Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become ubiquitous in the development sector in Africa and attracting more academic attention. However, the fact that NGOs are an integral part of the everyday lives of men and women on the continent has been overlooked thus far. In Africa, NGOs are not remote, but familiar players, situated in the midst of cities and communities. By taking a radical empirical stance, this book studies NGOs as a vital part of the lifeworlds of Africans. Its contributions are immersed in the pasts, presents and futures of personal encounters, memories, decision-making and politics.
Why haven't development programs sponsored by local NGOs been more effective in Africa? In this careful study of NGOs in three African countries -- Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Senegal -- Sarah Michael exposes reasons why successful, well-run, and powerful development programs are infrequent in Africa. Michael's argument focuses on issues of power. NGOs in Africa do not command the financial resources, employ the professional staff, or have the same access to donors that NGOs in other parts of the world enjoy. Main topics covered in this probing book include: What does a powerful NGO look like? How does power affect sustainable development? What circumstances prevent local NGOs in Africa from wielding power? How can African NGOs remedy their absence of power? What relationship with donors and international NGOs should be cultivated? This book will interest readers concerned with issues pertaining to the organization, mission, and implementation of development NGOs in Africa and beyond.
One of the most articulate critics of the destructive effects of neoliberal policies in Africa, and in particular of the ways in which they have eroded the gains of independence, Issa Shivji shows in two extensive essays in this book that the role of NGOs in Africa cannot be understood without placing them in their political and historical context. As structural adjustment programs were imposed across Africa in the 1980s and 1990s, the international financial institutions and development agencies began giving money to NGOs for programs to minimize the more glaring inequalities perpetuated by their policies. As a result, NGOs have flourished--and played an unwitting role in consolidating the neoliberal hegemony in Africa. Shivji argues that if social policy is to be determined by citizens rather than the donors, African NGOs must become catalysts for change rather than the catechists of aid that they are today.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place examines Africa's NGO boom of the late 1990s. In spite of the high expectations placed on African NGOs during this period, these organizations remain poorly understood. Today, Africa's NGO boom has been followed by a bust--as the fickle development industry moves its money to other types of institutions. In spite of this funding bust, the explosion of NGOs in Africa during the 1990s transformed African societies and economies in fundamental ways. In the wake of Africa's NGO boom, it is imperative that these transformations be understood and placed in historical context. Such an understanding will help us to learn from the mistakes of this brief historical period--as well as to build on its opportunities. The case studies presented in the body of this work provide the missing details of this historical moment. Through these case studies, this book examines two questions that are fundamental to development and governance in Africa--and around the world: The nature of the relationship of NGOs to Civil Society; and The effectiveness of NGOs at promoting economic development with equity. The book begins with a comprehensive introduction, which outlines the theoretical debates surrounding Africa's NGO boom--and the question of civil society in Africa. This section is followed by detailed ethnographic accounts of the NGO boom from Zimbabwe to Mali and the types of social tranformations these organizations were part. Most importantly, these accounts reveal the ways in which African elites and community organizers have worked to position themselves within the global networks of development and governance institutions, and the impacts of their strategies on life in African communities. They reveal the ways in which African NGOs have had to negotiate the different and often contradictory demands on their own constituencies, donors, and African states--the ways in which they have succeeded and the ways in which they have come unglued. "Igoe and Kelsall provide useful suggestions on how to understand historical and cultural contexts of NGOs." -- Development and Change "The volume consists of eleven chapters, which provide rich ethnographic studies covering the entire continent... [T]he chapters interact and engage with one another, creating an excellent collection of essays that together provides a rich, multilayered, and thought provoking introduction to the dramatic growth of NGOs in Africa since 1990." -- The International Journal of African Historical Studies
The last three decades have witnessed a proliferation of nongovernmental organizations engaging in new campaigns to end the practice of female genital cutting across Africa. These campaigns have in turn spurred new institutions, discourses, and political projects, bringing about unexpected social transformations, both intended and unintended. Consequently, cutting is waning across the continent. At the same time, these endings are misrecognized and disavowed by public and scholarly discourses across the political spectrum. What does it mean to say that while cutting is ending, the Western discourse surrounding it is on the rise? And what kind of a feminist anthropology is needed in such a moment? The Twilight of Cutting examines these and other questions from the vantage point of Ghanaian feminist and reproductive health NGOs that have organized campaigns against cutting for over thirty years. The book looks at these NGOs not as solutions but as sites of “problematization.” The purpose of understanding these Ghanaian campaigns, their transnational and regional encounters, and the forms of governmentality they produce is not to charge them with providing answers to the question, how do we end cutting? Instead, it is to account for their work, their historicity, the life worlds and subjectivities they engender, and the modes of reflection, imminent critique, and opposition they set in motion.
Governments throughout the developing world have witnessed a proliferation of non-governmental, non-profit organizations (NGOs) providing services like education, healthcare and piped drinking water in their territory. In Allies or Adversaries, Jennifer N. Brass explains how these NGOs have changed the nature of service provision, governance, and state development in the early twenty-first century. Analyzing original surveys alongside interviews with public officials, NGOs and citizens, Brass traces street-level government-NGO and state-society relations in rural, town and city settings of Kenya. She examines several case studies of NGOs within Africa in order to demonstrate how the boundary between purely state and non-state actors blurs, resulting in a very slow turn toward more accountable and democratic public service administration. Ideal for scholars, international development practitioners, and students interested in global or international affairs, this detailed analysis provides rich data about NGO-government and citizen-state interactions in an accessible and original manner.
The longevity and productivity of every NGO hinges on its capacity to effectively mobilize resources for its cause. Based on extensive research and years of professional practice, this book examines critically the issues and challenges of existing practices for fundraising by NGOs in the developing world and the pitfalls involved in towing the traditional model without taking into cognizance the changing trends in NGO funding.By using credible successful examples, the book tasks NGO leaderships on the exigency of adopting a new hybrid model of resource mobilization that innovatively blends the best of the old traditional methods with emerging practices as well as emphasizing the role of social enterprising as a means of generating resources. The book also highlights the importance of creating and maintaining productive relationships between donors and NGO leaderships.Finally, the book also shares insights on how NGOs can guard against stagnation and subsequent demise by avoiding organizational hazards common to NGOs in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
