Beneficiaries are actors too.pdf - Southern Institute of Peace ...

continue to provide food aid in times of droughts and famine or
during food shortages as was the case in Zimbabwe in 2007-2008.
According to Stephenson (2005) in the early 1990s there began to
be recognition of the importance of NGOs. NGOs were found to
have closer ties to on-the-ground realities in developing countries
and, more importantly, to be able to deliver development aid more
cheaply than states as they are more cost-effective in their work
among the poor. That is they usually spend less money on
administration and more on actual help and it is for this and other
reasons they are able to operate on fairly low costs.
A small criticism has emerged questioning the effectiveness of
NGOs in improving the lives of their intended beneficiaries. For
instance, Mendelson and Glenn (2002) scrutinised democracybuilding
NGOs and argued that foreign NGOs may have created
domestic offshoots that were well-funded but weak in grassroots
support; this especially so in Africa where NGOs may operate
detached from the communities they purport to serve. NGOs at
times make ephemeral interventions which operate in fits and
starts and which are not empowering to the communities but are
based on handouts which run out and are not sustainable. In
such situations when the handouts cease the communities go
back to their impoverished conditions. Stiles (2002) has argued
that the growth and sophistication of Bangladesh's NGO sector
may cause some of the organisations to seek a greater presence in
the public arena (by getting involved in politics) and to pursue forprofit
type activities that may have some “unintended and
negative” consequences for the lives of the poor. Similarly, Gauri
and Galef (2005) noted that the adoption of micro-finance
activities by some NGOs seems to have created incentives for
managers of these organisations to maximize the size of their
portfolios by targeting wealthier villages. While this may be
efficient in a strictly economic sense, this can mean that activities
of NGOs might not reach the poorest individuals in communities.
NGOs in both Bangladesh and Uganda do not appear to locate in
the most needy communities (Fruttero and Guari, 2005; Barr and
Fafchamps, 2006). Even in Zimbabwe most NGOs are based in
the capital Harare only. Even though they might operate in some
rural communities they would not have offices in those
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