For
instance, when I met with a person who was on no less than six civil society
councils in the Presidential Administration, I asked him if the ministries
listened to the councils. Before I asked the question, I already knew the
answer – no.
I
find it odd that the preoccupation of Ukrainian civil society is focused on the
government – funding and demanding the government listen to it. Even queerer is one noted Western aid agency
whose civil society department held symposia on how to obtain government
funding. But then, many being creations of government,
it is no surprise that many Western aid agencies have a government focus. Further, except for one, every aid
organization I’ve come across funds projects, not core support. They’ve been giving fish, when teaching how
to fish would have produced real civil society – civil society that is not
tethered to government or external funding.
Forget
commanding the government to listen to civil society. Government will not listen to civil society
until it commands attention. A piece of
registered legal paper does not make an organization civil society. True civil society doesn’t need a piece of
paper, either. What government documents
registered/authorized the 2004 Orange Revolution?
To
command attention, what civil society needs are two things; community
governance and community support.
Honestly,
some of the very people who complain about the continued Soviet mindset in government
sadly display the same mindset when it comes their own NGO’s governance. Real, powerful and independent boards are
rare. Unlike for-profit businesses, NGOs
answer to the community. The community
(whatever community an NGO serves) governs through the general meeting and/or a
board of directors. The staff doesn’t
sit on the board or appoint its membership.
It is independent, diverse, and over the staff (including the executive director
or President). If I were a politician, I wouldn’t listen to a supposed
representative of civil society who only had a piece of paper and a few people
sitting around a table. However, I would
listen to one who had real accountability to the community and had many people
who supported it (the more the better).
The only seeming success of the Orange Revolution was the lesson that
real civil society can work in Ukraine – to the power structure’s
detriment.
And
speaking of the power structure, the thought of labor unions controlled by the
government is amazing to me. The last I heard, the oligarchs had bought and paid
for the government. Somebody needs to
risk their life to instigate real, independent (civil society) labor unions in
the Donbass. Civil society can also
command the oligarchs to listen.
For
Ukrainian civil society to be real civil society, it must receive its funding
from Ukrainian civilians. The more funds
it raises within Ukraine, the more respectable it will be. The truth is that I see much of Ukrainian
civil society as western funded projects.
One NGO executive told me that western aid is capricious, unreliable and
was “waves of failure.” At the time, not
knowing much about western aid, I was quick to criticize western aid
agencies. A few months later, as I was
thinking about those words, again, I was reminded of a conversation I had, many
years ago, but couldn’t place it. A
couple of days later, it came to me: it
was memories of conversations I had with my parents as a child. When I complained about them not buying
something I wanted, they would say, “Well, earn your own money and then you can
buy it.” Ukrainian NGOs need to “grow
up” and earn their own money. Speaking as
only one American, I do want aid from the US to be determined by American
priorities. It’s my money!
When
I have mentioned that Ukrainian civil society must raise funds from the
community with my Ukrainian civil society friends, I get two responses: (1)
that “It’s never been tried before” and (2) “That people won’t give or get
involved.” In all the years raising
money in the US, I heard both of those lines endlessly, “We, on the (western
slope of Colorado, rural Utah, you fill in the blank…) are different!” Nobody’s different. The human condition is the same all over the
globe.
If
you believe the preceding two statements, then the Orange Revolution should
have never happened. People do
give. People do get involved. Raising funds or getting volunteers is no
different then for-profit businesses enticing clients to buy their
products. It’s the urgency of the need
and the right person making the ask. (I spent thousands of dollars, of my own
money, and uncompensated time to come to Ukraine to serve as an official
election observer during the Orange Revolution. I was compelled.)
Here’s
the good thing about Ukraine – for centuries it has excelled at something that
the US (with all of its individualism) has not developed to the same degree –
mutually beneficial personal and business networks. Getting the right people to be energized by
your NGO’s mission, who will then “tap” into their networks is the very best
way to raise funds. Any NGO, who is
willing to spend a little time focusing their organization’s mission, vision,
and developing a strategic plan with particular attention paid to governance, organization,
and donor development can raise funds.
Civil
society (real civilian society) is the only hope for Ukraine – what other
choice is there?
Robert Higgins was a senior fellow
at the International Centre for Policy Studies. He is graduating with a master’s
in international affairs and global enterprise from the University of Utah and
has many years experience managing NGOs and political campaigns, and in banking
and business. In 2010, he spent a month in Ukraine researching Ukrainian civil
society. Most recently, he has been published in the official 2012 G8 Business
Summit Magazine and the official 2012 G20-B20 Summit Magazine. He has been to Ukraine five times in the past
11 years and was an official election observer during the Orange Revolution.
