MORE NGOs TO GET FUNDS FOR YOUTH PROGRAMMES
Ministries to focus on activities, says Syed Saddiq
THE Youth and Sports Ministry will restructure fundings for nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) for youth. Its minister, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, said funding priorities would be given to targeted activities and programmes carried out by the NGOs, instead of paying for administration costs.
By doing this, he said, more NGOs would receive fundings for youth programmes, which would benefit more people.
Previously, Syed Saddiq said, most of the RM20 million to RM30 million fundings were given to three or four NGOs.
“We hope from now on, the money allocated will be given to targeted youth programmes, such as Bottom 40 per cent programmes, which would hopefully reach out to many people, instead of being used to pay the salaries of the NGO leaders.
“For these NGOs, on the other hand, they have to reduce their dependency on government fundings. They are even called ‘non-governmental’, therefore, they shouldn’t fully rely on funds provided by the government,” he said at the ministry’s monthly assembly and town hall session yesterday.
Syed Saddiq said the funding would be transparent.
“Not only the funding, I want their elections to be transparent. There are big numbers of NGOs that establish ‘ghost’ elections so that they can elect a leader and receive fundings for it.”
Syed Saddiq said the ministry would train these NGOs towards self-sustainability in hopes of reducing their dependency on government funding.
He said the ministry was moving towards youth empowerment, where more efforts would be taken in several aspects, such as their quality of life and employment opportunities.