African NGO participation in natural resource policy reform

This report examines issues pertinent to increasing the ability of indigenous NGOs to contribute to policy reform in the natural resource sector. Typically, the role of NGOs is seen as limited to implementing grassroots activities, and there is considerable skepticism among governments and donors concerning the ability of NGOs to participate in environmental policy analysis. Donors are reluctant to fund analytic research projects by NGOs, while governments resist opening the policy-making process to a broader base of participation. However, this limited view stands in contrast to contemporary efforts to make development a more participatory exercise and expand the role of civil society in Africa. Donors should steadily press African governments to continue the process of strengthening civil society, including NGOs. Further, they should expand their funding of NGO activities beyond grassroots service delivery to include policy research and public awareness campaigns. Democracy and governance programs should seek to strengthen local capacity to assess and modify environmental policies. With adequate support, NGOs could play a useful role in analytic and advocacy functions, and thus be active in strengthening civil society. USAID, which is a key player in both the natural resource management and governance fields, has a unique opportunity to link the two in Africa by stressing the cross-cutting role of NGOs, something the Agency should consider in designing NGO umbrella projects and other projects with an NGO component.