monitoring and evaluation and risk management.    The key points were:
 Sue’s work focuses on research into NGOs and their contribution to society and the third sector (community organisation) role in civil society.
 Sue talked about the notion of a ‘civil society’.  It is a concept that questions the validity of the nation-state as being the construct that determines how society works, and says that in the face of globalisation it is, in fact, multi-national corporations and international agencies who determine this.  Sue says that NGOs are in the ascendancy in the civil society, and are the leading steering mechanism of society as they provide many of the social services.
 Key issues for the third sector were:
- uncertainty
- changing models of practice
- risk management
 Society is preoccupied with risk and trying to control it so we can manage the future.
 Monitoring and evaluation reduces tasks to technical procedures and usually involves external expertise.  Sue referred to auditing as a ‘shallow ritual of verification.’
 The current climate of monitoring has a panoptican effect – whereby we self-regulate what we do because we think we will be audited or monitored, and tend not to risk take or innovate to achieve results.
 The current ‘market approach’ to running NGOs has resulted in a dichotomy.  Managers are supposed to be ‘can-do’, entrepreneurial risk-takers but also able to respond to risk and regulation. 
 There is a climate of ‘manufactured uncertainty’ and a never ending cycle of risks to regulate and respond to.
 Funders and government departments need to recognise that there are many ways of doing things, rather than offering absolutes.
 Accountability is essential but auditing does not achieve satisfactory outcomes.

All the presentations at the Forum can be downloaded from the Ministry of Health website at: www.moh.govt.nz/ngo

Newsletter Monthly Newsletter Membership Members receive regular mailouts and newsletters covering specific issues and seeking member comment, notifying any significant Goverment policy changes. Annual Conference The 3rd Annual Conference of Workability International 12th – 15th October 2004 – Christchurch Convention Centre, Christchurch, New Zealand

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