The Government’s Role to Promote Social Organizations

One major obstruction to social work in Thailand, especially when run by small, nascent and little known social welfare organizations, is their lack of access to funding, whether individually or organizationally sourced. This inaccessibility is partly caused by current regulations. For example, only foundations on the Ministry of Finance list are eligible for tax deductions; and only NGOs in operation for a minimum one year period are eligible for subsidization according to the Social Welfare Provision Act (BE 2546). Under such restrictive legislation, many social welfare organizations cannot access government support, and as a result, due to lagging efficiency and effectiveness, they shut down.

The government can play a role to promote new social welfare organizations by focusing on improvements to the knowledge and technical capacity of social work operatives. To accomplish this goal, the government may provide emerging social welfare groups with training courses aimed to enhance their potential for social work given limited resource restraints and dynamic social contexts. The contents of such training courses may include legal knowledge, policy formulation, fund sourcing, and knowledge on how to write project proposals and run them professionally.

Any social welfare organization or NGO that has finished its training courses but is not yet registered as a legal body, should be a government acknowledged organization and eligible for subsidization, though its level of subsidization will differ from that of a legitimized organization. Subsidization for new social welfare organizations should depend on how they perform, and also on their project appraisals. Moreover, they should undergo systemized training and occasionally be inspected by government agencies. This “surveillance” system would increase transparency and be beneficial to social welfare organizations whenever funds must be sought.

Since the government sector plays a major role in mobilizing social work in Thailand, the success of Thai social work will depend significantly on whether the government acts to support or hinder the nation’s struggling social welfare organizations.

Dr Kriengsak Chareonwongsak
Senior Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School , Harvard University
kriengsak@kriengsak.com, kriengsak.com, drdancando.com