‘Make NGO registration less cumbersome’

The government must address the cumbersome procedures for registering Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to encourage more foundations to set up and carry out philanthropic activities.

The National Coordinator of the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) Philanthropy under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Ghana, Ms Pearl Darko, who made the call in Accra, appealed to the government to remove all barriers that hinder such organisations from carrying out their activities.

Ms Darko made the appeal in a presentation at the West Africa Civil Society Policy Dialogue Series (WACS-PoDiS) in Accra.

“Philanthropy must be properly understood in order to make it more structured and systematic to impact the lives of the people,” she added.

The presentation was on the theme “Mobilising African giving to achieve the SDGs in Africa,” and offered discussants the opportunity to dialogue on the opportunities across Africa and how that could be leveraged to raise funding to support SDGs. 

Data

Speaking on the importance of data, a fellow of the Next Generation Research Fellowship at the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), Mr Solomon Amoah, said understanding the local people and why they gave was a key driver.

“Understand why people give towards a particular need but not the other to leverage that for funding,” he stated.

Mr Amoah described international aid  to African countries as “haemorrhaged”, saying they were not consistent and called on leaders and researchers across the continent to devise strategies to raise long-term funds for development projects.

Innovation

For his part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Southern African Trust, Dr Bhekinkosi Moyo, said import and tourism levies, financial transaction taxes, philanthropy, regional lottery, and regional events were some of the innovative measures that could help generate funding for development projects for Ghana and the continent.