UNIT 3 ISSUES IN NGO MANAGEMENT 3.

1 INTRODUCTION

This Unit will introduce you to various issues that need to be considered in the management of NGOs. As we have seen earlier, the NGO is different to a normal profit making company where all it needs to be concerned about is the production process and handling machines for profits to be made. It is not as simple as this as there are a number of issues a commercial company must face. But the NGO faces some complex issues from the socioeconomic and political environment outside as well as issues from within its own set-up. Service is the hallmark of a NGOs performance and therefore it is normally where such service is needed that NGOs will work. The poor are normally the communities NGOs usually serve. The challenges that poverty present are daunting. Along with poverty are other factors that need to be understood in order to tackle the situation successfully. There are a number of issues and helpful studies that have been undertaken and we will consider some of these in this Unit. UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT Social, legal, financial, environmental, and other issues are growing increasingly complex and offer a challenge to NGOs to manage their organisations while keeping their mission in focus. They frequently face issues that not only require practical management expertise but also a knowledge and sensitivity to their contexts. You will hear such terms as socio-economic or even sociopolitical factors and even environmental factors. Our people live in such complex contexts and it is important for an NGO to consider them. NGOs engaged in community development do not merely deal with people in the community; there are numerous related factors. Local community dynamics must be studied, legal and local governmental aspects should be followed, environmental and socio-cultural issues must be taken into consideration and now in recent years there is a growing emphasis on human rights and gender issues. NGO leaders and teams will need to have the knowledge and skills necessary to work amid people encountering such varied forces in the field. The NGO manager must be able to understand these complex intertwining issues and frequently handle out of the ordinary decisions. There is a crying need for various aspects of management knowledge and skills to handle the NGO environment while making decisions. You will be introduced to some of the issues. The issues we will be discussing in this unit are

i) ii) iii)

Poverty and Development Aid and Development Dependency and Sustainability

iv)

Development indicators

AID TO DEVELOPMENT Most of what we know as social service in the early days was aid to help people in need. There were feeding programs, grants of money for people in need and other such charitable acts. In fact these groups were some of the first NGOs. We cannot wholly dismiss such agencies as there are times when there is need and the only way to help is to give money or material to bring relief. But development is much more. Gradually we saw the emergence of relief and welfare organizations. These became active during calamities and catastrophes and many people gave small and large donations to help. For instance, when Bangladesh had its first major cyclone in 1974 many international organizations rushed in to help Volunteers, brought food, clothing, money and other materials to help the suffering, While this was good and much needed, it bred many ills that were hard to handle. For instance, soon there was corruption with some middle men becoming rich and the poor not receiving what was rightfully meant for them. Clothing, milk powder, blankets etc were sold in the open market. However, you will find that many of these organizations have moved much further today and involved in what is referred to as development. World Vision started by just helping Korean orphans, but today has grown to handling major-development projects. They moved from merely relief to handling development. But what is the difference? As the words imply, relief rs temporary effort through immediate interventions, compassionate and welfare activities and provision of materials and services, but development is .an ongoing process. Let us try to understand this shift to development. We normally use the word development when we speak of improvement, growth, progress, advance etc. We speak of a child developing in the sense of increasing his/her stature, capacity or performance. Similar when we are engaged in social action we would like to see development in terms of the progress or improvement or advancement towards some independence in their striving for improvement towards reasonably acceptable standards of living economically and socially. In this sense, the aim of development is to help people become mature, more self-reliant, developing their capacities to handle their conditions and to become productive. Ultimately the aim is to improve the quality of life for individuals, families, communities and countries as a whole. The indication of true development is when improvement is seen in people responsible for their own food, housing, health, education, employment and above all assured of their security. NGOs face an enormous task in bringing about development and therefore setting the process going. There are various measures being employed today through training of individuals and communities for self-help initiatives, small-scale, self-reliant development projects, cooperatives, employment opportunities etc. within their own contexts. Although economic development appears to be the goal of everybody, it is the change in attitudes that is most

