The Flaws of Non-Governmental Organizations in Developing Countries

Over the recent years the military has had a greater involvement with aid programs, this was most notable from her experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. Militarization of aid politicizes it for something that shouldn't be political. As the author believes humanitarian aid needs to exist in a neutral humanitarian space in order to remain its legitimacy and maintain close ties to the community level. From one example mentioned in Damned Nations, during the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, international aid agencies that worked closely with communities showed greater progress and effectiveness (Nutt, 92). In essence this administered a positive attitude towards westerners, and symbolized progress within hostile nations. Aid that is not militarized allows civilians to feel safe access to services and without the fear in putting themselves or their families at risk (Nutt, 92). In comparison military administered aid has proven to lack the same level of trust because civilians inherently become worried about being targeted as collaborators (Nutt, 92). In addition the militarization of aid proves to bring further danger towards humanitarian workers. “Over the past decade, attacks against aid workers have increased 177 percent, with reports of rape, violence, extortion, abduction, and killings” (Nutt, 94). The author states this was reflected from a misjudgment that involving armed militants into

Since the turn of the century, the world has experienced various events that have rendered millions homeless, starving or even without a country. Such events may range from merciless persecution by a ruthless dictator to a furious tsunami that leaves destruction in its wake. In such incidents, it is human nature to help those affected rebuild their lives and find comfort again. As a result, governments spend billions on foreign aid projects aimed at helping populations rebuild themselves after a tragic event. Despite the funding and resources spent on these projects, their success rate is dismal. Coyne’s book explains the flaws of state-led humanitarianism. Using case studies that range from Afghanistan to Haiti, Coyne successfully argues against state aid proving that continuing with that approach is likely to remain unsuccessful. He further demonstrates that state aid fails to fulfill its mandate because the parties involved are either too arrogant or ignorant to acknowledge fundamental flaws of state-led aid. He says that the influence of agenda driven opinions of blurs the objectives of financial assistance from the beginning. Since governments focus on what they should, rather than what they can do, the goals of the most aid-funded projects in affected nations remain unrealized.

Bond is the network for over 290 UK-based non-governmental organizations working in the international development and development education. The organization stresses the barriers to organizational learning as due to bias for action, failure to hold discussions, and lack of commitment. On the other hand, organizations may fail to grow due to political issues and these are most common in the United States. The writer then gives the solutions to these barriers, which among them are; changing the ways of thinking, transfer of

The non-profit sector in the United States is the fifth largest in the world. It is important to look at not just who gives this money, but also who, and what, purpose does it serve with such organization. YMCA, is dedicated to serve humanity at the best ways possible, it has established centers, and office, in the united states and throughout the world. In 1844, George Williams launched the YMCA movement in London as a volunteer, and his example persists in the expansion of the Y across the globe. In the United States, early YMCA programs were run almost entirely by volunteers. (YMCA 2017)

In fact, Oxfam’s motto is “The power of people against poverty” (Oxfam). Oxfam fights poverty by helping provide people with emergency food, clean water, sanitation, tools, medical supplies and teaches them valuable skills. One of Oxfam’s latest humanitarian missions against poverty focuses on West Africa, where “the largest humanitarian crisis since the end of the second world war” is taking place (Stephen O’Brien, UN, March 2017). Due to the increasing amount of violence, droughts, global warming and increasing gap between the rich and the poor, many people in areas of West Africa are unable to eat! Danielle Lustig, Operational Lead for the crisis, states “Unable to grow or buy food, or get to humanitarian aid, millions are going hungry. We think that if the situation continues to deteriorate we will see places where people have absolutely nothing to eat.” Oxfam’s mission in West Africa proves it continues to combat poverty even to this day. However, the end of poverty is only one of Oxfam’s many

They argue that, many thinkers within the NGO world were mostly concerned with how these organizations would “adapt to the end of the funding boom and correct its adverse effects” yet the one major issue about the scope for introducing collective self-regulation of the organizational structure and procedures had largely been ignored. Hence corporate governance for NGOs attempt to describe how this scope could help solve some problems faced by NGOs in poor countries. The article was written in the late 1998 so perhaps some of these problems have since been addressed.

