Harsh Jaitli is Chief Executive Officer of Voluntary Action Network India (VANI). VANI works towards strengthening civil society organisations (CSOs) in the country as well as creating an enabling regulatory environment for them. VANI has so far engaged with about 15,000 organisations all over the country. Jaitli is also a member of the Advisory-cum-Technical Committee for Development of CSR Exchange Portal set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. He is Vice-Chair of FORUS (formerly known as International Forum of National NGO Platforms), Co-convener of Asian Development Alliance, Council Member of Asian Democracy Network (AND) and Member of Policy Development Forum of European Commission. Excerpts from an interview:.
How has VANI’s role changed before and during the Covid-19 pandemic?
It has not changed that much because for the last 30 years VANI has served as a national platform focused mainly on strengthening civil society organisations in India and developing strategies like strengthening external enabling environment. During the Covid-19 pandemic the challenges of the civil society have changed a lot. We are accordingly adapting our strategies.
How would you sum up NGOs’ contribution in responding to the pandemic?
As a major arm of the development processes in any country at the time of pandemic, NGOs have responded well because they are at the ground level. NGOs have been involved in providing food, psycho-social support, health advisory, quarantine facilities and policy advisory to governments to handle the crisis.
What kind of Covid-19 specific challenges are NGOs facing?
NGOs are facing many challenges for the last two-three decades — be it financial or lack of resources. When the pandemic hit us, NGOs did not have enough resources to respond.
How is VANI helping NGOs to overcome these challenges?
NGOs have responded to previous natural disasters quite effectively, but they do not talk about their work. Once the crisis will be over, people will forget about NGOs’ work. The good work done by NGOs is never highlighted. This time VANI talked with these NGOs and tried to develop local networks so that they can share their work, learning and challenges. Secondly, VANI prepared NGOs to respond effectively as Covid-19 is a new challenge for the humankind in the recent history.
How has pandemic affected the social sector itself as a whole?
India as well as other countries have some weaknesses and faults in the system. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed those fault lines. Now the question is: How to overcome those weaknesses in the current situation?
What are the short-term and long-term learnings for NGOs?
The short-term learning is about how to overcome the immediate crisis. The immediate crisis is about lack of resources and how to work with local district administration. NGOs took all the permissions because they were at the field level. So, when there was a total lockdown, they had to work together with the administration. Secondly, how to generate resources locally. As you have seen NGOs generate resources locally and there is not much foreign funding available and most of CSR money has gone to PM CARES Fund. So, there is very less fund available for NGOs. The immediate learning has been to provide services to the people and that too without enough resources. The second learning is about the importance of NGOs’ collaboration with local people, government agencies, administration, small businessmen, housewives, etc. In the long run NGOs have to find a permanent solution so that they can handle such situations in a result-oriented way.
What have been the lessons for VANI?
VANI is a national platform of NGOs. So whatever our members face, we also face. So, almost our lessons are the same. We have an additional responsibility, too, to bring everyone together, build capacity of NGOs and work remotely.
– Transcript by Mohammad Mujtaba
(An intern from Jamia Millia Islamia)