required. Therefore when NGOs speak about development it is more than just economic development. It is a transformation of social, economic, environmental and cultural conditions through changed attitudes. Therefore, when we speak of developing a community it is the process or effort of building people groups on a local level with to transform their capacities to handle their social relationships, their basic economy, improve their surroundings, and in fact overall strive for a better quality of life. Read the following mission statement of Action Aid International, an international development agency which works with the poor and marginalised people of India. Our vision is a world without poverty and injustice, one in which every women, man and girl and boy enjoy the right to life with dignity. We partner local organizations, who have the knowledge and experience and enjoy the confidence of the poor and marginalized communities we work with. Our mission is to work with poor and exuded women, men an girls and boys to eradicate poverty, discrimination and injustice. The people we work with include the dalit and tribal people, ether sections of the rural and urban poor, women, children, and minorities, Within these groups, our focus is people in vulnerable situations such as people living with chronic hunger, ill health, migrant and bonded workers, children out of education, urban homeless people, trafficked persons, persons with disability, displaced people and refugees, and people affected by natural and human-made disasters. Our partners range from small community support groups to national alliances and international networks seeking food rights, education for ail, trade justice, just and democratic governance, and action against HIV / AIDS. Our work with these national and international campaign networks highlights the issues that affect poor people and influences the way governments and international institutions think. POVERTY AND DEVELOPMENT Most of us will look at poverty in terms of money, property, perhaps education etc and that may be what you have put into your definition. Now you are ready to see some other vital aspects in the understanding of poverty. In the 1960s, the main focus in discussions on poverty was on the level of incomes of individuals and families and hence it was measured in monetary terms. Even today the World Bank will often speak about the poverty in terms of incomes of dollars per day. But is poverty simply about the level of income obtained by households or individuals? Being convinced that it is not, practitioners look at poverty more holistically. Although poverty may basically be tied to monetary matters, the one thing that happens is that because of the lack of money the poor do not have access to many things that the richer are able

to get. Poverty is therefore lack of access for example to social services that others en joy. Because of lack of money, the poor are exploited. Many times they meekly surrender to the whims of the rich bosses. Poverty is about being Powerless. Therefore, you can see how much more poverty is than merely lacking money. It is now understood as the inability to participate in society because of economic, social; cultural or political factors. Let us briefly consider how the understanding of poverty has evolved over the decades: In the 1970s, poverty became an important issue for the World Bank. The emphasis was coming on relative deprivation and this helped redefine poverty: not just as a failure to meet minimum nutrition or subsistence, levels, but rather as a failure to keep up with the accepted standards in a given society. There are large disparties in these levels. The shift broadened the concept of income-poverty to a wider set of basic needs, including those provided socially. Thus, poverty came to be defined not just as lack of income, but also as lack of access to health, education and other services. New perspectives were added in the 1980s. The main changes were:
a)

The incorporation of non-monetary aspects, Vulnerability of the poor to seasonal hazards -cyclone, drought, heavy rains.

b)

c) A broadening of the concept to speak of livelihood. Soon the term used was sustainable livelihood.
d) Theoretical work by Amartya Sen, who had earlier contributed the notion of food entitlement, or access, emphasised that income was only valuable inso far as it increased the capabilities of individuals and thereby permitted junctionings in society.

e) Finally, in the 1980s there was a rapid increase in the study of gender. Policies followed to empower women to be agents of development.
The 1990s saw further development of the poverty concept. The idea of well-being came to act as a metaphor for absence of poverty, with an accompanying emphasis on how poor people themselves view their situation. At the same time, inspired by Amartya Sen, UNDP developed the idea of human development as: the denial of opportunities and choices... to lead a long, healthy, creative life and to enjoy a decent standard of living, freedom, dignity, self-esteem and the respect of others.... The following terms are used to describe poverty: Income or consumption poverty Human (under)development Social exclusion

