Promoting Transparency among CSOs

Ugo Aliogo writes on the impact of Civil Society Public Directory and Management Information System in promoting transparency, self-regulation among Civil Society Organisations
 
Over the years, there has been a surge in establishment of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) around Africa and Nigeria. 

The CSOs are working in different sectors, such as human rights, democracy, good governance, corruption, peace and security, health, women’s rights, children’s rights, the environment and development, among others. Civil Society Organisations played an instrumental role during Nigeria’s transition from a military dictatorship to a democracy. Civil society continues to support the process of consolidating democracy by ensuring that elections are free and fair. Civil society groups have been at the vanguard for the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and others are now working on commitments towards the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Civil Society Organisations don’t operate in isolation, as there are laws that govern their operations. The main laws that relate to CSOs are found in federal legislation. Since the Constitution guarantees freedom of association, there is no restriction on those who wish to join together for any kind of purpose, provided that the purposes for which the group is formed, or the methods that it uses, are not themselves illegal.

The range of CSOs is as wide and diverse as the country itself, including local ‘elites’ clubs, traditional age class associations, unions in villages and small towns, and national organisations with thousands of members. CSOs have always been regulated, but recently introduced regulations such as amended CAMA 2020 and the proposed NGO Regulation Bill have provisions that cast a shadows of doubt on the intentions of the government.

The NGO Bill

The NGO bill, which was sponsored by Sada Soli, representing APC, Katsina, seeks to establish the legislative framework to regulate the activities of NGOs and Civil Society Organisations.

In 2017, Buba Jubrin had similarly sponsored a bill that seeks to regulate NGOs and CSOs. The bill passed second reading at the House and was subsequently referred to the Committee on Civil Society Organisations and Development Partners.

On the day of the public hearing on the bill, scores of protesters marched to the National Assembly asking that the bill be dropped. Members of the CSOs interpreted the bill as an attempt by the government to gag civil movements.

The committee after the public hearing did not present its report to the lawmakers for consideration, thus indicating it died at the committee level.
However, in 2019, the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, said the lower chamber would revisit the NGO bill following allegations by the Army against some NGOs in the North-east.

The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in June 2016, and after two readings it was referred to the House Committee on Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Development Partners in July. Its approval it is still pending in the current eighth National Assembly.

There is the argument by CSOs that the main objective of the bill is to establish a federal agency in charge of supervising, coordinating and monitoring CSOs in Nigeria. If passed, it will give the government sweeping powers over civil society, to the point of threatening its very existence.

They argued that the bill would make it compulsory for all CSOs operating in Nigeria to register with the government every two years and would require them to include details such as the location and duration of proposed activities as well as information on all sources of funding.

CSO’s Views

The Executive Director, Nigeria Network of NGOs, (NNGOs), Oyebisi Oluseyi, said regulations are delicate but remain very important for the development of any sector, they have taken the initiative to create tools, platforms and systems that aid not only statutory regulatory compliance, but also self-regulation, while paying attention to capacity strengthening and growth for Nigerian CSOs using technology.

He added that they are excited to be at the center of this huge development in the history of the Nigerian third sector.

He remarked that following about six regional consultations to conceptualise the platform’s design, they are again deepening the consultation today, moving from conception to practice in ways that ensures they can define user experience for the MIS and Public Directory through learning, collaboration, and consultation.

Oluseyi further explained that the next few months would feature engagements with CSOs across the country to encourage subscription to the platforms, adding that the platforms have been designed in a way that allows information provided to be verified using algorithms supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI); accessible to people living with disability and organisations in hard-to-reach areas, while ensuring that organisations have access to tools to develop their capacities across a range of areas.

The NNGOs ED remarked that the platforms would be useful to government, regulators, development partners, donors and CSO themselves in identifying Nigerian CSOs, their activities, partners, promote collaboration, good governance, capacity development and inspiring confidence and trust in the activities of civil society organisations.

According to him, “We are having consultation with civil societies and also bringing the media onboard as well to review a public directory and management information directory platform that we have developed for use by CSOs for them to improve visibility on their work. Also, for us to be able to self-regulate ourselves as organisations. The main outcome that we are looking out here us that we want to continue to inspire our public trust for the works we do.

“So, when this type of platform is ready and is been use by the CSO; the public themselves will be able to search for themselves the activities of an organisation and know what the organisation has done and where they are. Also, it serves as a back end as CSOs can connect with each other to collaborate and jointly bring development to the door step of a common man. We want to include the media at the inception stage such that there is that buy-in and they can also help us in ensuring that CSOs make use of this platform as well.”

He further said: “The CSOs space in Nigeria is actually going through a process of maturity in the sense that we are now at that point where we now discussing our own sectors and statutory self-regulations. We are also at the point where we are working hard to ensure we can improve on the public trust and confidence. So, there is a lot of conversations happening apart from the good work that we do in communities which helps us to deliver on our public trust. 
“Of course, you will remember that just few days ago the financial reporting council set up a technical working committee for them to be able to develop code of corporate governance for non-profits including us. There is another bill on the floor of National Assembly now, the donor regulatory agency.”

CSO’s MIS

In order to promote accountability, transparency, and legitimacy for civil society, Palladium in partnership with Nigeria Network of NGOs, recently held a regional stakeholder engagement forum with civil society organizations and the media on the  Civil Society Public Directory and Management Information System (MIS). The forum was designed to capture and provide information on the operations of civil society organisations in Nigeria while strengthening the capacity of civil society to engage citizens to influence the government of Nigeria in key development reforms at all levels.

Speaking on the development, Project Officer, Nigeria Network of NGOs, Ayo Adebusoye, said the engagement would help the civil society sector to begin to work with each other and partner because they would have a future on it, and it would include business membership organisation, and chambers of commerce, therefore it is a beginning stage and they are still consulting.

He further explained that through this engagement civil society organisations can begin to be more visible, adding that they had a case in one of their regional consultations where people were doing amazing work.

He averred that the platform is going to give the CSOs the needed visibility.

According to him, “One of the primary goals of this engagement is to give visibility to organisations who are doing wonderful things and people will be aware of their deeds. Another feature is that it is going to bring some self-regulation because we are going to ensure that all organisations who subscribe will come onboard and put together basic information about what they do, their annual report, and publish their financial report.  So that possible funders, and partners anywhere in the world will be able to see their governance structure and annual report and then support them. It is going to support seamless identification of possible partnership across the civil societies sector and internationally.”

He further said: “Well, one of the things, that is clear is that there is a lot of ignorance in the sector with regards to various aspect of compliance and in fact one of the regulatory research that was conducted within this research project which was supported by the USAID-SCALE programme found out that we have about 43 laws and regulations at the national level covering civil society organisations and of course we have various sub-national regulation and many of them are restrictive. So that study showed that there are so much regulations already existing that at time people think there are no regulation. But some of these organisations are not even aware of the regulations and of course ignorance of the law is not an excuse.”