Gounder: CSOs vital in nation building
CIVIL society organisations (CSOs) play a decisive role in nation building, and Government must cooperate with them to achieve positive social and economic outcomes.
Economist Dr Neelesh Gounder, who is also a policy advisor hired by the Fiji Government to work on drafting the country’s National Development Plan (NDP), said this while speaking at a roundtable discussion with CSOs in Suva on Thursday last week.
He said nobody understood the communities and societies better than CSOs.
“The Government does a lot of things; it cannot do everything for the people or community,” he said.
“That’s where the important role of CSOs come in. There are many areas where Government is doing things, but partnering with CSOs will allow the Government to do these things better.
“That’s why this cooperation and partnerships are very, very important. And one of the SDG goals is actually about partnerships and collaborations.
“One example that I always give is regarding education provision and access to schooling in Fiji; 99 per cent of the schools are owned by community, faith-based organisations.
“And one can imagine if the communities of faith-based organisations had not intervened with their own hard work, effort, and resources to building these schools, what would have been the situation in terms of access to schooling?
Dr Gounder said this was a classic example of the power of partnership in the spirit of collaboration between the State and the communities.
“The communities own the land, the buildings, they also manage the day to day running of the of the schools, maintenance, grass cutting, etcetera,” he said.
“And the Ministry of Education provides the teachers and pay for the salary of the teachers. This is a brilliant cooperation between the state and the community.”