Ill-being (Lack of) capability and functioning Vulnerability Livelihood unsustainability Lack of basic needs Relative deprivation POVERTY AND EXPLOITATION Mahatma Gandhi said, as we are often reminded - Theres enough on this planet for everyones needs but not for everyones greed. Greed leads to exploitation and this is where the poor are further victimized. With recent consumerist trends human greed increases, and this widens the gap between the rich and the poor in some nations and is bringing about an imbalance on a larger scale between the nations in the world. Issues of justice are coming into consideration. Till recently it was common to speak of the need for economic development among backward nations. India was a poor country! The assumption behind this language was that Western-style industrialization was the model of progress, and that all nations could be judged in relation to the West. Poor nations were poor because (hey were in need of development. They needed economic assistance from more developed nations to he Ip- them develop. The rich made huge donations to the poor but had agendas of their own in doing so. Naturally, such generosity gave them an upper hand and gave room for exploitation. In the mid-60s there were some major movements that opposed this model of development. One of them occurred primarily among social thinkers in the Third World, especially Latin America, who began to reject the idea of development for that of liberation. They contended that poor countries were poor because they had been exploited. Western colonizing countries had stripped the colonized countries of their wealth, using cheap or slave labor, in order to build up the wealth which now has resulted in Western capitalism. Even poverty is now being defined in terms of injustice. The rich are rich because they have stripped the poorer ones of their wealth and exploited their weakness through unjust practices. While the discussions can be elaborated upon in relation to the rich West (often referred to as the North) and the poorer countries we see such exploitation and in justice right here in India. The gap between the rich and the poor in some parts of the country are glaring. The poor are suppressed and made to remain poor so that the rich can enjoy. Social injustice is an important study for the NGO community. It is a concept relating to the perceived unfairness or injustice of a society in its divisions of rich and the poor. The manifestations are in issues of wages and labour, fair price, gender distinctions, etc. NGOs are

taking up such issues in a big way and fighting for justic towards the poor, the tribals, women and children etc. NGOs can intervene in various ways. One of the best tools to provide is education. As access to education is limited and anything they receive is substandard, noil-formal education could be introduced. These should be flexible programmes as the drop out rate among Dalits and especially girls is very high. Such programmes should integrate lessons in health and hygiene, basic crafts, better lifestyle and values, responsible citizenship including rights and responsibilities etc. There are various existing Dalit groups through which such programmes could be introduced. The Government has planned a number of welfare schemes for the development of the Dalit communities and NGOs could tap funds from here. There is a wide open door for service. POVERTY AND VULNERABILITY The poor, because of their poverty, are extremely vumerable and therefore get ensnared into commercial exploitation. You will read two case studies below. One on human trafficking and the other on organ transplant racket. Note how the poor are trapped and many times for paltry sums of money. Millions of people are enslaved through forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation from which they cannot free themselves. Such slavery is referred to as human trafficking and involves forced labour, debt bondage, child labour, and forced prostitution. Trafficking in persons is the modem version of slavery. Annually, approximately 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders; millions more are enslaved in their own countries. Most in stances of forced labor are linked with unscrupulous employers taking advantage of loose laws to exploit vulnerable workers. These workers are made more vulnerable to forced labor practices because of unemployment, poverty, crime, discrimination, corruption, political conflict, and cultural acceptance of the practice. Immigrants are particularly targets. The U.S. State Dept. Trafficking in Persons Report stated that, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) is a destination country for men, women and children trafficked primarily from South and East Asia and the former Soviet Union for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. Although prostitution and drug related crimes are areas where such practices prevail, domestic workers may be trapped in slavery through the use of force or coercion, such as physical (including sexual) or emotional abuse. Children are particularly vulnerable to domestic abuse which occurs in private homes, and is often unregulated by public authorities. For example, there is great demand in some wealthier countries of Asia and the Persian Gulf for domestic servants who sometimes fall victim to conditions of involuntary servitude. Indian, Indonesian and Phillipino workers are in plenty. Child Labor is another area. Most international organizations and national laws indicate that children may legally engage in light work. Bur even this allowance of light work is exploited

