Regional Reports - the European External Action Service

and health are also in the process of consultation to initiate similar collaboration and coordination
in their respective activity sectors.
8. Engagement in Policy Dialogue.
Generally there is a lack of adequate understanding about policy dialogue and its purpose. Such
an engagement is considered to be sensitive and hence it is assumed that engagement in policy
should not be NGO activity area since it is a task for the Government. The environment for policy
engagement is not also favourable since the activities of NSA is widely scattered across a vast
geographic area. Thus, collective engagement especially in policy dialogue among NGOs would
more likely become realistic with the commencement of the newly formed Somali pastoralist
forum which could serve as a test centre or model from which others will learn the importance of
networking and particularly the need for collective voices like policy dialogue.
9. Engagement in Political Dialogue
What was stated in relation to engagement in policy dialogue also applies to political dialogue.
The NSA consulted consider engagement in policy dialogue to be too sensitive because they
understand that policy dialogue is synonymous to political dialogue. Therefore, engagement in
both policy and political dialogue is felt risky. Moreover, engagement in political dialogue is also
considered as an arena of the government and political parties while the task of NGOs is
development and service provision.
10. Internal Organisation and Resources
INGO are organized along country level structure linking the region with federal level. At the
local level, they use simple program coordination units managed by permanent employees that
serve as core technical staff which are retained irrespective of the scope of activities carried out.
In order to relieve the core staff from work load, additional workers will be employed whenever
there are new programs/project activities. Thus, high staff turnover is common in many NGOs
since the employment of technical staff that will be hired for duration commensurate with project
lifespan will be terminated when the project phases out.
At regional level, the area program coordinators are delegated with the authority to make
decisions on the day to day management of programs while the management at Federal level
provides guidance on overall policy and strategy issues. Nevertheless, the executive power given
to regional NGO staffs differ from one NGO to the other. For example, the responsibility of
OXFAM GB program manager is to supervise and monitor project execution by local NGOs for
whom it provides funding supports while the decision to fund projects is taken by the top
management in Addis Ababa.
The organization and management structure of local NGOs differ significantly especially in the
case of indigenous ones which have internal organization and resources management set up at the
regional level. All NGOs have organizational structure and articles of associations that properly
describe the goal/vision, objectives and areas of engagement. This does not however mean that
their activities and the procedure of decision making is usually governed by the articles but these
documents are prepared and submitted to the Bureau of Justice (BoJ) because these are among the
requirements that should be fulfilled in order to get registered and also to secure operational
permits.
Even though many local NGOs have internal organizations consisting of governance board,
management and various functional units, in practice it is the board itself that provides the day to
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