Exploring the Roles, Challenges and Prospects of NGOs in Promoting Community‟s Social Development: The Case of Meki Catholic Secretariat (MCS).

Abstract

In Ethiopia there are number of NGOs who have been involved in community’s social development at national, regional and grassroots level. In developing countries like Ethiopia, where there are various natural and human made social problems, NGOs play a crucial role in terms of promoting social development, reducing poverty and improving the life standard of the community. One of these non-governmental organizations, the Ethiopian Catholic Church -Social and Development Coordinating Branch Office of Meki (ECC-SDCBOM) has played and playing an important role in supporting and encouraging the development aspirations of local communities in the areas of Education, Healthcare services, Agricultural sustainability, Food Security, Relief Services and Water Sanitation and Hygiene(WASH) (ECC-SDCBOM data record and archive, 2022).The study focused on the roles, challenges and opportunities of Ethiopian Catholic Church - Social and Development Coordinating Branch Office of Meki (ECC-SDCBOM) community development program. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of research have been applied throughout the investigation. Accordingly, Questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and non participant observation were used to gather information. The study also has employed descriptive research analysis with SPSS software. The findings indicate that the Ethiopian Catholic Church - Social and Development Coordinating Branch Office of Meki (ECC-SDCBOM) has played a significant role in terms of community development. However, the study indicated that the organization is facing different challenges like shortage of fund which results from absence of donors, inflation and economic instability of the country. In addition MCS is facing various challenges such as unavailability of supplies in local market, shortage of professional training, absence of professional up-grading sponsorship from government for workers of the NG and poor relationship between the organization and the government officials. Finally, this study recommends that the organization should exhaustively work on motivating donors and voluntary organizations in order to raise fund. Also, the organization should build its capacity to foster the imbalance of its capacity and the increasing of the need of the community by increasing its developmental projects, infrastructures and facilities. The genuine community participation should be maintained because it is the core activity contributing to institutional capacity building and an essential ingredient for self-reliance and projects sustainability. The study also recommends that the organization should strengthen the relationship with the government to solve problems like economic instability, inflation, unavailability of educational, health, water and agricultural supplies and issues of professional up-grading training.