The affiliation process with Action Aid

In the December issue of Ekchhin, mr. Sten Andreasen, country director of MS Nepal, wrote about the affiliation process with Action Aid. Below is a more comprehensive version of mr. Stens column.

During the past approximately two years, MS has been looking into the possibilities of becoming part of an international NGO association or network. It is seen to be important that civil society forge strong alliances across borders in order to influence global decision-making that supports poverty reduction and global equity and influence by the World’s poor and marginalised people. MS would like to be part of having a greater say when decisions are taken at the international arena, seeking to address an increasing number of global challenges.

The General Assembly of MS in Denmark on 14 September supported a recommendation by the MS Board to join ActionAid International. The application was approved by the Board of AAI on 28 September and for a period of approximately18 months MS will formally be associated with AAI. During this period, MS and AA country programs will be ongoing in countries where both organisations are operating (such as Nepal), while preparations for a merger of these are being developed. Eventually, some time during 2010, country offices, staff and programmes will come under one management; ActionAid Nepal. Because of MS funding agreements with Danida, MS Nepal will be honouring agreements with local partner organisations and development workers until the end of 2011.

There are three main reasons for MS’s decision to seek affiliation with AAI:

1.      By affiliating with AAI, MS will have an opportunity to scale up efforts to reduce global poverty and inequity. This will be at a time when there is focus on effectiveness in development cooperation. Donor countries are increasingly committing to harmonise their effort, so that they do not branch out in different directions or tie up a lot of resources with cooperation partners. The aim is also to adjust support to national policies and national development processes. MS finds that NGOs are facing similar challenges and that too many NGOs are working in isolation from one another and have neither joint coordination nor a vision for a greater impact on national processes. Furthermore, the level of expenses of the international NGOs is being questioned, not least in relation to maintaining individual offices in the partner countries. MS subsequently aims at increasing effectiveness and efficiency of our work through the affiliation with AAI.

2.      Globalisation has lead to more and more decisions of major importance to developing countries and to poor people being made within international institutions; e.g. trade policies, agricultural production subsidies, patent rights, human rights and security policies. This trend calls for a much stronger and better coordinated civil society if one has hopes for really influencing these decisions. Civil society needs to forge strong alliances across borders in order to influence global decision-making for the benefit of the world's poor. AAI is in process of building a strong international alliance and MS has found that the visions of the two organisations are highly compatible.

3.      If the stances expressed by international civil society alliances in the name of poor people are to have any legitimacy, they must be both substantiated and documented and they must be put forward by organisations that can rightly say that they are in a position to speak with or in the name of poor people. ActionAid is currently building a network in which affiliated country programs around the world become independent and equal partners in AAI. This approach has great appeal to us at MS, as we work to shift greater influence towards the South. In the world's poorest countries, we seek to empower a critical and constructive civil society.

During the coming year, ActionAid in Nepal (presently being a country programme of ActionAid UK) will be registering their organisation as a national NGO. The new organisation will be governed by a national board, which after some time will be elected by a general assembly.