On 11 November, Central Government and NGOs will come together in Wellington for a forum on a proposed relationship agreement between the community and voluntary sector and government.

This is not the first attempt to build stronger and healthier relationships between the government and the sector, which provides services in health, sport and recreation, social service, education, culture, emergency response and conservation.

Under the previous Labour-led government, there was the appointment of a Minister with specific responsibility for the sector (1999), creation of the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector (2003), and the Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community-Government Relationship (SOGI) in 2001, were moves towards a closer relationship.

The Statement reflected the aspirations of the Labour-led government at the time and was a response to widespread dissatisfaction among NGOs. The Statement was to give the community sector a clear signal that these new Ministers understood the need to significantly change the approach embedded from the late 1980s and which was not achieving the kind of outcomes needed at a community level.

Such a forceful Statement had the potential to give the leaders of government agencies, and other public bodies involved in relationships with the community sector, a clear focus and direction for leading this change. But the practical implementation of the SOGI framework has been largely true to its name - soggy.

While a number of government agencies established some mechanisms for building and developing relationships with non-profit organisations in their respective sectors, the nature of these relationships has varied greatly, impacting on the quality of delivery and value for taxpayer money.

The November forum will provide an opportunity for the sector, government officials, the Prime Minister and more than a dozen Ministers to discuss how the relationship needs to change – and what should replace SOGI.

The Sector is big business in New Zealand. Given our nation’s size, New Zealand has the seventh largest non-profit sector workforce in the world, with an unusually high share (67 percent) of the workforce provided by volunteers.  The sector contributes NZ$7.0 billion, or 4.9 percent of GDP and government funding is just part of the picture. Direct government support contributes some 25 percent of the income of the sector. Fees from the community contribute 55 percent, and philanthropy some 20 percent.

A recent review of the SOGI by the Association of Non-Government Organisations of Aotearoa called for the Government to note the value of government-sector statement, to formalise the way it is implemented by government agencies, and to regularly evaluate progress in government’s responsiveness.

The forum picks up on these recommendations and will seek to get some sort of process going from which a recommendation for an agreement can be taken to Cabinet later next year.  It will take high level ownership from both sides to make this agreement work where the other agreement failed.

For some involved in the Sector, it is also hoped that refocussing the relationship will give some airspace to some of the innovations that are quietly taking place.  Inspiring Communities, a network of community-led development projects, is a good example of new models attacking old problems. Their approach recognises that traditional approaches don’t always deliver the desired outcome, especially as the intensity and complexity of social problems has grown.

What is clear is that the status quo cannot be an option if the Government is serious about value for money. Done well, an agreement will have significant benefits for all New Zealand.  Put simply, more resources will be able to go on the actual ‘doing’. That should be reason enough for the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who participate in non-profit organisations or receive their services to take an interest.