Humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have to enter situations where immediate action is needed to save lives. It is important to retain some degree of independence and political neutrality to operate securely. Wars or uncooperative governments can slow down their work. Although focusing on long-term poverty reduction is not a priority, is becoming necessary.

Close to 500 million people live in ‘difficult environments’ around the world. These include places such as Afghanistan, where the state is unable to take up poverty reduction activities, or countries such as Myanmar and North Korea, where it is unwilling. A third of the maternal deaths and 44 percent of all HIV cases within developing countries happen in these areas. Almost 200 million people in such difficult environments live in extreme poverty. Developing the ability of governments to provide their people with essential services is important if the Millennium Development Goals are to be achieved.

Humanitarian agencies have great potential as facilitators. They are not only key actors in difficult environments, but many are now involved with strengthening governments to deliver basic services. The boundary between relief and development aid is therefore becoming blurred. Research from Merlin, an NGO in the UK surveys the different arrangements that major UK-based NGOs have developed with governments and draws lessons for strengthening the state’s ability to deliver services in the long-term.

Focussing primarily on welfare, health and education services the survey finds that:

• NGOs use three basic models of operation: setting up parallel structures where states simply cannot respond, working with national governments and working with civil society
• All NGOs have increased their level of work with governments over the last five to ten years.
• Conflict situations, parallel financial and monitoring systems, inadequate access to high-level decision-making processes and ineffective communication of policy to field staff limits the NGO – government relationship and their work.
• Unpredictable and short funding cycles undermine long-term planning
• A lack of independent evaluation of NGO contribution to the development of pro-poor government systems makes it difficult to assess the success of these arrangements.

District-level government systems and infrastructure continue to function to some extent in even the most difficult environments. Although humanitarian agencies are becoming increasingly sensitive to the need to work with them, they are concerned about the loss of political neutrality this could bring. This is a risk in any difficult situation, irrespective of levels of work with any government or levels of concern with long-term development.

There is also a risk that the various reporting, staffing and monitoring procedures used by different NGOs could put too much pressure on fragile national governments. Four key recommendations are offered to facilitate NGOs working with governments:

• Supporting longer-term and inclusive planning processes, which include NGOs aligning with national planning and administrative processes, technical support to national and district governments and so on.
• Longer-term predictable funding such as multi-year flexible national and regional budgets and funds that are allocated for ‘difficult’ circumstances.
• Better mechanisms for sharing information such as assigning budgets for synthesising and disseminating lessons learnt.
• Monitoring and evaluating the NGO-government work.

Source(s):
‘Service Delivery in Difficult Environments: Transferable Approaches from the Humanitarian Community’, A Report to Merlin UK, by Charlotte Laurence with Lydia Poole, April 2005

Funded by: Merlin; UK Department for International Development

id21 Research Highlight: 18 November 2005

Further Information:
Charlotte Laurence

Contact the contributor: claurence@onetel.com

Merlin UK

Other related links:
'Problems in measuring the impact of humanitarian interventions'

'The impact of HIV/AIDS on humanitarian assistance'

'Dilemmas of aid delivery in the midst of conflict'

Eldis Resource Guide on service delivery in difficult environments

Predictable funding for humanitarian emergencies: a challenge to donors. Oxfam Briefing Note