Re: NGO Sector in Pakistan: Issues and Challenges

Source: Daily Times

 The situation demands the attention of key stakeholders including the government, funding agencies, NGOs and research organizations to learn the new dynamics of the corporatised voluntary sector and sort it out for the survival of voluntarism.

 Unlike other countries in the South Asian region, the NGO sector in Pakistan has seen rapid changes in the development context. A mushroom growth of voluntary organisations took place during the Zia regime, when the sector was being fed USAID funding in return for Pakistan's support in the Afghan War. Back then this sector was active in the areas of education, health and community infrastructure, with the exception of the Women's Action Forum (WAF), which challenged the discriminatory Hudood Ordinance. This trend continued until 1999 due to the wrapping up of local bodies institutions by elected governments in the 1990s. It then switched to strengthening local governance systems (LGS) in 2001 when Pervez Musharraf's government introduced the Devolution of Power Plan for the reform of the local government system. Most of the programmes of large and medium scale organisations were aligned with LGS in a variety of ways. Parallel to the implementation of the two phases of the system, the political scenario due to the occurrence of 9/11 was drastically changed. Since then, militant forces are threatening peace and development in Pakistan. The driving force that changed the direction of NGOs were funding agencies that signed agreements with federal governments for the provision of funds in selected areas of interest, without considering the needs of sustainability for ongoing programmes.

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