Belize Network of N.G.O.s Awarded 27K USD

Osmany Salas

The Belize Network of N.G.O.s received twenty-seven thousand U.S. dollars to fund an exercise that will strengthen civil society organizations to promote good governance and accountability.  The donation is made possible through the Belize Association of Planners and the Research Triangle Award.  The money, according to BAP, came through a CARSI-funded project.  Senator Osmany Salas of the Belize Network of N.G.O.s shared how the monies will be used to strengthen their membership and how it will contribute to the project’s objective.

Osmany Salas, Belize Network of N.G.O.s

“This initiative will help us to understand what the challenges are, what are the challenges faced within the N.G.O. community; the registered N.G.O.s that have not been in good standing what are the problems and how can we help. We know that there are at least one hundred and fifty registered N.G.O.s, growing by the month. Even though at the end of last year we had fifty-nine in good standing, about a dozen of those were newly registered N.G.O.s. So, our N.G.O.s that have been around for a while are facing challenges and it will take resources and time to reach out to the larger civil society to understand what the situation is. As part of our strategic direction, one of our two major goals is to be the unified voice for N.G.O.s and the objective within that is for all registered N.G.O.s to be in compliance with the N.G.O. Act. We recognize that in order for us as NGOs to play an effective advocacy role and call government to task every now and again, then we need to be as beyond reproach as possible ourselves. We need to set the example. The project, which would be supported via this CARSI funded initiative, seeks to do a number of specific things. One is to lead the facilitation of a national forum for N.G.O.s, including the ones that are not registered and identified in consultation with BAP to discuss and build consensus and to see how we can increase the number of registered N.G.O.s in good standing. We also want to put together a comprehensive database of N.G.O.s and C.S.O.s; good standing, not registered and registered to have a good sense of the N.G.O. landscape and to use that platform to encourage the registration of civil society organizations.”