This post was submitted by recent MPA graduate Ryan Ouellette who, along with three other graduate students of nonprofit management from Seton Hall, is currently in Iraqi-Kurdistan, working with the University of Duhok on a new NGO management training program. Building the capacity of the NGO sector there is a key objective of a US State Department funded initiative called the Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society.
When the trip to Kurdistan first began I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t know whether we would see massive international NGOs accustomed to working with the UN, or if NGOs were really just getting started. The reality is more towards the latter, but there is a strong base to build from. The KRG Government funds all local NGOs, typically about $1,000-$2,000 USD a month. This enables NGOs to pay for rent, office supplies, small staff salaries, and some program expenses as well. In the United States this may not even cover rent, but in Kurdistan it goes a long way. In some ways, this support is a good thing. It encourages the formulation of new NGOs and guarantees that they will at least have some money to operate as they build the organization from the ground up. Contrarily, we find that this also hampers the NGOs from finding ways to become self sustainable. Many of them indicated that their only source of funding was the KRG Government and without it they would have to close their doors. It is clear that both the NGO sector as well as the KRG Government have to continue to find ways to work together and create quality legislation that promotes NGO development, but also holds the NGOs accountable to measurable results and promotes long term financial independence.
Through 17 total site visits we also found that human rights, women’s rights, and children’s rights were the “hot” topics. At least 9 of the 17 organizations we visited worked within these areas. A consolidation of these organizations would probably be beneficial. We also got the impression that these organizations tended to be the most prone to “mission creep.” They also tended to be involved in elections, projects for the elderly, etc. One aspect of their NGO management that needs further development is clearly defining a mission and sticking to it. Other potential areas of need, from our perspective, are: volunteer recruitment and management (there were a surprising number of volunteers and the potential for much more), financial management and control (any time we asked a numbers question it seemed far too difficult to provide a clear picture of the organization’s financial health), board development (some organization’s had them, others did not), and fundraising (not only writing international grant proposals, but also cultivating a local donor base).
The first training course, now completed, was a strong first step towards building NGO capacity in Kurdistan. There are still about 75 NGOs left in Kurdistan that we need to meet with, and we will utilize the feedback gained from this trip to further improve upon our trainings for these next groups. We will also use this to develop an NGO Resource Institute which will: provide individual consultations with NGOs, edit grant proposals written in English, provide additional trainings on specific topics of interest, serve as a resource center for information on NGO management, and liaise with American NGOs to develop possible partnerships. Although we were only in Kurdistan for one month, we laid a strong groundwork for a lasting project that truly has the potential to develop the NGO sector in Kurdistan in a meaningful way.