This document discusses collaboration between government organizations and non-governmental organizations in India to improve agricultural extension and rural development. It provides examples of different models of NGO and GO collaboration, including NGO involvement in government programming, joint training activities, and group formation efforts. It also outlines some challenges to collaboration, such as different priorities between NGOs and GOs, lack of experience and capacity, and issues around control and sustainability. Overall, the document advocates for closer working relationships between NGOs and GOs while also recognizing limitations to collaboration.

1. GOVT.
ORGANIZATIONS/INSTITUTES/N
ON-GOVT. ORGANIZATIONS
COLLABORATION TO IMPROVE
EFFICIENCY OF EXTENSION
Shivani Jha

2. The responsibility for creating equity among larger sections of society
rests with Government.
However, we do see a hybrid model emerging. There is a role for
NGOs to be the catalyst, facilitator and watchdog for development
initiatives. Corporations are facilitators through initiatives that are
either implemented by them or by their NGO partners via financial and
non-financial support.
Manish Jain, Director Health Policy,
Johnson & Johnson India

4. A Non Governmental Organization (NGO) is any non-profit,
voluntary citizens' group which is legally constituted,
organized and operated on a local, national or international
level.
Some are organized around specific issues:
→ Human rights
→ Environment
→ Health
→ Poverty eradication
→ Rehabilitation
→ Employment

5. NGO Strengths
Small and horizontally structured
Short lines of communication
Responding flexibly and rapidly to clients' needs
Work ethic conducive to generating sustainable processes and impacts.
Maintain a field presence in remote locations
Identify the needs of the rural poor in sustainable agricultural development.
Wide range of participatory methods for diagnosis.
Rapport with farmers
Draw on local knowledge systems in the design of technology options

6. EVALUATION AND RATING OF NGOS
No. Of Years in business:
Reputation
Certification and Registration:
Experience in relevant areas
Partner feedback
Capabilities and expertise

7. TYPES OF RESPONSIBILITY
→ Towards Society
→ Government
→ Shareholders
→ Employee
→ Customer

8. NGOs
Classification
By the level of
Orientation
Charitable
Orientation
Service
Orientation
Participatory
Orientation
Empowering
Orientation
By the level of
Operation
Community
Based
Organizations
City Wide
Organizations
National
NGOs
International
NGOs

9. Act as a change agent
Safeguarding Human Rights
Representatives of weaker sections
RESPONSIBILITIES OF NGOS

10. Need for honest and dedicated persons.
Need for transparency to create confidence.
A proper personnel policy
Protect the interest of the people rather than members
Transparent and easy to operate mechanism.
CHALLENGES TO NGOS

11. FEATURES OF NGOS
Support democratic system
Function on no profit basis
Non Political in character
Clearly defined objectives
Limited external control
Voluntary Character
Wide operational area
Positive contribution
Need financial support
Interest in long-term projects

12. ACTIVITIES OF NGOS
Create awareness
Protect human rights
Encourage rehabilitation
Gainful employment
Combat man made crisis
Protect environment

13. In recent years, many observers have suggested that agricultural and
rural development strategies would benefit from increased
collaboration between government research and extension
organizations and non-governmental development organizations,
hereafter called GOs and NGOs, respectively.
Donors in particular have begun to call for more NGO involvement in
programmers that have traditionally been implemented through the
public sector, and there has been a recent upsurge of donor interest in
direct-funding NGOs.

14. Given the unique Indian situation — of geographical vastness and
Socio-cultural diversity within and between the states and regions, it is
imperative that the government machinery will play the dominant role
in improving the conditions of the millions of the people. Government
machinery includes the vast bureaucratic establishment, judiciary,
peoples' institutions, and government promoted development agencies.
Nevertheless, non-government organisations (NGOs) will continue to
have a crucial role in the overall development efforts in the country. On
the one hand governmental endeavour will dominate the national and
regional scene, on the other, importance of NGOs in the micro/local
level intervention cannot be ignored.
There are areas where NGOs and government agencies can and should
work together in the interest of the people

