnership Branch will be hosting a workshop on "Partnership in Question" at the November CIDA Development Days, in which both Alison Van Rooy and Charles Abugre are expected to participate.