NGO Bill
Tenth Day of Christmas: Looking for a "bumper harvest…"
Sokwanele Article: January 4th, 2005In May Robert Mugabe told Sky News, and the world, that Zimbabwe was on its way to producing a "bumper harvest". Accordingly the activities of the World Food Programme (WFP) were to be curtailed. Donor food was no longer required. Even the United Nations' own national food security assessment was stopped in its tracks. Henceforth the government would feed its own people without any outside help. So five months on one might well ask - Where is the bumper harvest ? How are the people faring, especially deep in the rural areas where it is very difficult for reporters from the independent media to penetrate ?
The NGO Bill in context
Sokwanele Article: December 13th, 2003We used to have welfare organisations, but in the past few years we have become more familiar with the term "non-governmental organisations". The new designation reflects the emergence of public activities which go far beyond traditional charitable works of providing sustenance and services to the poor. Not-for-profit organisations now include development agencies, church welfare programmes, environmental protection agencies, human rights organisations, advocacy groups, savings clubs, AIDS organisations and others too numerous to mention.
Together these organisations generate a vast amount of activity and financial resources which fall outside the purview of government.
