NEW DELHI, February 8: To search for a new development paradigm, it is important that all critical actors like Non-Govermental Organisations (NGOs), research institutions and the media work together.Speaking on the "Role of NGOs in an era of Globalisation", David Bryer, Director, Oxfam (UK and Ireland) said that NGOs can play an important role in development but they do not have all the answers. Pointing out the changes that have come in this decade, he said that the revolution in information technology has interlocked economies all across the world and the emerging model was that of a democratic, liberal, capitalist system.However, he felt that this developmental model had also failed as far as alleviating poverty was concerned. And it would continue to fail, as far as the poor were concerned, unless supported by a strong civil society.Bryer, who has been associated with the development sector for more than two decades, felt that both India and Britain had a rich tradition of voluntary movements.But he pointed out that NGOs could be catalysts of change and even give new ideas, they could not be cheap providers of social service."There is a growing tendency to see NGOs as organisations which could solve problems created by economic measures taken by the government. NGOs can't be a panacea for these ills as they had the same problems of bureaucracy, inertia and complacency as other organisations," he observed. They would also have to overcome their competitive spirit and attitude of self-sufficiency, which hampered their bonding.Moreover, he felt that if NGOs had to become more effective, they had to learn more, research more and have more access to information. This information then had to be synthesised and used, instead of just storing it at the back of our minds. This he said, would make NGOs more effective because they had to deal with governments, multi-nationals and organisations like the World Bank, which were incredibly well-informed and had large resources at their disposal.However,there was a definite change. Giving an instance, he said that Women's Conference in Beijing had seen formation of alliance between local, national and international groups. Not only had they managed to survive but had stayed together and moved ahead. A few years ago, this would have been impossible to conceive.Underlining the importance of all critical actors coming together to form an effective alliance, he said that media especially could play and was playing an important role. However, the growing control of media by a few persons, was a worrying trend. He pointed out that as of now half of the earlier time slots were allocated for documentaries on television.
