On work at IKDO…
I am only a little over a week on the job and I have learned tons about Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs), advocacy and public participation projects here! There
is so much to learn (different systems, culture, players and ACROYNMS!) and
its funny that many things are the same everywhere also (networking, community
organizing & lobbying, time mgmt issues of--too much to do in not enough
time.). Most of the current work of the host organization I work for (Kosovar
Institute for NGO Law-IKDO) and the funders (International Center for Not-for-Profit
Law-ICNL - www.icnl.org) is focused around 3 areas:
1) municipal government's public participation laws and regulations (ie: open
mtg laws, public notices, documents open to the public for review, petitioning
the government for something...). This has been very successful in one city
and we are expanding to two new cities now. In addition, we are involved in
marketing (brochures & radio talk) and providing technical assistance for
implementing these reg's in the city that has their new laws.
2) the Parliamentary (central) level: recently they got adopted laws governing
and regulating NGOs. Now they are working on: changing one of the regulations
about donors and taxes and assisting the new administrative office, which registers
NGO with their roles and responsibilities. Also at the Parliamentary level,
there is big work being done on the passage of a Freedom of Information Act.
Of course all of this stuff is in collaboration with many other local and international
NGOs. Sometimes, sooooo many cooks in the kitchen, its hard to keep straight
who is who and what is what.
3) To provide technical assistance and advice to NGOs going through the registration
process. For example, the other day, a University Student Radio Station was
nearly rejected NGO status by the administrative office. They claimed that the
radio station, by selling ads would be a competitive business and should register
as a business. However, similar to the US, a non-profit can raise money in a
lawful way so long as the proceeds support their "public benefit"
programming. No "profits" are going to an owner or to shareholders.
So, this was exciting. Not just because of the students and the cause; but because
it is prescient -setting for the whole NGO community.
Finally, the IKDO is supposed to become a free-standing law center providing
technical assistance and advocacy for NGOs in about 1.5 yrs when their funding
will run out. This is where I come in. I am to be assisting in building the
organization: hiring and training staff, doing strategic and financial planning
and setting up operational systems. All of this is extremely difficult to get
going because the Director is a one-person show. Yeap, all the work mentioned
above is essentially being done by one person. Obviously, she has no time for
organizational matters since the "real work" is the stuff mentioned
above. Ahhhhh, a challenge! All and all, I have to admit, I am excited and into
the work she is doing also. Its fun; and she takes me everywhere to meet very
interesting partners and players. So, after I know the ropes a little better,
I hope that I can re-focus some of her priorities into investing in the "organization"
too. We'll see....