15. Government agencies will implement programmes, which are planned at macro-level
for the benefit of large sections of population spread over every corner of the country.
NGOs will work at isolated pockets, and will work with the issues touching the people
at the Grassroots
NGOs' role may be broadly classified into the following categories:
First, NGOs make adaptations in applications of schemes planned by the government at
macro level to specific situations considering local requirements.
Second, NGOs undertake a role supporting the actions/programmes carried out by
government agencies
Third, the role of the NGOs may be in the form of providing approaches alternative to
government policies and programmes, addressing different problems of the target
groups
Fourth, NGOs develop backward and forward linkages for enhancing the effectiveness
of their own and of the government in undertaking development opportunities
Fifth, NGOs supplement government efforts particularly in reaching out to the less
accessible target groups and at times complement existing services in response to the
other needs of the same target groups.

16. These advocates of closer NGO-GO collaboration have tended to under emphasize:
The wide range of interaction that currently exists, not all of it collaborative; much
involves pressure by one side or the other.
The limitations facing efforts to work together.
The preconditions for successful collaboration; in particular, the prior informal contacts
necessary to build up mutual trust.
Limitations as well as successes of NGO action.
The extent to which certain functions relating to, for example, "public goods" will
remain more cost-effectively performed by the public sector than by NGOs.
Analysis of how Gos might work with NGOs must be accompanied by continuing
attention toways of improving public sector management, an area in which structural
adjustment reforms have not had the success expected.

17. Of crucial importance when considering NGO-GO links is that NGOs
are independent:
they are not mandated to collaborate with research and extension
services in the way that government departments might be.
They will therefore collaborate only if GOs have something useful to
offer.

18. CASE STUDY
Crompton Greaves supports Health initiatives in
South India
Crompton Greaves Limited (CG) has partnered with Smile Foundation in Chennai
and Hyderabad to implement a series of initiatives. An Aids Awareness campaign
and Diabetes Health Camp for the underprivileged have been conducted in both the
cities. The awareness campaign was aimed at youth and adults, which saw
enthusiastic participation and debate. Next in line is library support for two Mission
education centres.
Crompton Greaves Limited is a pioneering leader in the management and
application of electrical energy, with a presence in over 10 countries. CG is active in
the global power transmission & distribution arena, and is amongst the world’s top
ten transformer manufacturers.

19. CASE STUDY
Nerolac supports healthcare of 5050 Smile Children
Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited has partnered with Smile on Wheels to support the
primary health care of the painter community across India. They have conducted
more than 80 health camps during the last three years.
Kansai Nerolac Paints Limited (KNPL), formerly known as Goodlass Nerolac Paints
Ltd., was established in 1920. With over 90 years of strong presence in the paint
industry, KNPL offers a comprehensive range of products both in Industrial and
Decorative businesses.
KNPL is an organization which cares for its people and involves them in the
ambit of social responsibility.
Kansai Nerolac is a responsible organisation and understands its responsibilities
- both internal and external, and is committed to making a difference to the society it
operates in. Nerolac invests in communities to improve the quality of life and sense of
well being of the people. KNPL, under its social outreach programmes, works in the
areas of healthcare, education, environment preservation and community
development.

20. NGO-GO Configurations for Providing Technical Advice and Feedback
Attempts made in India have been largely unsuccessful. A proposal in the Eighth Plan
to hand over the entire range of technology transfer and training activities to NGOs in
parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Orrisa, Kerala, and West Bengal, with some technical
support from the state agricultural universities and departments of agriculture, has
generated only a lukewarm response from NGOs. One reason for this is the NGO
concern that many of the technical recommendations from GOs that they would be
expected to disseminate are not relevant to small-scale farmers.
Another reason is that mechanisms for bottom-up feedback in existing technologies and
for the articulation of demands for new technologies remain weak.
An attempt by the secretary of state for agriculture in Rajasthan to hand over
responsibility for extension to NGOs in Udaipur District - renowned for its high density
of NGOs - provoked a reaction that is likely to be typical of NGOs in many countries:
namely, that by doing so the state
is abrogating what is properly its responsibility to ensure a regular supply of
technologies
relevant to small-scale farmers.

