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NGOs In Zambia Faced With Possible Extinction

By Susan Mwape

The Zambian Government is tabling a new NGO Bill in the current sitting of Parliament, which commenced on the 10th of July 2007, the bill is aimed at further regulating and controlling all Non-Governmental Organisations, Civil Society Organisations, Faith Based Organisations and Community Based Organisations in Zambia.
The new NGO Bill according to the Zambian Civil Society is purported to have been developed without having a broad-based policy framework in place and without any prior consultation with Civil Society and then denying Civil Society access to the Bill.
Three mother bodies of civil society organizations in Zambia which include the Zambia Council for Social Development (ZCSD), Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) and Non Governmental Coordinating committee (NGOCC) formed a technical committee whose representatives were denied audience which the Ministry of Justice, to discuss the issue.
The biggest question within the Civil Society is whether Government’s secretive and non-inclusive handling of the NGO Bill is in line with the fundamental principles of an open Democratic State. The entire process and manner in which the new NGO Bill has been formulated is currently highly questioned and criticized.
The draft Bill has a section called “Self-regulation by NGOs” which according to the Technical committee, seems to be an attempt at appeasing the concerns of the NGOs, as expressed in the various NGO meetings held in 2006-2007. However, both the NGO Congress and the NGO Council do not have any actual power because The NGO Congress and the NGO Council only play a perfunctory advisory role to the Board, making them merely “rubber stamp” for the Board.
The Board is appointed by the Minister alone who will appoints the 10 man board with 2 NGO representatives on the board and these are subject to the Minister’s approval or disapproval
According to the Zambia Council for Social Development some of the Major concerns are that the Minister may decide what proportions of funds should be used for administration within any given NGO. This effectively gives the Minister the mandate to intervene directly in the administration of NGOs, thus compromising their independence.
The regulations stipulated in the Bill are extremely cumbersome and will cause difficulties for the general NGO community because of clauses like “all NGOs registered under the act have to submit annual and quarterly financial and narrative reports to the Board”. This will be difficult because some community based organizations located in the rural areas away from Lusaka will not afford to travel to and from Lusaka on a quarterly bases.
All NGOs that are currently registered under the Societies Act, they are given 3 months to re-register. It is not automatic reregistration, but has to be applied for and so the feeling is that this is simply a pretext
The NGO Bill, if passed now, will affect us Civil Society. Instead, a consultative and inclusive approach to formulating a new NGO Bill should is being pushed for by Civil Society.
The Technical committee has planned activities to compel the Government of the republic of Zambia to reverse make the NGO bill more consultative. There was a street concert in Lusaka to raise public awareness and mobilize signatures to petition government and picketing in Parliament these measures have only brought about the withdrawal of bill which will be raised at the next parliamentary hearing.

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