with the worst forms of child labor prevailing allover the world. The sale and trafficking of children and their exploitation in bonded and forced labor are particularly being exposed. Read the following News item which interlinks HIV and AIDS to human trafficking. (A UNDP News item Jan 5,2008) The study, which was launched here today, has found that a large number of those at the risk of being trafficked in South Asia are young girls and women and they also run the risk of getting infected with HIV. The highest reported incidence of this double burden is in Nepal, Bangladesh and India, the study said. Factors such as gender inequality, violence and lack of economic opportunities for women increase their risk to both trafficking and HIV. Younger girls are at higher risk of trafficking as well as HTV. According to recent studies by Harvard School of Public Health; in Mumbai one quarter of the trafficked individuals tested positive for HTV while in Nepal, it wasclose to 40 per cent. The study in Nepal also showed that almost 60 per cent girls under the age of 1.5 years trafficked into sex work were found to be HIV positive. Weak governance makes the poor vulnerable to the risk of being trafficked. The absence of effective legislation and policies as well as poor law enforcement and corruption contribute to this. Trafficking happens both within and across national borders. However, national governments and other stakeholders are yet to give this issue the priority it deserves, mainly because of the shortage of convincing data, the study said. Information is available with regard to brothel based sex work, but this reveals nothing about those who practice sex work in other settings, the study said, adding researchers need to look beyond sex work, since those who are trafficked for other purposes also find themselves in situations that increase their vulnerability to HIV. The clandestine nature of the phenomenon, criminal linkages and the cross-border spread mask the scale of the problem. Titled Human Trafficking and HIV: Exploring Vulnerabilities and Responses in South Asia, the analysis in this report is based on rapid assessment studies conducted in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan between 2004 and 2005. These studies explored the links between human trafficking, migration and HIV / AIDS in these countries and reviewed available data, the national laws, policies, strategies and responses. To address human trafficking and HIV/AIDS the study recommends better coordination in national efforts to address both issues, which are often dealt separately, by focusing on factors such as gender inequalities and violence, social marginalization, poverty, and education. Better conceptual clarity on the issues concerned; integrating trafficking and HIV interventions into key sectors; and laws and policies to address both HIV and trafficking are other recommendations of the Study.

One of the fundamental weaknesses in explaining and exploring the linkages between trafficking and HIV is lack of adequate data, said Ms. Caitlin Wiesen, Regional HIV/AIDS Team Leader and Programme Cooridnator for Asia Pacific, UNDP Regional HIV and Development Programme. With Harvard School ofPublic Health, the Regional Programme is initiating a threecountry research study on the linkages between human trafficking and HIV in Asia, she said. The study was part ofUNDPs 3-year regional project on human trafficking and HIV in South Asia supported by the government of Japan under the UN Trust Fund on Human Security. Human trafficking and HIV significantly threaten human security. The government of Japan is committed to assisting efforts to reduce vulnerabilities of girls and women to human trafficking and HIV infection in Asia, said Mr. Masayuki Taga, Counsellor, the Embassy of Japan in Sri Lanka. POVERTY AND POWERLESSNESS Poverty is also defined in terms of lack of power. Power in these terms is to be seen in the degree of control one has over material, human, intellectual and financial resources. The rich enjoy a power or a freedom to make decisions. Very often, the rich tend to unjustly exploit the poor because they have power to do so. Poverty is powerlessness. In preparation for the World Development Report 2000/ 2001 : Attacking Poverty, the World Bank conducted a research study that brought together the experiences of over 60,000 poor women and men from 60 countries around the world. The defining experiences of poor people, the report stated, involve highly limited choices and an inability to make themselves heard or to influence or control what happens to them. Powerlessness results from multiple disadvantages (some we have seen above), which in combination, make it extremely difficult for poor people to escape poverty. The report affirmed that insecurity of life had increased and they have not been able to take advantage of new opportunities because of corruption and a lack of connections, assets, finance, information, and skills. We will basically need to confront such structures in our social, economic and political systems. NGOs who attempt to tackle the roots of poverty are frequently attacked by the powerful. These power brokers may be politicians who want their power because they want control over the poor. Or they may be the wealthy landlords who require the poor to provide cheap labour. Unjust power relationships are systematically imposed in both rich and poor countries on the basis of gender, age, caste, class or even education. Unjust power relationships also lead to deprivation of basic human rights for the poor. Human rights, according to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights are the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled These include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty* freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law, and social, cultural and economic rights, such as the right to participate in culture, the right to work, and the right to education. We can see how poverty can easily lead to the deprivation of such basic rights and the poor become more and more powerless.

