adminMidlands Correspondent
Lack of transparency and corruption within the local non-governmental organisation has resulted in a massive donor exodus resulting in some being blacklisted with others preferring to channel their funds directly to Government, a senior National Association of Non-governmental Organisations (NANGO) official has said.
Speaking on behalf of Nango chief executive Dr Cephas Zinhumwe during an all stakeholders’ meeting in Gweru last week, NANGO secretariat member Mr Leonard Mandishara said donors were shunning local civic groups preferring to channel funds through Government.
The local NGOs have been accused of siphoning mostly European donor funds ostensibly to carry out advocacy work.
Most NGOs have been misrepresenting the Zimbabwean economic situation demonising Government and the ruling party of Zanu-PF to solicit for funding from European donors.
“There has been a drastic change of the donor environment. We all know that the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), Oxfam and other organisations are going out to other areas. This means that the support to NGOs is now shrinking,” said Mr Mandishara.
“There are some priority issues in other countries and also due to the current global financial crisis, our fiscal basket is shrinking.”
“Foreign donors are also result-oriented. In the past, donors opted to work with NGOs because there were issues of corruption in the Government. There is a change now, donors are now shifting to the Government because we now have a lot of NGOs blacklisted due to corrupt activities,” he said.
Mr Mandishara refused to disclose local NGOs blacklisted by donors.
Online Reporter