A DISCUSSION ON HOW TO IMPROVE NGO EFFECTIVENESS AND EMPHASIZE ITS CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS GOOD GOVERNANCE (original) (raw)

The international aid system’s approach to build a world free of poverty and achieve sustainable development has evolved over the last four decades in response to the deepening appreciation of extremely complex and multi-dimensional nature of poverty. Poverty is now treated as the lack of access to and control over commodities that are not only related to survival (e.g. food and shelter), but also related to people’s well-being (e.g. health, literacy) and their empowerment (psychological and political). With this appreciation of the complicated nature of poverty and by and large unsuccessful results of aid, multinational and bilateral agencies have lately given renewed prominence to NGOs “whose existence is legitimized by the presence of poverty”. They largely re- emphasized NGOs’ economic efficiency and contribution to good governance. Especially in the period of the late 1980s and 90s, it was a “boom” for the non-governmental sector in terms of proliferation and also growing sophistication. In developed countries, OECD estimates that the number of Northern NGOs engaged in international programs rose from 1,600 to 2,500 between 1980 and 1990. Though estimates are not reliable in developing countries, there are also over 250,000 Southern NGOs. However, such significant expansion in the sector has inevitably brought critical questions about NGOs’ effectiveness, and sustainability. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT (IJM) ISSN 0976 – 6367(Print) ISSN 0976 – 6375(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012), pp. 160-164 © IAEME: www.iaeme.com/ijm.html Journal Impact Factor (2011): 1.5030 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com IJM © I A E M E International Journal of Management (IJM), ISSN 0976 – 6502(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6510(Online), Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012) 161 Increasing concerns which are still on the agenda of the development community require rethinking of NGOs’ role in development and exploring ways to improve their effectiveness. In this context, this paper attempts to draw some key lessons from the review of selected NGO literature that could provide useful recommendations for NGOs, and perhaps in a wider sense, for any non-profit to improve organizational performance.