By Zakari Haruna Isah
The Executive Director of Voice of the Girl Child and Vulnerable People Foundation, Aisha Bello, has called for stronger partnerships and networking among non-governmental organisations (NGOs), saying collaboration is critical to achieving sustainable impact and improving access to funding for grassroots organisations.
Bello made the call while speaking at an NGO summit in Kaduna, where she stressed the need for organisations to understand compliance requirements and strengthen their capacity to effectively deliver projects in their chosen areas of intervention.
According to her, running an NGO requires passion, commitment and a proper understanding of the rules governing the sector.
“NGO is not easy, it's not for the weak,” Bello said, explaining that her desire was to see more organisations understand what it takes to establish and properly operate an NGO.
She said the summit attracted more than 200 NGOs initially registered for the event, while the total number of participants, including government agencies and organisations that were not part of the original registration, was estimated at about 300.
Bello said networking was particularly important because NGOs could not achieve meaningful impact by working in isolation.
“Impact cannot strive alone, in isolation,” she said, describing partnership as a key component of successful NGO interventions.
She explained that many NGO projects were supported by international organisations through grants and donations, but such organisations often relied on local NGOs to implement projects in Nigeria.
She, however, urged local organisations to look beyond dependence on grants and donations by developing partnerships among themselves and working collectively towards common objectives.
“How can we work together as a team, partnering with other local organisations like ours to be able to achieve the same goal or similar goals,” she said.
Bello explained that Kaduna was selected to host the summit because it was her hometown, where she was born, established her NGO and had implemented several projects over the years.
She also highlighted the difficulties confronting grassroots NGOs, particularly in accessing funding and gaining visibility.
According to her, several local organisations were carrying out impactful work but remained largely unknown, unlike bigger NGOs that had greater visibility and access to funding opportunities.
“The local ones, the grassroots, they are the ones that truly need funding,” Bello said.
She disclosed that Muslim Charity UK had funded several organisations in Kaduna, adding that she had facilitated its presence in the state to support other NGOs.
Bello said the summit was designed to help address some of the challenges facing grassroots organisations by exposing them to the compliance requirements and other standards needed to qualify for and successfully implement development projects.
“Teaching them compliance, what is needed for them to be able to deliver on this project as well,” she said.
She said the initiative was ultimately aimed at strengthening local NGOs, promoting collaboration and enabling grassroots organisations to become better positioned to attract support and deliver sustainable development interventions in their communities.