NGOs come with strings attached

The post- Cold War era has witnessed a proliferation of Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) with many divergent goals and objectives. The NGOs have been viewed by political commentators as the conscience of humanity and in other situations fashionable concepts such as the responsibility to protect, human rights defenders and the sphere doctrine have been applied.

A diagnosis of the current dysfunctions of the aid, conditionality and debt regime in Africa needs a close analysis and interpretation. The current system is that of aid dependence, which is characterised as an unhealthy process of interaction which afflicts donors and recipients alike.

Until this dependence is addressed through institutional reforms, which may lead to or require lower volumes of aid, which need to be framed in the context of deep debt relief aid effectiveness will lag far behind expectations in Africa. Aid conditionality has failed in Africa, and there is very little chance of recovery from this failure under current institutional conditions.

It is quite apparent that development has not lived up to expectations in Africa; for instance Malawi and Tanzania have realised that aid cannot be solely be depended upon. While it is undoubtedly true that donors have had positive role in strengthening some key institutions, the leadership in Tanzania has seen that there is still a long way to go.

Zimbabwe witnessed a proliferation of NGOs that were engaged in security threatening activities as agents of regime change at the behest of the detractors of its Fast Track Land reform programme. Many NGOs that previously supported the Government's post independence socio-cultural programmes abandoned their original cause to join hundreds of others that mushroomed and specialized in activities premised on political, economic, informational, human rights and a wide range of other governance issues.

It has become commonplace for foreign NGOs to partner and network with local NGOs in pursuance of political objectives that include regime change  as a main goal. This partnership, which also includes the opposition MDC and a majority of NGOs and other non-state actors, also compromised sections of the local press. Western-funded anti-Zimbabwe Government radio stations and many internet websites, over and above an array of other international informational channels are fronting the regime change agenda.

Politicization of humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe is the order of the day, with NGOs deliberately exaggerating and politicizing the scale of such issues as drought and food shortages. For example, the NGO community has consistently alleged that Zimbabwe is faced with a famine of biblical proportions, citing what they refer to as ‘Mugabe's chaotic Land Grab'.

Other examples of unbecoming conduct of NGOs have seen the inclusion of opposition electoral campaign fliers, insignia and messages inside humanitarian food aid packs. To the contrary NGOs must work for the betterment of the country and not against it. We cannot allow them to be conduits or instruments of foreign interference in our national affairs.

It is valid to conclude that NGOs infringe the targeted Government's boundaries of obligation to national security and well-being of its citizens by crowding up the political space and creating the impression that the Government is no longer relevant to the survival of its citizens. Even the Russians have recently put in place a regulatory framework to curtail undesirable activities of NGOs in that country.                                                                                   
Thus African governments should take a leaf from H.E President Mugabe's stance against dependence on foreign donors who attach strings to their donations.

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Stewart Murewa can be contacted at stewartmurewa@gmail.com