Local NGOs in national development: The case of East Timor

NGOs were reluctant to allow the UN to develop the regulation which would provide
the framework for their relations with their yet-to-be-elected government (UNDP
2002a). This was a relationship they wanted time to consider and negotiate themselves,
in the context of a wider vision about the way in which government and NGOs should
relate to each other in the new nation (Hunt 2000, UNDP 2002a). As Patrick observed:
Other concerns about the majority of these newly formed LNGOs derived from their
lack of organisational maturity and experience. These included the need for clarity
about the nature of development and the organisational roles of NGOs. Critically,
many of the new LNGOs had tenuous links with communities that they claimed to
represent or wished to assist (Patrick 2001:60).
Their community development and organisational and project management skills were
also often weak, and their resources extremely limited (Patrick 2001, Shires and
Crawford 2000, Walsh 2000a, 2000b). Around 90 per cent of the LNGOs were
concentrated in the capital, Dili, and most of the district NGOs were very small and
weak; many of these were youth organisations (Patrick 2001, Walsh 2000b). Thus
while there were some experienced NGOs in Dili, as Patrick commented:
The lack of proven experience and resources of newer LNGOs probably contributed to
their lack of involvement in the relief effort and explains why the focus of their
activities largely remained in Dili searching for INGOs and donors to provide initial
backing (Patrick 2001:60).
Thus by late 2000 there had been a significant expansion of the NGO community in
East Timor and the task was turning from relief and rehabilitation to shaping the new
government administration and preparing the Timorese for government, as well as
longer term development (Bano, Hunt, and Patrick 2001).
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