THE GHANA NGO/CSO STANDARDS PROJECT :

“... moving towards NGO/CSO self regulation”

UPDATE

January 2007

MEETING OF STANDARDS COMMISSIONERS

This meeting came off in August 2006 with all 15 members who had agreed to serve on the Standards Commission actively participating. Issues discussed included the roles and responsibilities of commissioners; tenure etc. It was agreed that the size of the commission should be 15 people and the name was confirmed to be Ghana NGO/CSO Standards Commission.

All commissioners agreed to the elections of a chairperson through an electronic vote facilitated by POSDEV after all commissioners had shared personal biographies with each other. The voting process was initiated in October 2006 and was concluded in January 2007 with Mr Raymond Atuguba of the Legal Resources Centre being elected as the chairperson. The next commissioners’ meeting is scheduled for February 28^th 2007. (List of commission members below)

REVIEW OF STANDARDS AND ASSESSMENT TOOLS:

In response to inputs made by the Commission, the secretariat reviewed the standards by simplifying the language. At present the standards have been reduced to 46 and the assessment tool has been modified accordingly.

EXPANSION OF GCT AND PROMOTING THE STANDARDS:

In a bid to expand the active base of the project, The Ghana Country Team which was originally made up of five organizations extended an invitation to ACTIONAID Ghana and the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) to be part of the team. The two organizations accepted the invitation and so all 7 team organizations have signed a protocol to promote this initiative.

The GCT as part of promoting the standards, discussions were held with the head of the UNDP governance and civil society team. Issues touched on included a well defined capacity building programme component aligned to the Standards to ensure that quite a number of organizations qualify for the standards certification. This training programme could be effected through the UNDP resource centre which is in the process of developing a capacity building programme for NGOs.

A presentation on the standards has also been made at a recent VSO – Ghana Law Consult seminar on NGO Corporate Governance.

REGIONAL WORKSHOPS:

As part of the process workshops are being organized in various regions of the country for broader understanding of the initiative and to obtain feedback as well as expression of interest in participation in a NGO/CSO self regulatory mechanism. Interested organizations attending the workshops are being asked to use a period of one month to undertake an organizational self-assessment.

The secretariat (POSDEV) with the assistance of Action Aid and the Northern Ghana Network for Development on the 17^th-19^th January 2007 presented the Standards and Assessment tool to a number of NGO/CSOs in the Upper West and Northern regions. The latest workshop in the planned series was held in Sunyani on 5^th February 2007 with support from the Brong Ahafo Network of NGOs, BANGO.

We are currently in discussions with organizations in the other parts of the country to hold the next set of workshops. We are hoping to complete the outreach by end February.

The project is still being presented to organizations and donors for support. Any support in-kind or otherwise is most welcome.

Prepared by POSDEV

GCT Secretariat

LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE GHANA NGO/CSO STANDARDS COMMISSION