NGOs and social development

NGOs and social development

By Bambang Ismawan

This article is based on a paper presented at a seminar on social development organized by the United Nations and the Social Services Ministry on Feb. 28.

JAKARTA (JP): Attention to the grass roots community, a disadvantaged people, remains of high priority in our world. In spite of the high global and national progress of development, the conditions these people live in gives evidence of the shortcomings of development and of the latent and vulnerable situation that continues to hamper any progress achieved by efforts of development. They are billions in number figuring the majority of global population. Though our country has been successful in reducing the number of the poor significantly, some 15 percent of a population of 185 million people still live under the poverty line. It does call for alleviating action.

All programs of poverty alleviation, however, should not treat the disadvantaged merely as recipients of help, but rather as survivors in need of facilitation. Treating these people merely as recipients of help means on the one hand underestimating their human dignity and power, on the other hand simplifying poverty problems to economic matters. The poor are those people struggling for a better quality of life. Therefore their own strengths and dignity have also to be respected as having the capacity of achieving better living conditions: either in socio- economic matters or in other walks of life. Poverty alleviation programs should only be aimed to facilitate the maximum exertion of their strengths and dignity.

The key to success is, therefore, obvious: the poor must participate actively in the whole implementation of the programs. Their participation must not be in the form of following orders to implement a project or program decided upon by others, but in the first place it must involve them in deciding what program is to be designed and how it should be implemented. The choice is not just where the well should be dug, but whether it is necessary to dig the well at all.

The concrete problem is, then, how to promote the participation of small farmers, landless workers, ordinary fishermen, crafts people, sidewalk vendors, and so on in the development process. As an essential reminder, it is worth noting that the poor are not the have-nots but "the have-little." Yet, however little they have, they are willing to participate and contribute their resources if meaningful chances are given to them. Our experiences show that meaningful chances are widely offered in the self-help groups, over which they take the responsibility to govern, manage and control. Developing these groups are, therefore, of vital importance. If these groups are well developed, three goals, which are the focus of the current Copenhagen Social Summit, could be achieved:

1. Social Integration: In a self-help group, members are given the chance to identify common problems. By identifying common problems, they are able to work together in analyzing them and deciding what actions are to be taken. In this process, group learning takes place, mutual understanding among members grows and solidarity flourishes. In other words, social integration develops gradually. Well facilitated, the members of the group will build self-confidence, a sense of security and willingness to cooperate.

2. Poverty Alleviation: The poor economic condition is undoubtedly one major problem to be solved. Members of self-help groups will surely take the issue of improving their economic condition as their major problem. Under good facilitation they are guided to identify, analyze and find their own solutions to the problems. Self-help groups will have to design feasible programs to cope with their poor conditions. Once such programs are operating, they take one step forward towards poverty alleviation. Results will follow under close facilitation. As they gradually improve socio-economically, their groups are starting to function more systematically to handle a larger business venture.

3. Productive employment: When alleviation programs develop well, self-help groups' activities will normally develop too. As mentioned earlier, their economic improvement will produce a larger business venture requiring better employment. Their flourishing small scale businesses will involve more people in the production process. Well developed self-help groups will, therefore, provide more employment, either to the members as self-employment or in the surrounding community. At this stage, usually linkage with formal financial institutions, such as banks, starts to be deemed necessary. Further facilitation is needed to link them to these formal financial institutions.

The development of self-help groups is clearly very effective in implementing any poverty alleviation program, since they give the most appropriate atmosphere for multifaceted human and social development. They not only improve the poor's socio-economic development, but also other essential aspects of human development, such as self-confidence, self-respect and self reliance, which are needed to further motivate them to move on towards better self development.

In Indonesia, several programs leading to socio-economic development have been undertaken since the first Long Term Development, and have been seriously handled in the second and third Long Term Five Year Development Planning. Yet, only the Presidential Instructions on backward villages program has unique characteristics, namely:

1. The village program is designed to give more leeway to people's own determination and initiatives in what they think is best to alleviate their poverty, whereas former similar programs or projects used to rely more on government officials' determination and initiatives.

2. Financial assistance within this program is directly transferred to the community in need as a grant to be handled as additional working capital under a revolving fund scheme to the benefit of the self-help groups.

3. To secure the success of the program, in which the welfare of the whole community is given the highest priority and their participatory and democratic approach is emphasized in the decision making, this program encourages the establishment of self-help groups characterized by self-organization and self- management. The members' assembly is the highest authority of the self-help groups. This institution is to become the place where a learning and teaching process is encouraged in order to develop the capability of the members and to establish sustainable management of the self-help group's activities.

Bambang Ismawan, an NGO activist, is president of Bina Swadaya Community Self Reliance Development Agency, Jakarta.