Question:
Discuss about the Management in Non Government Organisation.
Suaahara is a 5 year old and a community-focused project initiated for the purpose of improving the nutritional status and the health of the children under the age of two years, lactating women and pregnant women. The aim is to address those vulnerable points of the economic development that may result in chronic under-nutrition. There are few focus points of the project that comprises of improvement in the home-based gardening, hygiene and sanitation, water, family planning services, child health (MNCH)services, reproductive planning services, newborn, maternal and nutrition. The Suaahara project have an association and woks within the FCHVs i.e. Female Community Health Volunteers, government system and community extension workers (USAID, 2014). There is distribution of commodities, services and health messages through the discussion forums of mother group and at the household level. There are several initiatives which will be a part of the project working as non-government organisation in the future to overcome the issues of nutritional and health status of the children and women. The paper will offer an understanding of the various key aspects of the NGO comprising of the financing, resourcing and structuring afctors (USAID/NEPAL, 2016). The key emphasis will be led upon the practices of the organisation in order to gain more professionalism, transparency, efficiency and accountability in its workings system. the paper will also present the strategies with the help of which the NGO is successful in acquiring efficient funding and managing the internal as well as the external pressure and contradiction in an efficient manner.
There are considerable contributions made by USAID to nutrition and health in association with the GON i.e. Government of Nepal and with many other development partners. For strengthening the nutrition and health programs of the nation and as a part of its strategy, USAID with association and in consultation with MOH i.e. the Ministry Of Health and Population as well as with partnership with other associated designed and initiated Suaahara (Good Nutrition), an integrated nutrition project. The project is managed through Save the Children and the key implementing partners of Suaahara includes Jhpiego, Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH), Helen Keller International (HKI), Nepali Technical Assistance Group (NTAG), Nutrition Promotion and Consultancy Service (NPCS) and Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) (Usaid, 2017). In present time there is there are high initiatives taken by the NGOs for boosting their progress and development that comprises of working for getting more funding as well as also improving the managerial professionalism. There is an extreme competition between various NGOs in order to attain more amount of funding. Suaahara also take number of initiatives for acquiring funds such as the donors can get tax exemption for the amount they have donated to the NGO or for the charity purpose. It encourages the people to give more funds for the improvement of the nutrition and health of the children and the women. To maintain its place in the competitive market of NGOs, the Suaahara works on four different levels to have higher recognition and visibility (k4health, 2015). These four levels comprises of community that support the communities in adopting practices of child nutrition, maternal nutrition, improvement in the feeding and health practices and optimal care. The second level is district level where Suaahara works for improving the district capacity by having more local developments, agricultural and health developments and physical planning. The third level is regional level where Suaahara works in association with government for achieving improved nutrition and strengthening systems, agriculture and health systems. The fourth level is national where Suaahara works for supporting national strategies and policies and promoting the enhanced investments in nutrition and all these work took place in association with the Government (Bela, 2015). Because of high presence on all these levels, there is strong visibility and recognition gained by Suaahara and this helps in attaining strong and high funds. To maintain its place and to grow there are several other initiatives also which are taken by Suaahara such as go mobile, where the donors are not required to visit the website for giving donation, they can offer funds with the help of mobile applications. there are also initiatives of having a jump on the bandwagon where Suaahara increase its presence on social platforms by discussing the social issues and causes on which the Suaahara is working upon.by getting the masses engaged with the causes and significance of donations, there can be attained more competitive advantages in forms of higher funding. For continuing with its work, Suaahara also perform number of initiatives such as there are continuously increased partnerships with institutes as well as with government bodies. The greater the support and association with the government, the better are the chances of future development of the NGOs. As well as the organisation also expand its reach such as covering more number of regions and communities so that more number of individuals can be benefitted from the improvement programs (k4health, 2017).