21. A different type of formal arrangement being developed in Udaipur District of India is a
quarterly forum hosted by a "hybrid" NGO-GO institution - a government Farm
Science Centre located in an NGO - in which interested NGOs and GOs participate. In
essence, it is intended to promote familiarization by allowing cross-visits to be set up to
each other's programmes, to allow training courses to be designed to meet NGOs'
requirements, and to allow NGOs to "feedback" on currently available technologies and
to Informal collaborative arrangements rely heavily on the initiative of GO staff to feed
lessons back into the next round of the research and extension agenda.
In Bolivia, feedback was encouraged through a range of instruments, including NGO
representation on the research planning committee of the local research station, and
consultation with a number of zonal substations, part of whose function was to
assemble users' views on the technologies being made available.

22. NGO-GO Configurations in Training
Some of the farmer training conducted by GOs is linked more strongly with GOs'
programmes and targets than with farmers' needs. Much training is given in a classroom
environment, without the practical content necessary to engage farmers' interests. NGOs
have sought to work with GOs to address these shortcomings in several contexts:
In Gujarat, India, the Aga Khan Rural Support Project (AKRSP) identified
village training needs through discussions with farmer groups. Initially, AKRSP
organized government provision of this training, but the courses were formal in style
(lectures in a classroom), and farmers' evaluations showed that they had learned little of
practical value from them.
In response, AKRSP developed an alternative needs-based training and dissemination
methodology which it tested over several areas. Government staff were then brought in
to observe, participate in, and finally adopt the methodology. Successful adoption was
reinforced by informal networks and exchange of experience at workshops and
consultations. AKRSP, along with Myrada, has also been instrumental in training GO
staff in participatory methods.

23. In a different context, the International Institute for Rural
Reconstruction in the Philippines Brought together resource people
from NGOs and GOs at a one-week workshop, the objective of which
was to produce a completed Agroforestry Resources Training Manual.
The manual is now widely used.
Clearly, there are also many instances in which NGO staff
benefit from the skills which GO staff are able to impart; training in
grafting techniques, for instance, has been found useful by a number of
NGOs.

24. NGO-GO Configurations in Group Formation
Substantial scope exists for GOs to benefit from NGOs' group-
organizing skills. In India, for instance, recent modifications to the
training and visit extension system now require village-level extension
workers to interact with groups of approximately twenty farmers instead
of with individual "contact farmers." However, extension workers are not
trained in group formation skills, and groups that they form are unlikely -
if they survive at all – to become interested in anything other than the
testing of immediately available technology.
The examples cited above illustrate how NGOs can effectively organize
groups around integrated pest management, soil and water management,
and the management of common property resources and capital assets.

25. What extension services can do to further collaborate with NGOs?
The foregoing has several implications for extension services which aim
to develop closer links with NGOs:
Explicit recognition of the wide diversity of NGO types will be
necessary. Not all Many NGOs seek to support the establishment and
growth of membership organizations capable of meeting their technology
requirements over the longer term either from their own resources or by
creating demands on government services or by a combination of both.
Thus PRADAN, in India, in an effort spanning several years to support
the introduction of chrome-leather tanning by a local group, encouraged
links with commercial lending organizations and private leather traders,
not least because the latter could give accurate feedback on product
quality.

26. Close interaction will be impossible if extension departments expect
NGOs merely to assist in fulfilling preset targets such as the achievement
of a given number of demonstrations of a given kind each season.
GOs will have to bring an open agenda into the relationship, where
possible keeping some resources "unallocated" in order to be able to
respond to needs as they are articulated by NGOs.
Very specific efforts will have to be made to convey both feedback on
existing technologies and NGOs’ requirements for new technologies to
researchers. In many GOs, reward systems provide no incentive among
either researchers or extensionists to respond to feedback.