NGO communities must not merely be engaged in feeding the poor or providing monetary packages for temporary relief. There are some revolutionary attempts like Bangladeshs Nobel Prize winner and his microfinance programmes which have lifted women out of powerlessness to become decision makers in their communities. We can begin restoring power by engaging in fulfilling the right of the poor to education, to good health, the right to a clean environment etc. DEPENDENCY TO SUSTAINABILITY You have read above about the gradual shift that NGOs have been making from social service, welfare and relief activities on to development. The NGO community has matured in their understanding of various issues in development. A more recent intruder into NGO jargon has been sustainability. We attempt to explore the term. The concept came into general use following publication of the report of the United Nations Brundtland Commission 1987. This was through the World Commission on Environment and Development or WCED. Sustainable development soon became a buzz word. World leaders were getting concerned that energy and resources were being over utilized and would not last very long. The strain on the earth was intensifying. Nations were called to adopt sustainable development measures. According to the WCED, sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In other words humans must not consume the earths resources as if there is an endless supply. We must think of future generations. The essence of this form of development is a healthy relationship between human activities and the natural resources, a relationship which considers that future generations must also enjoy a quality of life at least as good as our own. The goal of environmental sustainability is to arrest environmental degradation, and to halt and reverse the processes leading to disaster. Sustainable development is concerned with maintaining a delicate balance between the human need to maintain lifestyles and well-being on one hand, but also preserving natural resources and ecosystems in order that future generations depend. The term refers to achieving economic and social development in ways that do not exhaust a countrys natural resources. Sustainable development does not focus solely on environmental issues, and encompass three general policy areas: economic, environmental and social. In support of this, several United Nations texts, most recently the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, refer to the interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable development as economic development, social development, and environmental protection. The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (UNESCO, 2001) added another area cultural diversity. Here development is understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also as a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence. Cultural diversity is the fourth policy area of sustainable development. Therefore sustainable development is a holistic socio-economic-ecological process bringing about the fulfillment of human needs while maintaining the quality of the natural environment indefinitely for future generations.

