Comments on: International NGOs: a necessary good

By: fchoudhury

fchoudhury — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:16:32 +0000

The ‘dehumanisation’, as you call it, is a necessary evil when trying to aid billions of people around the world, would you rather they help only hundreds in an individualised manner?

And providing aid is not the same as giving a gift. Those strings are there to ensure the agency of affected people, instilling a sense of responsibility and need for action on their own behalf, the strings can act as guidelines to recovery, to regaining their independence. As opposed to being helpless chicks blindly fed from their mother’s beak with no hope of autonomy and an endless dependence of stringless gifts.

By: david_jenkins

david_jenkins — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:07:58 +0000

My criticism is not questioning the existence of NGOS, but it is instead an warning that they can become counter-productive if left unchecked. There is a substantial school of thought that argues that in an NGO’s act of distributing aid, it in turn removes some of the agency from those who would benefit from the aid. The ‘gift’ giving process in this scenario is one of the only examples of its kind where the gift in question comes with strings attached. It is this discourse of gift giving and the resulting dehumanisation of the recipients which I criticise.

By: fchoudhury

fchoudhury — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:17:29 +0000

Criticism and restrictive discourses aside, the larger and better funded an NGO becomes, the more people they are able to reach. No organisation can reach every one in need of aid and support–and the majority of governments certainly aren’t willing to step in. NGOs fill a much needed role in society and the success of many countries, whether developed and or still developing, is directly related to the work of NGOs. It’s easy enough now to disagree with the distorted generalisation of Africa-as-victim but the stability and strength that these anti-aiders use as proof is partially, if not greatly, a result of NGO aid and assistance to begin with. NGOs today may be flawed and flabby, but poverty and disease is still prevalent, so why attack those who are capable and willing to help??

By: alain_roux

alain_roux — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:10:02 +0000

Liz Scarff of Save the Children UK, deserves a mention with her brilliant idea to involve three ‘mummy bloggers’ to steer the campaign to raise awareness for #blogadesh, effectively minimising overheads. With donor fatigue on the rise there is a need for transparency with regard to actual collected money reaching targets.

By: david_jenkins

david_jenkins — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:01:18 +0000

NGOs have one fatal flaw. In their attempt to restore a form of balance in the social and political discourse, they create their own flawed and restrictive discourse. And this only gets worse the larger they get…