SUVA, (PIANGO) — The Pacific Islands Association of Non Government Organisations is pleased to announce its support to the Fiji Council of Social Services (FCOSS) and Fiji non-governmental organisations, in their effort to develop a Minimum Code of Standards for civil society organisations effectiveness.
PIANGO’s support was announced by Executive Director, Emele Duituturaga at a two-day workshop on civil society accountability held in Suva last week.
This initiative is a result of three previous workshops conducted by FCOSS and PIANGO in 2014 and 2015 on civil society’s accountability, where Fiji civil society participants agreed a Code of Ethics was needed by the civil society organisations sector, to address concerns of accountability, fragmentation and transparency by NGOs.
Emele Duituturaga, PIANGO Executive Director commended the initiative by FCOSS and the ten NGOs that have formed the working group, to develop a Fiji Code of Minimum Standards, to propose to the wider civil society sector.
Duituturaga stated, “With an effective and robust self-regulating accountability system, there is no need for external regulations by governments or donors. Instead, this initiative provides the civil society sector with a basis to hold policy dialogue with donors and especially governments for an enabling environment that is conducive to civil society effectiveness.”
She added that PIANGO has been advocating for a number of years for a civil society sector self-regulating, self-led mechanism.
Duituturaga added, civil society organisation leaders around the world have noted with some concern that government and donors support and an enable a private sector led approach to development allowing the private sector to predominate the development agenda.
This approach often leads to the marginalized voices of civil society expressing important social issues being ignored and resulting in escalating unemployment, poverty, violence and social ills.
This initiative calls all stakeholders to recognise and support the valuable contribution of civil society organisations to our communities.