Importantly, my project raises questions about how to better understand the relationship of donors and recipients to reduce the disconnection between projects that donors support and actual needs of recipients. The disconnection of donors and recipients caused damage to Congo, and the disconnection is a issues that effects how effective international aid is to a country. Importantly, further research needs to be conducted to gauge the impact of community-based projects, over the issue-based project to understand if one is a more effective use of aid. The aid process needs to involve native intellectuals, community leads, and other the communities to better accesses issues that affect the recipients of aid. Ultimately, there needs to be further research on the consequences, intended and unintended, for over reporting on a single issue of a conflict, because the simplification of a conflict into a single issue can cause damage by those with the intention to

What happens when projects and interventions undertaken by international NGOs go wrong? Although my scholarly source understands most of these organizations do not seek to do harm, nonetheless harm occurs. This article by global development believes with a few legal and regulatory frameworks setting out how communities can hold NGOs to account, and with even less support fro communities to engage in such a process, there is a significant accountability deficit at the heart of international NGOs. Here we talk about accountability in regards to how NGOs answer to donors or to the national governments of countries in which they are operating. NGOs should account for the money they spend as contracted agents of donors. And they should, of course, be working within the parameters of national regulatory frameworks and laws (although the fact that NGOs themselves often sit on the committees that draw up such regulatory systems is troubling). When development interventions go wrong, or do not work the way they were intended, it is often no one's fault, due rather to events beyond any individual or organization's control. But people's lives are affected, sometimes (as when cholera sweeps through a refugee camp) with the most tragic of consequences (Global Development). Systems for recognizing the "rights" of beneficiaries and the obligations of agencies do exist. The Sphere Project, for example, sets out in great detail the minimum standards to be expected in, say, a refugee camp. But there are few legal frameworks capable of holding NGOs to account, or setting out in detail exactly when, where and how communities might be able to hold an organization accountable for an intervention that has gone disastrously wrong (Global Development). Unless NGOs and humanitarian agencies can be legally challenged and held to account, such principles and minimum standards do not do enough to establish real

There are tons of non-profit organizations that have made tremendous changes in our world but are these organizations providing the essentials people need? The Human Rights Watch Organization is a coordination that was made to make the international world a more efficient place it was created by Helsinki Watch to help defend and protect human rights as well as give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. According to their website (hrw.org) this organization has helped strengthened the rights of children, women, refugees and migrant workers as well as bring up topics such as domestic violence, rape, war crime and many more to help people know more about what rights they attain. It is wise to contribute time or money to this nonprofit organization because as a human being that loves freedom and equality this organization provides the essentials needed to help people attain their rights internationally and it’s great that it was developed by people who voluntarily signed up to help achieve change for

It often demeans the voice of people such as the Sierra Leonean- but as such, there is always a lack of care for the impoverished as long as the upper class get what they want. “There is no lack of buyers for their goods...there was little concern about where they originated, or the amount of suffering the sellers had inflicted on innocent people,” (xxii). People are being forced to evacuate their homes for the diamond trade. Civilians are being amputated, mutilated against their will by rebels, to prove their domination over a potentially peaceful country. Those living in the northern hemisphere, in first World nations, would rather share information about celebrities, rather than the lives of those in need, which feeds the notion of the rebels who believe that they can do anything. Sierra Leone’s civilians have a shot at fighting those who have overthrown them, to have an ally who has more power; it’s only that the privileged ideals have turned to something

The Global Fund maintains a strong human rights agenda specifically targeted a vulnerable populations especially women and girls. This carry over from the ‘white man’s burden’, now consciously adjusted to the modern world, certainly carries great benefits. Further, the initial colonial perception of international health being linked to global stability is still largely valid. Although no longer a serious military concern, international health and international economic-political stability remain thoroughly linked. The current and future success of institutions like the Global Fund lies in the lessons of mass organization and globalization lessons of their colonial predecessors, while rejecting imperialist philosophies to embrace novel understanding and

Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid: Why Aid Makes Things Worse and How There Is Another Way for Africa, London: Penguin Books, 2010

NGOs exist independent of the governments in which they are formed and these organizations can operate in several states, or globally, depending on their mission. NGOs are endowed with a soft power. Soft power is essentially the ability to obtain their objectives by attraction instead of compulsion. Hard power is naturally not in their arsenal, but with enough funds and very little oversight, NGO activity can be a liability to any state that doesn’t conform to the ideals that NGOs subscribe to. In the case of the Arab-Israeli conflict, NGOs comprised of powerful citizens and officials are able to manipulate governmental applications of law creating negative outcomes for states like Israel who may or may not actually be acting outside of international law.

The reason that I chose this program for continuing my education is to work with NGOs and foundations that concentrate on empowering girls and women, or founding NGOs in this related field by myself in the near future.

Many NGOs are associated with the use of international staff working in 'developing' countries, but there are many NGOs in both North and South who rely on local employees or volunteers.