There are extreme pressures faced by Suaahara from the outside or the external factors for being excessive professional, accountable, transparent and efficient in its working. Being working as NGO for the development and improvement of the masses, there are several factors on which these projects and organisations are weighed (Malapit, et al., 2013). To respond efficiently to all these outside pressures, there are number of steps and initiatives taken up by Suaahara such as for increasing the transparency and become one of the most transparent projects working for the social cause, there is an annual report that is published every year that contains all the relevant data and the complete information regarding the funding, expenditures as well as the developments taken place at various community, district, national and international levels. Publishing the entire set of information in the annual reports offers disclosure of all the necessary details in front of the masses and on the basis of which there is complete evaluation of the work of the organisation (Webb, et al., n.d.). Thus, it helps Suaahara to achieve improved level of transparency in all its operations and charitable functions. To be called professionally more sound and to sustain the outside pressure for increased professionalism, Suaahara remain professional and extremely formal in taking donations and funding as there are not the donation boxes anywhere or the volunteers does to force individual to donate for the cause. Rather there are appropriate ways of funding and taking donations such as “RFA-367-15-000001: USAID/NEPAL NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY FOR SUAAHARA II PROJECT” (Usaid, 2015). It is a grants notice through which the donations can be made by institutes, people and other entities. Thus, maintain professionalism in all their workings system so that more number of people can support the cause. For sustaining the outside pressure for remaining highly accountable, Suaahara have an effective check and control of all its activities. There is a complete evaluation of the outcomes or the results of the funds invested on any kind of development. And if there are deviations than the execution processes are checked twice to analyze the point of difference and gaps. The organisation always remained account table for all its activities and projects undertook by providing complete information about the initiatives performed and outcomes achieved. Suaahara offers a complete justification of all its work to the masses and the Government authorities within which the project is taking place. For remaining efficient, there are several steps taken by the organisation to uplift the society and improves the nutrition and health of the children and the women (k4health, 2015). To work upon efficiency, Suaahara always try to improve the outcomes from some of the margin on the last received results. The efficiency level of the organisation can also be checked by comparing the previous year data and current year data and analyzing the increase in the level of improvements and developments in the nutritional and improved health level of the children and the women. This will provide a clear view of the efficiency of the working of the organisation. Thus, it can be stated that there are sound steps taken by Suaahara for competing with the other NGOs as well as by improving its level of accountability, efficiency, transparency and professionalism and this offers a number of advantages to the organisation including strong and viable support from the Government (Kc, et al., 2011).
There are extreme pressures faced by Suaahara from within or the internal factors for being effective, having good association and coordination with support base, relevant and successful in gaining adequate funding. Being working as NGO for the development and improvement of the masses, there are several internal factors on which the success and potential of these projects are weighed. To respond efficiently to all these within or the internal pressures, there are number of steps and initiatives taken up by Suaahara such as for being effective in all the activities and development functions, the progress is checked that whether with the various initiatives there is improvement in the nutritional and health of the women or not (Cunningham, et al., 2015). There are discussions with the women on their lives before and after the support offered to the by Suaahara initiative. Secondly to respond to the internal pressure of being in touch with the supporter base, the organisation holds regular meetings and conferences to have discussions with the supporters so that adequate information can be shared on a regular basis. There is complete data in forms of reports, minutes which are shared with them so that there can be gained more support from them and a proper information can be passed about the developments and initiatives taken for the cause (Webb, et al., n.d.). All such meetings are the way to have higher engagement with the supporters so that they can sense the project is on its actual path and working hard to accomplish the desired goals. to sustain the pressure of being relevant, there are first taken consent from the various supporters, authorities and the relevant members before indulging in any kind of improvement activity or program for the cause. This helps Suaahara to remain highly relevant as once the consent has been received on the upcoming social work performed for the accomplishment of the mission and goals of Suaahara, there is attained high level of relevancy (Cunningham, et al., 2017). One of the extreme pressures on the NGOs is to acquire maximum funding and grants as it is the core need of any project, organisation or charitable trust to get increased funds for remaining active and achieve long-term sustainability. Thus, to sustain the internal pressure of acquiring funds, Suaahara take number of initiatives such as to attract funding, there is increased promotions and campaigns so that the masses can be attracted and have their engagement in the uplift of the cause by the means of donations and charities (Baker, 2014). The volunteers visit several places, perform campaigning, organize events and encourage the masses to participate in all such events and campaigns so that they can be aware of the key objectives and aims of the project. There is also sent development reports to the government so that they can also lend their support to the development and success of the project. Thus, to overcome and respond all such pressures imposed from the internal factors, Suaahara take all such initiatives and try to maintain improved association with supporters and have high funding so that the functions do not suffer halt or any kind of pause (Magnani, Gevorgyan and Kurz, 2012).
