Saturday, April 16, 2011

GOVERNOR OF ZAMBEZIA THREATENS TO TAKE ACTION OVER UNREGISTERED NGOs

The governor of the central province of Zambezia, Itae Meque, has threatened to expel foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are operating illegally in the region.According to Meque, these NGOs have failed to provide information to the relevant authorities concerning their activities. Most enter the country and begin working in communities, but fail to improve the living standards. Therefore, warned the Governor, he will take the matter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a view to ban these NGOs.The claims are supported by the Forum of Non-Governmental Organisations in Zambezia (FONGZA). Marcos Amaral, FONGZA coordinator, told the newspaper “Noticias” that over 10 national and foreign NGOs have been found working illegally, under the cover of foreign religious organisations, but with funds granted by donors.According to Amaral, the NGOs appear to be small, but the total sum of money involved is considerable. Despite dealing with large sums of money, the socio-economic impact of these NGOs is negligible.The NGOs begin by identifying the areas where they will carry out their activities. They then look at the needs of the target group. However, once in possession of the donor funding to carry out the work, they fail to report the funds to the government and go to the districts to work under the cover of being religious organisations.Both the government and FONGZA have no database of the activities carried out, which further complicates the process of planning on the regions where assistance is most needed.“There are a number of districts with NGOs doing the same thing, while in other districts there are none”, said Amaral, urging both national and foreign non-governmental organisations to register their activities.Amaral said the solution to this problem requires a tripartite intervention involving government, FONGZA and civil society.Currently, there are 30 registered NGOs working in Zambezia in the areas of agriculture, social welfare, education, water and sanitation, health, emergency and institutional support.

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