Civil society organisations (CSOs) have been counselled to build public trust, in order to easily raise funds to implement their programmes.
The advice was given by John Onyeukwu, a representative of the European Union and panellist at a webinar on Regulatory Environment and Civil Society Sustainability by the Agents for Citizen-driven Transformation (ACT) Programme facilitated by the Working Group on Civil Society Regulatory Environment to address challenges facing the Nigerian civic space, especially in relation to civil society regulations, sustainability and survival.
Speaking at the webinar on Wednesday, Onyeukwu noted that part of the challenges of civil society organisations (CSO) is the inability of the sector to galvanise local philanthropy which can only be done by building public trust. He therefore advised participants to begin to look for alternative sources of funding rather than solely relying on international donors which are often restrictive.
The National Programme Manager, ACT Programme Damilare Babalola, in his opening remarks said the was part of initiatives to bridge knowledge gaps on topical issues that affect the civil society sector and which is what the ACT programme is primed to address. He added that the team would take suggestions from the outcome of the conversation in order to strengthen the civic space.
Hosted by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), a member of the Working Group, the webinar interrogated civil society structural challenges, funding issues, sustainability and survival, as well as how the regulatory environment is enabling or disabling the ability of CSOs to adequately address these challenges.
The conversation generated ideas and innovative solutions towards addressing the challenges and opportunities that funding and regulatory environment are posing to the sustainability of civil societies in the country, especially during the current context and aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the point raised include, addressing knowledge gap within the sector, professionalism, credibility, alternative local funding sources, good research/advocacy, improvement in the use of technology, etc. It is expected that the lessons learnt from the webinar will aid civil society organizations in strategising on funding and survival measures during and after COVID-19, adapt to regulatory measures and become more self-compliant.
Participants and panellists at the webinar agreed with the proposition to establish a multi-stakeholder engagement platform to concretely and regularly engage on specific areas of regulations and issues affecting the operations and governance of civil society in Nigeria.
The events panel sessions featured robust discussions from several civil society experts including, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Senate President, Dr. Otive Igbuzor; Programme Manager, Civil Society and Local Authorities at the Delegation of the European Union in Nigeria John Onyeukwu; Executive Director of Spaces for Change (S4C) Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri, Executive Director of Enough Is Enough Nigeria (EiE) Yemi Adamolekun and Executive Director of Nigeria Network of NGOs (NNNGO) Oluseyi Oyebisi.
The Working Group on Civil Society Regulatory Environment plans to organise other webinars subsequently to further interrogate the subject of civil society regulatory environment.