27. GO and NGO staff can jointly participate in training courses (ideally led
by a joint team) in the action-oriented methods such as participatory rural
appraisal favoured by NGOs. The relevance of these to individual NGO
staff will vary, but their capacity to enhance awareness of farmers'
perspectives is important. Depending on their philosophy, NGOs are
concerned to develop local capacities for experimentation which build
solely on farmers' indigenous knowledge or on this and relevant
"outside" ideas. This strategy may contribute to rural advancement in its
own right, and the capacity it creates may prove a useful independent
source of innovations in the absence of usable technologies from
government. Alternatively, where GOs are willing and able to work with
the poor, it will be a useful complement to what extension service can
offer.

28. The challenges of experience and capacity
Both those in NGOs and government believe that there is no balance
between NGOs and government in terms of experience and capacity and
that this constitutes the biggest challenge affecting collaboration between
them. Government officials, whether doctors or managers, lack
experience, in dealing with employees in NGOs who are far better
equipped to deliver curative health services in North Darfur State. For
example, according to an interviewee (2- 5, 28 January 2011, El Fasher)
in the State Ministry of Health: ‘Without NGO financial resources and
health staff, the government sector does not have the capacity and
capability to deliver curative health services alone to all people in the
district’. NGOs have numerous comparative advantages in health
services provision, such as serving the community in remote places and
within close proximity to the community.

29. General challenges to collaboration between government and NGOs
Firstly, NGOs see government as putting many obstacles in front of
them which limit their freedom by attempting to control them in an
authoritarian manner, which in turn prevents the NGOs from doing their
work properly. Government, on the other hand, regard NGOs as: more
verbal and less active; opposed to any move to ensure transparency,
especially in financial matters, which are driven by donors; obsessed
with sectoral issues; over-critical of government policies; and blind to
macro-challenges of development. In this respect the government
prefers donors to support it directly to deliver health services to its
citizens, not through NGOs.

30. Secondly, NGOs focus mostly on delivering health services as
humanitarian aid, while the government wants NGOs to build health
institutions and to deliver health services as a form of social
development in the State. This is especially so in rural areas, which are
crowded by people as a consequence of the persistent conflict and which
require rehabilitation. However, there is no plan for future co-operative
work between government and NGOs, as most NGOs are restricted to
annual contracts, and concentrate on health delivery and not on
reconstruction.

31. Thirdly, NGOs make a considerable effort to involve the community in
health service delivery issues, by consulting them and representing them
in their teams to manage health institutions which are established as joint
health projects. However, the government wants to manage such
health institutions, and therefore they see the NGOs as undermining their
authority and thus presenting themselves as an alternative to government.

32. PARUPKAR / UTSHAH
PAU Initiatives to help distressed farming families in Punjab
Four years ago, the Punjab Agricultural University started a unique
project UTSHAH to provide psychological first aid to the distressed
farming families of Punjab. About 164 rural youth were trained as Peer
Support Volunteers (PSVs) to provide need-based counselling to the
distressed farming families facing diverse challenges of life.
In continuation to these activities, now the PAU has started a
project PARUPKAR to share the information about distressed farming
families on its website and motivate NRIs, PAU alumni, present faculty
members, philanthropists and NGOs to adopt one or more families and
support them in various ways.

33. PARUPKAR (Financial Assistance): The donors can choose the
family(ies) and support them directly. They will keep the university in
loop while helping the families by informing about their charity so that it
could be documented and highlighted to inspire other donors. Donors
can also deposit with the university postdated cheques in the name of the
beneficiary which will be deposited in the beneficiary accounts
periodically. Donor’s details can also be put on website if the same is
permitted by him/her.
PARUPKAR (Material Assistance): Besides direct / indirect financial
assistance, donors can also share household goods, books, stationary,
clothes, other utility items etc.
UTSHAH (Psychological Assistance): A helpline number with trained
psychological counsellor (8360684948) has been started to give need
based psychological first aid, guidance and counseling to the farmers in
distress. The helpline is available during the office hours on all
working days.

34. Today, Save the Children
is
supported by 1,15,000+
individual supporters, 35
corporate and 38
institutional (National
and International)
supporters
With this new model of
CSR, corporations are
not detached from
society but established
mutual support
relationships so that both
corporations and
communities benefit from
each other.