A week ago there was an article in The Guardian on food shortages in Karamoja North Eastern Uganda, I had just written about it over at Ethnic Supplies blog following the BBC report on the same issue.
What caught my eye is the response down the line by someone whose handle/user name is Java1930- he concludes by posing the question in whose interests do the NGO’s and AID agencies work?. 
Karamoja like most parts of the developing world have Aid agencies and NGO’s for as long as some of us can remember and this is a very important question for us as Africans to ask or at the very least seek to address.
And before I continue I ought to pose another question-
Are African owned/led NGOs any better than foreign ones?
If so why and if not why not?
My beef with with NGO’s and Aid agencies for that matter is two fold
- the foreign NGOs/AID agencies come with their own agendas and whether or not this fits priorities on the ground it never seems to matter
- the recipients almost always never get a chance to influence the said agenda
All that said and done I would actually be OK with an NGO that came out and said you know what we are a business and we are in this for the money like any other business! Am I nuts perhaps, you decide
Does the problem lie with the Citizens of the developing countries? Why I hear you ask?
How much responsibility do we or at least our leaders abdicate to NGO’s?
Remember Na’s post of the Village that Aid forgot?
I am going to keep this very short so we can have a discussion.
What are your views about this all?
Do you work for a NGO , head one or founded one? Whose interests do you serve?
Over to you folk
An important, important discussion. Let me respond to one of the questions posed: Are African owned/led NGOs any better than foreign ones?
As someone who has worked with over 300 grassroots organizations in southern and east Africa over the past decade, I firmly believe that international aid must do a better job at supporting local leaders and organizations that are grown from the inside and fueled by the dedication and vision of the very people they serve. Why should we invest in grassroots groups in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world?
1) Local indigenous organizations are key to the elusive “scale-up.”
2) Local indigenous organizations have capacities that larger aid agencies just don’t have–most importantly, rootedness.
3) Local indigenous organizations have vital expertise about how poor people cope day-to-day.
4) Local indigenous organizations are better positioned to make communities more resilient and adaptive.
5) Local indigenous organizations fill existing gaps in the government and international aid sectors.
Rather than being the lowest common denominator of international development assistance, it’s time to recognize local indigenous organizations as vital to supporting genuine, demand-driven development that can genuinely challenge power asymmetries and unleash social change.
Some international NGOs working out of a rights-based approach have begun to recognise the importance of supporting local organisations and social movements to be sovereign. But despite the speak of “rights” we continue to witness Southern organisations or “partners” being assessed and rebuilt into more professional organisations that lose their character and represent only the interests of the community that align with funding or Northern NGO guidelines, which ultimately lead us all to ask – whose interests are really being served?
So let’s also discuss how we can hold donors and governments accountable to what proportion of aid funding directly reaches communities and families and ensure a smooth flow of funds to support effective, indigenous, community-level initiatives.
You can read more at: http://www.how-matters.org/2010/11/08/missing-from-diy-aid-debate/
Welcome to the discussion! You have raised some interesting points regarding local capacity. What annoys me is that this is actually common sense, but it is completely disregarded in favor of a paternalistic view- “those people cannot manage without us” and what is equally infuriating is that the leaders in recipient countries accept this and not only this abdicate their responsibility for service provision to NGOs/Charities
Indeed! Another important question to consider: Is there an obligation in the developing world to accept aid on whatever terms it is given? If so, why and how can this be reversed?
A key word is “indigenous” and I fully agree with Ida’s comment about the paternalistic attitude of many NGOs. I regularly have rants about how aid is being turned into business, and here’s all but an official policy declaration of this from the US: http://www.globalpolicy.org/home/213-financing-for-development/49801-businesses-look-for-profit-in-us-development-aid.html
In the meantime, on the indigenous theme, I thought this recent post (please read it in its entirity) was worth sharing: http://www.dougfine.com/2011/02/06/indigenous-with-attitude-activating-the-civilization-longevity-gene/
Welcome to the Discussion Chris- If only they would say it is business, I think most folk would understand that , as the situation stands at the moment there is a lot of confusion about which is which
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like this one http://www.birdsontheblog.co.uk/world-vision-usa-and-those-100000-tshirts/
My experience has been that African led NGO’s look and behave rather suspiciously like foreign led Northern ones, what I am not sure about is whether this is because most are Northern funded (he who pays the piper calls the tune) or because we do not know how to ‘do development’ I run a new (completely unfunded) African NGO and I find that in most conferences I attend I am diametrically opposed to both the northern NGO’s and southern north-funded ones!
I wonder whether the clue is in asking the question what is development? Is it lots of 20 storey tower blocks and shiny new roads or is it away to addressing issues that challenge communities? If it is the latter I would want to think that the community is at the center of such an initiative and as such it should not matter where the NGO comes from
The issue is “charity”. People doing things for people they feel superior to. (and in most cases they do not even recognize that they feel this way.) Check out L.E.A.D Uganda. http://www.leaduganda.org It is a true partnership. Ugandans run it but more importantly we are educating leaders — giving skills, not things to people so they can run their country. We put them in the very top schools, give lots of support, and create a family, a clan. This is a new approach. We have more kids in top schools than any other NGO. One of our students was just elected Head Boy of Budo Jr,, the elite school — the first time in the history of Uganda a poor orphan from a village got this honor. That is how you make social change. Our kids are awesome.
I urge you to not just ciriticize but to act. Join with us. Will you put your money where your mouth is? Check out the site: http://www.leaduganda.org
Welcome to the discussion Stephen- I was about to applaud you for your work until I read your last point. I don’t just critize as you put but actually work to bring about change through http://www.ethnicsupplies.co.uk/ and http://www.lethemhelpthemselves.org/.
This post was not about critizing anyone but instead asking the questions that need to be asked to generate conversation.
As Africans we see well meaning folk turning up on our continent- countries and villages but we are never given a say in what goes on. Platforms like this give us the opportunity to have our say on issues that affect us