NGOs fall short as agents of change

Ruling authoritarian regimes are being increasingly challenged by civil society organisations since the 1980s.

Grassroots-level participation is being seen as a major social and political agent of change and an important instrument in the democratisation process, particularly in the developing world.

The role of government may be justified to ensure that, at the very least, those with meagre resources do not get excluded from the process, and the benefits, of growth.

The role of NGOs can also be envisaged as a major force which can improve the wellbeing of low-income households.

The active role of NGOs can result in the enhanced wellbeing of the bottom deciles only when there is transparency.

Some studies show that NGO assistance accounts for only a marginal proportion of the reasons cited for poverty alleviation.

This does not mean NGOs were not present — rather their impact is likely to have been on an insignificant number of people.

Hence, the issue is not the existence of such forces; it all depends on how actively civil society involves itself in the development process.

There are several cases of poor performance, for which there are primarily two reasons: members of an organisation are often guided by the profit motive, either individually or collectively, and secondly the constraints under which NGOs function are so severe that performance is impacted negatively.

The 1990s brought about renewed interest in NGOs. There has been a need to cover the growing gaps in social services created by structural adjustment and other reforms in developing countries.

Studies suggest that individuals who are politically active with extreme positions, those with a sense of commitment to social issues and those prepared to engage themselves in costly and risky activities, are those who initiate social movements and collective action. However, as institutions change over time, the relationship between civic engagement and citizens’ democratic values, generalised trust, and cooperative norms also tend to change.

Using the World Values Survey, it has been verified by studies that engagement-trust relationship is not stable.

Hence, the possibility of the profit motive becoming predominant at a later stage cannot be ruled out even if initially one was motivated by a philanthropic attitude.

Based on our survey data, the findings on the effectiveness of civil society groups suggest that the beneficiaries are not necessarily better-off in terms of the number of days of employment in a month. NGOs are not able to provide substantial employment opportunities over a long period of time in a sustained manner, due to the lack of work consignments that they are able to access.

As some of the respondents opined, the organisations they were attached with secure work orders mainly from export houses, and that too in a limited field, which in turn tends to reduce work opportunities. The results are indicative of the fact that women from large households with greater domestic burden tend to join NGOs as beneficiaries.

Also, with age, the probability of seeking employment through NGOs increases at least till a threshold limit, as they are not able to participate in the job market explicitly given their household responsibilities.

Once they are associated with such NGOs their earnings are certain to increase.

However, though the NGOs included in our case study are able to provide higher earnings, the lack of employment assignments forces many of the workers to drop out.

Based on our field survey we noted that the respondents were happy to work for contractors even for lower earnings as they could provide them with work opportunities on a regular basis.

Lower pay is preferable if it involves regularity in terms of livelihood.

For NGOs to be effective, active operation and large-scale coverage are important. The government and NGOs may have to operate in close cooperation in order to reap better outcomes.

Otherwise, NGO failures will be as widespread as government failures.

The writer teaches at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi

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