By Nondumiso Sibanda

THIS week dear readers my goal is very simple.
I am basically responding to the contents of an advert that was put forward by NANGO for a consultant who would assist civil society organisations to lobby for the PVO Amendment Bill. Below is the advert as it appeared:
Lobby Charter for The PVO Amendment Bill: NANGO
Deadline: 23 August 2013
Terms of Reference
Introduction
Non-Governmental Organisations in Zimbabwe are governed by the Private Voluntary Organisation Act, known also as the PVO.
NGOs have repeatedly faced legislative restrictions because of demanding human rights reforms in Zimbabwe. NGOs have dealt with administrative interference, restrictions in registration and harassment.
The PVO Amendment Bill seeks to introduce more regulation of CSOs and to continue to curtail the operational space of CSOs.
There is therefore a need for CSOs to develop and provide an alternative PVO Amendment Bill, which would address the issues of self-regulation, and also registration through the restructuring of the PVO Board.
The NGO PVO Amendment Bill focuses on the independence of the PVO Board and the removal of supervisory powers from the State introducing a self-regulatory mechanism.
Purpose of the Lobby Charter
An independent consultant will engage with the relevant Government ministries, civil society organisations and international organisations to advocate for the NGO PVO Amendment Bill.

Objectives of the Lobby Charter
–    Advocate for the establishment of a new PVO Board.
–    Harmonise the registration process of CSOs.
–    Advocate for the self-regulation of CSOs in order to establish an operational environment in which CSOs can flourish and conduct their affairs.
–    To advocate for the de-criminalisation of CSOs that are operating without registration.
–    Engage with the relevant Government officials and Ministries, civil society organisations on the NGO Shadow Bill.
The contents of the advert also included what was required from the consultant and to add the cherry on the icing, the 30th of September was given as the deadline for the expected outcomes.
This crazy advert I must say, did not come as a surprise to me as it appeared barely a month after the elections.
I also did a piece on this sometime last year when I was asking Zimbabwe to go the Putin way.
The Russian President enacted a law that gave the Russian government autonomy to look into the affairs of NGO funding and to ask for the accounting books of NGOs yearly as a way to ensure that they are accountable to someone.
I will endeavour in a three-part article to respond to this absurd advert and showcase to the whole of Zimbabwe why such a request to amend the PVO Bill is nothing but preposterous.
You see, the timing of NANGO is a very desperate attempt to ensure that they attack while the nation is lying in a victorious State after the harmonised elections.
Before I go further, I will give you a brief history of what NANGO is and why they are busy making a huge fuss about this Bill.
The National Association of NGOs (NANGO) is an umbrella organisation of over 1000 NGOs in Zimbabwe which was established in 1962.
NANGO is meant to “strengthen, represent and coordinate the work of NGOs in Zimbabwe by creating space, promoting networking, dialogue and engagement to enable the fulfillment of members’ visions and missions”.
NANGOs vision is ‘a proactive community of NGOs responsive and committed to the sustainable development needs of all people in Zimbabwe and the full realisation of human rights, democracy, good governance and poverty alleviation’.
Sadly there are numerous divisions that are rampant in this so-called umbrella body which is sometimes accused of wanting to carry out programmes which are meant to be done by ordinary NGOs. They are currently sitting on a pot of over two million dollars of funding every year.
However, since this response is not to go into an expose about NANGO which I will do in the weeks to come time permitting, the real issue is why NANGO put out this advert.
It seems that there has been a lot of pressure that has been coming from other local NGOs who feel traumatised by the outcome of the elections.
They had celebrated too soon assuming that when Tsvangirai wins, he would immediately assist them with the PVO Bill, which has been hanging over their heads like an axe that can drop any time.
Hence now many NGOs are afraid that if they fail to conduct their programming, they will end up losing their funding which will mean losing jobs and livelihoods for many.
This pressure led to the advert but as I said last year and will continue to reiterate, who monitors NGOs work.
If they call themselves the watchdog of Government, then it only makes sense that Government should return the favour in equal measure.
In next week’s second part, I will analyse with you the contents of that advert and respond to why we cannot allow the amendment of the PVO Bill and why we should have it enacted as soon as possible.