KARACHI: Effective governing boards for NGOs sought
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, May 19: Speakers at a meeting said on Monday that governing boards of NGOs should comprise people from diverse backgrounds, including professionals, women, and particularly stake-holders or members of the community for whose development the NGOs are working.
They were speaking at a forum on “NGOs governance in Pakistan,” organized by the NGO Resource Centre of the Aga Khan Foundation. They discussed how the governing boards of NGOs were working, and if these were effective or not.
They said good governance was a transparent decision- making process in which the leadership of a nonprofit organization, in an effective and accountable way, utilizes resources and exercises power on the basis of shared values.
In the face of increasing pressure on NGOs for a greater accountability and transparency, NGO boards, being the legal and moral custodians of their organizations, are expected to rise up to the challenge and play their role more effectively, they stated.
About the board’s job in an NGO, the speakers maintained that it gives vision to the organization and formulates strategies, so there should be highly professional chief executives of NGOs who could effectively implement policies.
It was pointed out that there were many young, energetic and efficient professionals in the private sector who were eager to devote their time by serving on the boards, but are not being given a chance by their inefficient seniors who feel insecure and think that they would be left behind.
In the boards typically having 15 or more members, the decisions are effectively taken by three or four members, including the chairperson, chief executive and one or two members close to them, while the other members just rubber-stamp these decisions.
When a founder chief executive establishes a board by hand-picking individuals, such boards fulfil the legal requirement only, but these govern only in a nominal sense, and the role of the members is usually restricted to advising the chief executive.
The professional boards evolved over a longer period of time have a good mix of professionals with diverse backgrounds. Such boards are relatively more assertive and they effectively contribute intellectually in programmes and towards raising the standards of accountability for their organizations.
About laws on NGOs registration, one of the speakers said that a comprehensive law was being formulated for NGOs registration under which the NGOs would not be required to get registered with more than one department.
Another speaker said the laws under which NGOs were being registered and regulated here, do not clearly and specifically address the issue of NGO governance. These laws are by and large vague on the governance structure, the processes of board formation and succession, roles and responsibilities of boards that how these should conduct their business.
About training of NGOs, it was pointed out that while there are more than 200 organizations here to provide training and capacity-building services to NGOs staff in technical and managerial areas, there is a vacuum when it comes to capacity-building of NGOs boards.
Some of the findings of a study carried out by the NGORC were also shared at the meeting. The study recommended that regulatory regime in relation to NGO governance be improved and best practices in NGO governance, from home and abroad, be documented and trainings and professional development programmes for NGO board members be developed, and there should be forums to debate and facilitate peer-sharing among NGO board members.
The study conducted on 141 NGOs says that around 70 per cent of the board members had joined the NGOs’ boards due to their commitment to social work, and a majority of the decisions were taken with consensus.
AKF chief Munir M. Merali, a former AKF member Mahomed J. Jaffer, Ramiz Allahwala, Harris Khalique, Azher Saeed, Qadeer Baig, Aftab Iqbal and others also spoke. Dr Sulaiman Shaikh, Dr Rehana Ahmad, A. Hamid Maker, Shirin Rehmatullah, Nargis Rehman and others also participated in the discussion that followed the speeches.
