News
16 April 2008 - DEA letter in Third Sector Magazine
ACEVO (Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations) recently criticised DFID's Development Awareness Fund (DAF), saying that it "stipulated that organisations which speak out against government organs, or even companies, institutions or individuals will not be eligible for funding". This was a misrepresentation and also showed a lack of understanding of what the fund is for. DEA responded with a letter, a shortened version of which was published in Third Sector magazine on 2nd April 2008. The full letter is reproduced below.
As a member of ACEVO (Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations) I was surprised to see the fierce criticism by that organisation of DFID's Development Awareness Fund (DAF) (DFID fund "curbs campaigning" - Third Sector online 18th March 2008). ACEVO also claimed in their newsletter to members that "DFID are attempting to gag the third sector by ruling out funding for organisations which engage in direct or indirect lobbying of the Government".
Mr Bubb is firstly incorrect in stating that organisations which engage in lobbying are ruled out from applying to the Development Awareness Fund (DAF). The DAF guidelines prohibit funding for projects that are directed at lobbying government - organisations are free to lobby government using their other funding streams. Moreover, DEA and others in our sector support the DAF guidelines as an example of good practice, not bad practice. The fund supports projects that promote education in its widest sense, as opposed to projects that campaign to further the specific objectives of any particular NGO. As a lead organisation in the development education sector we are pleased to see protected funding for projects that seek to give people the time, space and resources to understand development issues for themselves, and to come to their own conclusions.
Through its Programme Partnership Agreements and other similar arrangements, DFID gives out around £90million in core funding to a variety of campaigning organisations, including ActionAid, Oxfam, Save the Children and DEA. These agreements do not prevent organisations from lobbying government, and in fact we have found DFID to be good in responding to NGOs that 'bite the hand that feeds them'. The £4million or so ring-fenced for the DAF is a relatively small sum of money in comparison.
There may well be many instances of poor government practice restricting the voluntary sector's campaigning and lobbying work. The DAF is however not one of them, and it is unhelpful to the many organisations that work with DFID for an organisation that purports to speak on our behalf to suggest that it is.
Hetan Shah
CEO