Needs of NGO Communities

2.4 NGOs Prioritizing the Problems

2.4.1 Elementary Problems

Analysis of the collected data allows us to draw preliminary conclusions about the main problems faced by environmental NGOs in three republics and also about the basic demands of the NGO community which could be addressed by a REC-like organization. Based on the survey data, a number of the most acute problems of NGOs have been identified. Respondents were given a list of fifteen possible elementary problems presented in random order and asked to choose and rank up to five of the most acute problems for their NGO. The list of these problems with preliminary ranking is presented in the table below.

NGOs: PRELIMINARY RANKING OF MOST ACUTE PROBLEMS
problem description probability for the problem to be chosen
=absolute weight of the problem
(multiple choice)
poor financial state and other material difficulties 0.83
limited access to communication means 0.49
weakness of environmental movement in the country or region 0.45
lack or absence of reliable environmental and social information 0.40
lack of volunteer support 0.31
general legal problems 0.27
lack of special environmental training 0.20
lack of business skills 0.19
poor relations with local authorities 0.18
excessive or unjust taxes 0.17
poor horizontal networking with other NGOs 0.15
weak administration of particular NGO 0.12
problems with official registration 0.09
poor relations with central governing bodies 0.08
other problems 0.08

2.4.2 Data overview: reconstructing the macro-demands

Further analysis groups the problems across the systemic macro-demands of the NGO community. These demands are often not clearly recognized and openly acknowledged by many of the "grass-roots" NGOs. Nonetheless, the basic problems described above can be taken as elementary units to identify the demands of the NGO community and to determine the most effective ways of providing effective assistance.

For instance, the problems formulated as "weakness of environmental movement in the country or region" (problem ranked as # 3 in the general list), "lack of volunteer support" (# 5) and "poor horizontal networking with other NGOs" (# 11) could be combined under the macro-demand fostering a "green network".

Another example of macro-demand reconstruction entails composing a category of "internal problems" that could be solved by paying special attention to NGOs' capacity building. This option embraces such elementary-level problems as "weakness of administration of particular NGOs", "lack of special environmental training" and "lack of business skills".

A reconstructive analysis based on the new categories identifies the following six macro-problems:

NGO SURVEY: MACRO-PROBLEMS OF ENVIRONMENTAL NGOs
(SYSTEM DEMANDS ORIENTED RECONSTRUCTION, RELATIVE WEIGHT)
group rank MACRO-PROBLEMS Russia Ukraine Moldova whole population
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
I 1 Needs in material and financial support 24 24 23 24
II 2 Fostering a "green network" in regions 19 18 22 19
II 3 Assistance in creation and maintenance of information and communication infrastructure 18 19 20 19
II 4 "Internal problems", related to NGOs' capacity building 17 18 18 18
III 5 "External problems", related to the basic frameworks of civil society 14 12 11 12
III 6 Facilitating a dialogue with other sectors of a society 8 9 6 8
total: 100% 100% 100% 100%

Notes:

  1. The whole "problem field" is taken here as one unit (100%) and then split into six macro-groups. These groups represent shares of cumulative (collective) attention paid to particular "elementary components" (units).
  2. Column "0" indicates three main clusters of systemic demands of NGO community in three countries, column "1" refers to the average rank of the macro problem, column "2" contains a brief description of the macro-problem and columns "3" and "4" reflect the relative weight of each macro problem for each republic and its average value.
  3. Cluster #3 constitutes a supra-unit that embraces macro-problems 5 and 6 (statistically, each of them constitutes a separate cluster); this group reflects a systemic demand for cultivation of propitious/favorable/friendly social infrastructure/environment/surroundings for environmental NGOs.

The system-demand oriented reconstruction of the environmental NGOs problem field is finally shaped as a system of three main clusters as presented in the table below. Consideration of the relative weight of the six identified macro-problems allows us to group them into three main clusters. Where the demand for material and financial support constitutes the first cluster (cumulative relative weight is 24%), strategic priorities in development of environmental social networks defines a second cluster (sum relative weight 56%) and a third cluster comprises the issues related to securing sustainability of this sector of society (cumulative weight 20%).

Thus, there is no doubt that NGO leaders consider material and financial problems a very important issue. It appears, however, that this demand is immediately followed by three other serious concerns: promotion of "green networks", fostering access to "information and communication infrastructures" and NGOs' capacity building. The respondents are first and foremost concerned about the effectiveness of the work of their NGOs and they do care about the social existence of the organizations. We can presume that most of the NGO leaders are active in searching for any assistance for implementation of ready-to-be-implemented plans.

Finally, long-term, prospective work and cooperation needed to address the three major systemic demands of environmental NGO communities could be presented in the following clusters:

This is a leading demand, but not the single and the only one. It represents only a quarter of the problem field.

The second cluster relates to strategic priorities in development of environmental social networks (each of the three items in this cluster has almost equal relative weight of approximately one fifth of the whole "space of concerns"):

The third group of strategic needs of environmental NGOs is seen as related to securing the sustainability of this sector through the creation of a favorable social environment:

The next sub-chapter will discuss the NGOs' demands for particular types of support that could be rendered by a REC-like service organization.

REC * PUBLICATIONS * NEW REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CENTERS * NEEDS OF NGO COMMUNITIES

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