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NGOs: A critical assessment

NGOs: A critical assessment. Overview. 1. What is an NGO? 2. Historical overview of NGOs 3. The use & abuse of NGOs 4. Can NGOs make a difference?. Aims of the session. 1. Provide some context for reflecting upon the role of your NGO & your role within it

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NGOs: A critical assessment

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  1. NGOs: A critical assessment

  2. Overview 1. What is an NGO? 2. Historical overview of NGOs 3. The use & abuse of NGOs 4. Can NGOs make a difference?

  3. Aims of the session 1. Provide some context for reflecting upon the role of your NGO & your role within it 2. Place NGOs in historical context 3. To recognise the controversial nature of NGO’s

  4. Historical Context • The end of the Cold War resulted in: • Promotion of ‘democratisation’ in Central & Eastern Europe (CES) & the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) • A growth in funding towards NGO’s working on: • ‘good governance’voter education • specialist training • parliamentary reform, party formation • human rights advocacy

  5. What is an NGO? “…non-political, non-partisan, non-ideological, non-academic, non-theoretical, non-profit association of well-intentioned individuals dedicated to changing the world to make it a better place for the poor…marginalised and downcast” (Shivji:2007:1) 

  6. The Use of NGOs? “NGOs are only NGOs in any politically meaningful sense of the term if they are offering alternatives to dominant models, practices and ideas about development” (Bebbington et al, 2008:3)

  7. The Abuse of NGOs? “…many of the key NGOs…are themselves organized like traditional hierarchies. They are run by charismatic leaders and executive boards, while their members send them money and cheer from the side-lines” (Klein, 2002:26)

  8. Bibliography/Further Reading Bebbington, A. et al (ed) (2008) Can NGOs’s make a difference? : The Challenge of Development Alternatives, London: Zed Books. Shivji, I. (2007) Silences in NGO Discourse, Fahamu: Oxford.

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