COMMENTS BY MR. BERTUCCIMr. Guido Bertucci
Director
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
United Nations

Somehow in all these presentations it has logical census obviously thatNGOs have an important role to play in governance. But somehow also thereis the need to differentiate in shape in what are myths, and what arerealities. And that sometimes, we tend to glorify NGOs that could have seen,
instead we should look at more concretely what are less modalities for their
participation in governance, and what are maybe sometimes are theproblems therefore to maximize the benefits of their participation andminimize their problems. Looking at these two categories, namely thecontributions to progress, we can differentiate what Mr. Iriyama said in his
initial presentation two main categories. Namely those NGOs which areinvolved in advocacy, obviously NGOs made revolt but in terms of their
specific role and functions. We could divide them into categories: those whoare involved in advocacy, or in policy, participation, policy development; andthose who are involved in policy implementation, therefore in service
delivery or in capacity building. Now when it comes to advocacy obviously
the positive contribution is that they represent people’s voice. They canmobilize people; they can mobilize interests; they can actually strengthen
democracy. None to say because they deal with the issue of democracy for aset, but in a cultural institution it was demonstrated by a book written by
Professor Button of Harvard concerning the Italian cultural NGO, sending
society, tourist society. These types of NGOs which may not have advocacyrole for a say, but have been together for different reasons, a cement socialpublic, which indirectly, they strengthen democracy. Then, they also have therole of control as it has emerged during representation, an evaluation ofpolicies and they constitute a complementary type of representation. These
we obviously have to be very careful by the word mentioned by our main
speaker because they represent different interests. Different NGOs
represent different interests and that is how we include them in thecentromatic process. Some of the problems of the NGOs are shown in thearea of advocacy. Issue of control and influence present in the United States,
the National Rifle Association is an NGO but it is somehow promoted andprotected by the companies that produce weapons and so on. This is an
important issue, the issue of partial representation, which was raised insome of our discussions and presentations. Particularly the issue of control
influence also is very much, and the differentiation was made between local
NGOs and global NGOs. When we are talking about global NGOs, whomaneuver the global NGOs? Do they pursue interests which are particularly
at the interest of their particular countries, and not, therefore an influence of
the internal policy? The issue of legitimacy is a possible problem, andobviously the issue of accountability. Accountability was again to whom arethey accountable whenever there is an action to pursue. Therefore, how canwe look at some modalities, which can maximize their contribution togovernance? First, I hope, to create a neck face to participation in policy
making, consultation mechanisms, and spaces in which they can meet withthose who are often responsible for making the decision, whether at the local,
national, or global level as it was done for example in the global conferences.
To try to utilize them as best as possible to monitor evaluation, greatmechanism through which they can be the watchdogs of the action. For
example, the public figures or politicians of the government. And obviously
this has to be taken into account the need to insure collective or non-partialrepresentation. And this is the problem we have at present at the UN
conferences; because obviously when you have comfortable environment, it
doesn’t mean those NGOs that are joined there are those who are pushing forprotection of the environment. There are some others that are against. When
we come to the policy implementation of certain policies of service delivery orcapacity, obviously the benefits are enormous. They provide systems in its
implementation or the policy development, capacity building, services forhumanitarian nature, in health education, poverty alleviation, and it wassaid to promote innovation, and obviously they can deliver services which areless at cost. They utilize people that are much more committed than theirtraditional public officials, and obviously they feel together, which is left by
the public organization, the public sector. Also, I wonder, if I go into thetopics now, this issue of fill in the gaps also could be a drawback because it
could be analyble. Look at the NGOs who ask the government for retreats,
there it does not provide services. It can also create problems of lack ofcoordination; different NGOs can usually play lack, put together they may
not work in a synergetic manner and will go in different directions. They canalso stop priorities, particularly as mentioned before, at the level of policy
making. This is particularly at the level of implementation where you haveglobal NGOs or international NGOs develop chartable nature to a particular
agenda. They may restore the national, local priorities of a country. And
obviously the issue of accountability, particularly at the level ofimplementation, accountability for more financial, and accountability interms of the bookkeeping, you notice that many NGOs have this when it
comes to implementation. And also, which was mentioned in the issue ofpreservation, NGOs then work more to preserve themselves when it goes
into work. Therefore, some of the modalities which we can maximize theircontribution to make them partners in implementation so that their work is
not as isolated by the distorting cooperation of the public sector. To haveclear-cut arrangement for this cooperation, particularly when it comes tocontractual arrangements, such as for example the subcontracting ofparticular services that are there such as education, etc. And clear
distinction or definition of the subsidiary element, which can extend thevariety to different levels of government, different type of literacy for theirgovernment needs to be made. And an importance in this case is policy andguidelines for the public sector. It should be rather essential to NGOs whenworking within clear context policy and directly which would make themwork most.
In conclusion, I would like to stress what was stressed by the presenter, that
it is very important that NGOs cooperate within the rule, but at the sametime, as it was mentioned, it should not over regulate. If you over-regulateNGOs, revolution can start reactively. Clear mechanism for involvement at a
global level, for example global conference, at a national level public
participate in policy setting and development and the local level of policy
development, also particularly implementation, there are roles ofaccountability. And finally, realistic assessment of contributions and theirbenefits, without not necessarily glorifying, or certifying their contribution.
Thank you