Environment and the Poor In India, the majority of the poor lives in rural areas and depends directly on natural resources and ecological services for their livelihoods. Over 60 percent of the countrys workforce depends on agriculture, fisheries and forests for their livelihood. The loss of this resource naturally leads to poverty. UNDP in a document entitled The Poverty and Environment Nexus records that there are about 100 million people in the country who live in and around forests and another 275 million for whom forests constitute an important source of livelihood. Gathering of fuel wood, fodder and non-timber forest products from forests is an important subsistence and economic activity, particularly for women. Similarly, on the Indian coast, the densest coastal region in the world, a large population depends primarily on fishing for livelihood as well as nutrition. Over the last two decades, the availability of natural resources to rural communities and especially to the poor has been affected severely and there could be several contributing factors. One of these is the natural impacts we have seen in recent decades through changing ecological patterns. Apart from the changing patterns, there are also unexpected calamities like floods and drought. The tsunami that hit Asia recently has devastated the lives of millions of poor. The already deprived are unable to cope with such shocks as they exist on meager resource bases. But even more shocking factor is the exploitation of these resources by commercial parties with very little compensation to the poor. Large and small scale commercial operations both by Governments and by Corporates are causing havoc to these people. Women are the primary victims of deforestation and declining water tables and these have led to further complications. With the traditional role of women in natural resource management these vulnerabilities are bound to increase. We have seen movements such as Chipko and the Narmada Bachao Andolan which have tried to mobilize national and international pressure on such unscrupulous actions. DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS Development experts began to study poverty systematically and indicators were needed for such studies. Indictors are basically measures. They indicate progress (or lack of) toward a goal or result. To study poverty, these indicators are items as salary, work, food, housing, health and education. Indicators should be used to monitor progress towards the goals at various stages. Noarmally, development indicators are based on factors that relate to well being, economic productivity and the environmental sustainability of the resource base populations depend on for their livelihoods. Typical indicators are based on poverty levels, access to basic services such as sanitation, water and health care, economic productivity, income distribution, educational levels, and so on. These indicators oftea vary on the basis of gender, caste, community or other factors within regions. Some indicators are more measurable than others. For instance it is easy to measure income levels but it is hard to measure livelihood or wellbeing. Also, we may measure consumption of

food but this does not give us the true picture because of various factors. How much is the minimum consumption? The intake varies with our bodies, age, gender, activity level and environmental conditions. Millennium Deveopment Goals The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted in September 2000 ago by the UN as human development indicators for building a better world. The MDGs represent a global partnership that has grown from the commitments and targets established at the world summits of the 1990s. The MDGs are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the worlds main development challenges. They are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations-and signal by 147 heads of state and governments. The eight Millennium Development Goals build on agreements made at United Nations conferences in the 1990s and represent commitments to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle ill-health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation. India has committed to attaining the MDGs by the year 2015, but whether this is possible is another question. The MDGs are a set or numerical and timebound targets related to key achievements in human development. As we are discussing development, it must be noted that in this context the MDGs constitute the most widely-accepted yardstick of efforts made and policies implemented by governments, donors, and non-governmental organizations. For a developing country such as India the MDGs provide a strong motivation as we need to be linked with the world. The attainment of these targets in India is vital not only for human development and economic growth within the country, but are critical for reaching the MDGs worldwide. It is against this backdrop, that the World Bank New Delhi office hosted a workshop entitled Attaining the Millennium Development Goals in India: Role of Public Policy and Service Delivery in June 2004. The objective of this conference was to provide, national and international perspectives on the challenges facing Indias attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. The conference featured the presentation of a recent World Bank report entitled Attaining the Millennium Development Goals in India and showcased the vision of the countrys key policy makers for attaining these goals. The conference also provided a glimpse of the 10th Plan roadmap to achieving the MDGs, an overview of the United Nations support to these goals, and views of key policymakers in this area. Concrete examples of policy interventions for achieving the MDGs in India were discussed through case studies Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality Goal 5: Improve maternal health Goal 6: Combat HIV / AIDS, malaria and other diseases Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development SUMMARY This unit takes into consideration the issues, which need to be addressed by NGOs to make them proactive and become change agents for the society at large. It is important to understand the underlying issues such as poverty, dependency and sustainability. This unit expires the relationship between poverty and development through various case studies in tura giving a practical understanding of the whole concept. SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONSAPPENDIX 1. 2. 3. List the key development issues that in our country faces. What socio-political and economic problems do you encounter in operating as an NGO? Write a note on some other initiatives to tackle such issues in your context.