There are number of times when the NGOs have to face or experience pressures both from within as well as from the outside factors and as a result there can be developed number of contradictions which negatively impact the activities, functions and operations of the organisation. These are those situations because of which the projects can experience a halt or have squat growth results. Suaahara also have both the internal as well as external pressures which sometimes contradict and create contradictions (Kenda, et al., 2013). To respond and manage the contradictions there are initiatives and steps taken by the organisations such as there is an external pressure of being highly transparent and have all the functions and activities with high transparency level but at the same time there is an internal pressure to remain competitive and have unique initiatives for acquiring more funding. In such a case, the contradictions take place as for achieving more funds; the organisation has to take help of certain strategies and plans which cannot be openly shared because of the market condition of the intense competition in NGOs for achieving grants and funds. Thus, these both pressures pose an extreme burden to Suaahara (Sethi, et al., 2017). Thus, to handle such situations, the organisation works in a mutual way where the amount of donations are transparent but the various other initiatives and activities for which the funds are gathered are not been revealed to the masses and thus, it helps Suaahara in both maintaining transparency as well as remaining competitive. There are also occurrences of contradictory situation when there is an internal pressure of acquiring huge funds, grants and charities and on the similar time there is an external pressure of remaining professional. There are number of times when for acquiring funds there is need to have personal association with the donors and also make them aware of various campaigns, events and encourage them to give donations by several means which are sometimes not cover under professionalism (Powelson, et al., n.d.). To manage such contradictions, the NGOs take steps such as the emails, invitations or there is encouragement of the donors which are those individuals or institutes that have an association with the NGO and have already donated in past for the purpose. Thus, by emphasizing those to provide funding will not be an unprofessionalism as they are already associated partners rather than appealing to new set of people, institutes, groups or government bodies. There are various other ways also for managing the various other contradictions such as developing a strong balance between both the factors and the pressures imposed by them so that they do not get contradict with each other. There is a need that the NGOs must work in such a manner that the stakeholders as well as the community or the masses both have a trust on them and support their work and functions. If both the parties will be benefitted then there are very less chances of occurrence of such contradictions (Profile, 2011).
Conclusion
There are several practical issues in the management of the NGOs that includes a number of factors such as financing of the contemporary NGOs, human resource mobilization, funding, accountability, governance and internal organisational structures. From this paper, it can be concluded that in such an environment, there is an extreme need to maintain a place and have continuity in working, and for this Suaahara take several initiatives so that it can have increased level of funding. This has been analyzed that there are various efficient ways by which there is acquiring of funds and grants for the project and Suaahara is working efficiently to achieve more funding. It has also been analyzed and identified that there are number of factors that poses internal pressure on the NGOs that comprises of being effective, relevant, in touch with its supporter base, and successful in attracting adequate funding and to manage these pressures the NGOs take potential measures so that they can overcome these pressures such as having increased engagement and discussions with supporters and framing strategies to have more funding. The study also concludes that there are external pressures as well as subject to professionalism, transparency, accountability and efficiency. And to manage and respond to these external pressures, Suaahara as well as other NGOs are required to have a higher flow of information in forms of reports and articles. This will help the NGOs in developing a better engagement with the masses and also sound efficient, transparent and accountable. And lastly it can be stated that there is a n extreme need to manage the contradictions between the internal and the external pressures for smooth functioning of the NGOs and have better results and improvements in the societies.
References
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