Transcript
EMELE DUITUTURAGA: Anxiety from the point of view that, 'Oh dear is this the death of all of us? Is this the kiss of death?' So that kind of message always creates its anxiety. But excitement because I think the key message there was, 'We need to read the changes. We need to see what's coming' and if we don't change, it's going to be forced on us or we go out of business. So, I think the opportunity or the space to openly talk about it, the opportunity also to listen to how other heads of international NGO's and a couple of government heads, how they've been able to embrace this. So, I guess excitement is the opportunity we have before us to do something about that.
DOMINIC GODFREY: One of the ways he talked about responding to those challenges was to get your own house in order, to be able to look at your deliverables and communicate them to your stakeholders. How do you think this challenge can be picked up and carried by PIANGO?
ED: Well you know, PIANGO has had its own share of challenges. We've had two or three times in the past thirty years where we've come very close to closing, for different reasons. So the key message which really resonated for PIANGO, as a regional body, is that we need to look at how we're doing our business. The current business model for NGO's, including PIANGO I would say, which has been based on charity, which has been based on handouts, is fast becoming unsustainable. So [I] think the opportunity to look for different partnerships, to look for different models, to reinvent our self - but more importantly I think the key questions that one of the panellists asked ourselves is, 'Why are we doing what we're doing? What is our purpose? What is our role?' and our mission might not change but how we achieve that mission has to change with the challenges around us.
DG: And funding is always going to be an issue but it's always going to be the one thing you need in order to achieve that mission statement but that funding model may change. Do you not feel that if you do look at partnerships with other organisations, particularly private enterprise organisations, that there is the risk of being perceived to compromise on your mission?
ED: Yes that's where the anxiety comes from. The NGO mission or our purpose is very much about social justice. It's always about challenging the status quo. It's about people's right to development, human rights. These are not easy messages for governments, for the private sector, and so there's an accepted tension between a profit mission and a purpose mission. So yes, we are going to have to look at to what extent can we work with the private sector given that they are usually profit driven. But there has been discussions about the triple bottom line. Can there be a partnership which not only looks at profit but is environmentally sustainable, that is about saving people's lives and improving the quality of life.