4. What is your NGO able to do to become more proactive in being change agents in our country? CASE STUDY Lessons Learned from Asian Development Banks (ADB) Change Agenda, formulated during the 2004 ADB Water Week. Globally, there are around 1.1 billion people without access to safe water supply, and 2.4 without adequate sanitation. Of these, around 700 million without water supply and 2 billion without adequate sanitation live in the Asia and Pacific region. The problem is particularly grave and pressing in the rural areas where 70% of the worlds poor reside. Efforts undertaken and investments made for the development of the rural water and sanitation sector in the past were either limited or plagued by various problems. ADBs Change Agenda, formulated during the 2004 ADB Water Week, calls for increased investments in the rural areas to overcome its inherent disadvantages, e.g. rural areas are dispersed and often difficult to reach as infrastructure is less developed to generate the required economic and financial returns on investments. ADB recently announced a major new initiative that wills double its investment in the regions water sector in 2006-2010. Using new financing modalities, products, and processes, the Water

Financing Program (WFP) intends to increase ADB investments in the sector to over $2 billion annually, focusing them on three dimensions of water-rural water, urban water, and basin water. Under the WFPs rural water track, ADB will work on services to improve health and livelihoods in rural communities, including investments in water supply and sanitation, and irrigation and drainage. In late 2005, ADB commissioned a study on the extent of civil society (CS) engagement in rural water supply projects. Civil society has been directly and indirectly filling some gaps in rural water supply and sanitation, using a variety of participatory tools, methodologies, and strategies to deliver the necessary services. The study focused on different CSO-led initiatives in the region that showcase successful project implementation and sustainability. Four of theseone each from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and the Philippineshelp formulate possible models for civil society engagement in rural water supply and sanitation services. Lessons from this case show that Partnerships arise from a deep need by the people for basic water and sanitation services. The formula for success may vary but it always involves the participation of local partners or CSOs, empowering the community through meaningful participation, support from the government, and assistance from donor agencies. Long-term partnerships of CS organizations in local projects tend to ensure functional and more sustainable systems. Investments in rural water supply and sanitation implemented with CS involvement positively impact other poverty reduction efforts. ADB expects to use the findings from this study to strengthen the WFPs program of action for rural water. NEPAL Country Water Action: Nepal Making Rural Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Gender-Sensitive and Pro-Poor (May 2006). Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH), a national-level non-government organization, provided safe water, improved sanitation, and better hygiene to rural areas in Nepal. NEWAH boasts of a Gender and Poverty Approach (GAP) aimed at dissolving the disparities between women and men, and between the rich and the poor in Nepals rural communities.

NEWAHS GAP APPROACH To intensify the gender and poverty mainstreaming strategies of its water, sanitation, and health education programs, the Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH) institutionalized a Gender and Poverty (GAP) approach in its .interventions in Nepals rural communities. The GAP approach addresses existing social inequities by increasing gender equality and social justice in rural water supply, sanitation, and hygiene projects. Five project sites in Nepal were used to pilot-test the GAP approach. As of July 2005, NEWAH has provided these project sites a total of 12,508 community tap stands, 41,484 domestic latrines, 181 school latrines, and 7 public latrines. NEWAH has also trained 14,879 members of NGOs, women credit groups, and other community organizations. NEWAHs GAP approach was instrumental in increasing womens and the poors access to water supply and sanitation services, awareness on health issues and hygiene education participation in decision making processes and skills trainings, particularly in relation to the design, implementation, and operation of the water supply, sanitation and hygiene project. NEWAHs experience showed that the richest and higher caste men dominated all aspects of access to water and sanitation delivery projects. This situation often excluded women, poor dalit (low caste), and indigenous peoples from any form of decision-making, training, and other benefits related to improved water and sanitation systems. Water systems predominantly controlled by male elites in Nepal often cause unequal access to safe .drinking water between the better-off and the poorest socio-economic groups. More often than not, these male-led water projects prove to be unsustainable. NEWAH recognized that unless efforts are made to correct this particular situation at the organizational and programme levels, poor women and men will continue to be deprived of the benefits of their water and sanitation projects.