Saudi Arabia has a growing NGO sector, which benefits from government support and encouragement as it seen as an important partner in local social development. The sector is primarily made up of charitable societies whose aim is to provide social and humanitarian services within the Kingdom, including working with marginalised groups.
Charitable societies must be officially registered in order to operate formally. Registration is granted in accordance with regulation governing societies or charities, passed under a decision taken by the Cabinet No. 107 dated 25/6/1410H.
A new draft law for NGOs was issued in 2008. The most important articles from this draft law were published in Al Watan Newspaper, available here in Arabic and English. The law aims not only to set new rules for the regulation of all Saudi NGOs, regardless of orientation (thematic, domestic/ international) and including foundations, but also establishes a new independent regulator, called the National Commission for Charitable Societies and Associations.
The primary regulator for charitable societies operating domestically is the Ministry of Social Affairs. Other ministries play a nominal regulatory role in the oversight of the rest of the NGO sector along thematic lines, for example, the Ministry of Education supervises education related projects.
Those organisations which operate internationally are supervised by a high level committee, which includes representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Social Affairs, Finance, Justice, Interior and SAMA. This committee was formed following the September 11 2001 attacks in America, which provoked accusations that a number of Saudi charities working internationally were supporting terrorism overseas.
In recent years, the Ministry of Interior has had a co-ordinating role in relation to official international disaster appeals, which is currently the mechanism through which the majority of overseas aid from Saudi Arabia is distributed.
Societies and charities are required to provide the Ministry of Social Affairs with an annual report of their activities, minutes of their Board meetings, and annual general assemblies, their annual accounts as well as an estimated budget for next year.
In addition charities’ accounts are reviewed by approved accountants instructed by the Ministry of Social Affairs. A representative from the Ministry’s approved accountancy firm also visits each registered organisation during the year and submits a report after the visit.
The Ministry of Social Affairs plays a “hands on” role in providing both financial support (in the form of cash grants and in-kind assistance) and training courses for the sector.
There are approximately 470 charitable societies operating domestically within Saudi Arabia who work under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Affairs. In addition there are approximately 40 foundations set up by Royal Decree, which are also under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Most of charitable societies and foundations provide a range of fairly traditional welfare services for people in need including orphans, divorced women, people with disabilties and poor families. The general rule is that each organisation should limit its scope of operation to one of the Kingdom’s thirteen provinces. The exception to this rule is in times of national emergency such as floods when working across provincial boundaries is permitted.
We are not aware any independent sector umbrella bodies in Saudi Arabia.
NGO Laws in Selected Arab States, Kareem Elbayar, The International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law, Volume 7, Issue 4, September 2005
The Charity Commission’s International Programme has been working closely with the Saudi authorities in the field of charity regulation for the past four years, recently helping to build the in-house training capacity of the Ministry of Social Affairs in partnership with INTRAC (International NGO Training and Research Centre).
For more information about our work in Saudi Arabia, please contact Robin MacGregor at robin.macgregor@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk