David Macfarlane and Glenda Daniels
Petty power plays within the South African National NGO Coalition (Sangoco) threaten to jeopardise civil society participation in next year’s huge World Summit on Sustainable Development.
In a move that has stunned the sector, Sangoco has suspended Jacqui Brown, whose work as CEO of the summit’s civil society secretariat, established by the coalition, has been widely praised.
The development summit will bring together governments and civil society organisations from around the world in the largest conference South Africa has yet hosted: more than 100 heads of state and about 50 000 delegates are expected to converge on Johannesburg in September next year.
South Africa is developing draft position papers on key issues that will be debated at the summit. These include international environmental governance; climate change due to global warming; food security and agriculture; fresh-water management; bias in the world trading system that disadvantages developing countries; energy consumption; and disaster management.
But the success of the civil society input is now seriously jeopardised, summit organisers claim, because of Brown’s sudden ejection from her central role of coordinating this entire input, with just 38 weeks to go before the event.
Brown has been called the most efficient and effective driver in preparations for the civil society section of the summit. Interviewed last month by the Mail & Guardian, she said the summit “is a unique opportunity for Africa to drive the political process. Africa is gaining a new momentum, and from now until the summit civil society and governments can engage with each other.”
Brown this week declined to comment on her suspension and the M&G understands she is seeking legal advice.
“Jealousy and sexism” explain Sangoco’s ditching of Brown, one of her supporters claims. Head-hunted from her position as chairperson of the Rural Development Sector Network to head the summit’s civil society secretariat, Brown has been “very, very successful”. The United Nations, which is coordinating the involvement of more than 100 governments in the summit, has been delighted with Brown’s work, the source says.
But an “all-male clique” among Sangoco’s leadership “wants to clip her wings”, a Brown supporter claims, “and didn’t want all the glory to go to her”. Sangoco has apparently accused Brown of exceeding her mandate by hiring staff, fund-raising for the summit and liaising with the media. But Brown’s supporters say this is what she was hired to do and they feel she has been doing supremely well.
Asked why Brown has been suspended, Sangoco executive director Abie Ditlhake merely said: “Sangoco is committed to good management and governance practice. To this end an internal investigation into processes relating to the [civil society] secretariat is under way.”
Ditlhake said: “Mechanisms have been put in place during the suspension [of Brown] to ensure that the work of the secretariat continues. What this investigation does is to strengthen the management of the process early on in order to ensure effective delivery of a civil society summit in 2002.”
But the M&G understands that civil secretariat staff, who remain “100% in support” of Brown, believe her suspension “will cause chaos and confusion, and is a threat to the successful hosting of the summit”, one source said. There is now “anger, panic, frustration, bitterness and demotivation” among staff.
Insiders fear that this is a replay of problems that bedevilled last year’s World Conference against Racism, the organisation of which elements in Sangoco’s leadership also tried to “hijack”. Then as now, “it’s all about power and control”.
A source close to the civil society secretariat says staff “don’t understand why petty power issues, ego problems among Sangoco leadership and sexism” are being allowed to endanger so important a summit.
Sangoco’s leadership continues to be so weak, chaotic and beset by infighting that NGOs increasingly maintain the coalition no longer has any mandate to represent them, NGO sources claim.
Sangoco’s ability to fulfil its role as an umbrella organisation that unites civil society bodies is increasingly in question. Controversy escalated three months ago when the Non-Profit Partnership (NPP) broke up. The NPP had consisted of Sangoco, the Southern African Grantmakers’ Association and the United Kingdom’s Charities Aid Foundation. The partnership, formed three years ago, was intended to strengthen non-profit organisations.
The break-up has alarmed foreign donor organisations. They have been pressing for mediation between Sangoco and the NPP to resolve their differences.
Asked about allegations of disunity in the NGO sector, Ditlhake said “there have been two national council meetings this year, where provincial coalitions and sectoral representatives have participated. These are democratic structures representing Sangoco’s membership. No motion of no confidence has ever been tabled. It would be good to know how many and which organisations make this claim.”
In the meantime Sangoco is undergoing an independent evaluation. Ditlhake says this is “a measure of our commitment to openness and democracy”, and that the evaluation will “assess [Sangoco’s] successes and failures”. The findings of the evaluation are expected to be announced during NGO Week, which starts on Monday.