Local civil society orgs facing funding and staffing issues: report

The local civil society organisations (CSOs), which were pivotal in ousting the Rajapaksa regime, are facing constraints on both funding and staffing compared to their international counterparts operating in Sri Lanka, the Civil Society Organisation Sustainability Index for 2015 revealed.
“Local sources of funding remain limited. Sri Lankan CSOs do not attempt to cultivate a loyal core of local financial supporters, due to the time and financial commitment needed to implement local fundraising strategies,” the report, for which Colombo-based Verite Research was the local partner, said.

The local CSOs had not cultivated diverse funding methods, including foreign assistance, since the military had enforced and regulated the CSOs during the Rajapaksa presidency.
The report noted that since then, some large corporations have funded CSOs as part of their corporate social responsibility plans, after President Maithripala Sirisena publicly supported the CSOs and liberalized them from military oversight.
The CSOs played key roles in the removals of Chief Justice Mohan Peiris and Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, who had been marred in controversy.
The report said that advocacy-oriented CSO groups have seen an increase in funding, especially from international donors.
However, CSO activities in causes such as female empowerment and domestic abuse have scaled down recently due to lack of funding.
“Donor funding to service-providing CSOs continued to decrease in 2015, mainly due to Sri Lanka’s transition to lower middle-income status in 2010 after the civil war ended,” the report further elaborated.
It noted that due to lack of long-term funding, experienced staff members leave local CSOs to join international CSOs and donor agencies, leaving the local CSOs with volunteers and part-timers without much technical knowledge.
The report further added that issues arise within CSOs due to the lack of a proper organisational structure and the tendency for CSOs to follow the personality of their founders.