Oct, 2008: One India One People: Limitations of NGOs

Limitations of NGOs

As against the common public perception, NGOs are struggling everyday for funds, infrastructure and many other requirements to carry out their work. We must think of contributing to them individually to strengthen them, suggests Vinay Somani.

When the government or society fails to deliver services properly or ensure human rights fairly, individuals who have experienced, observed or thought about it set about trying to correct the situation. This is how an NGO (non-governmental organisation) is born!

NGOs are not anti-government
Even though the term NGO may imply so and there is a common perception that NGOs are anti-government, it is not so. Rather these organisations function in a set-up that is independent of government. In fact, many NGOs depend on government for space to conduct their activities, implement various government schemes and programmes, and also receive funds and grants from government for their own projects.

Even NGOs involved in advocacy and activism are very clear that they are against a particular issue or step taken by the government, and would like to work with government to resolve that and find a solution that works for all concerned.

NGO representatives are often included in government committees and panels wherein they contribute to making policy recommendations and having positive long term impact.

Furthermore, NGOs often depend on corporates for partnerships to fund and implement their projects, and corporates are quite reluctant to partner with anti-establishment organisations.

Hence, being anti-government or anti-establishment is not a step that a sensible NGO usually adopts.

Is there a need for professionalising NGOs?
Some people believe that many of the limitations that NGOs have are self-induced and that these can be overcome by professionalising themselves by applying business models and corporate structures to become more efficient and result-or output-oriented.

Due to the wide range of NGOs, such structures, however, cannot and should not be applied across the social sector, but, should, instead, be used, as and when needed by the NGOs themselves.

For instance, an NGO that is providing for paid services, is very similar to a business, and hence in such a situation, applying business models to increase efficiency is a logical step.

Unrealistic perceptions
A great majority of NGOs are small NGOs with a team of less than 10 people. Such organisations are driven by the personal passion, experience and commitment of the founders.

Since they are taking on and attempting to find solutions to issues that even government is struggling with, such NGOs seem larger than life and appear to have a greater reach and wider presence than what they are actually capable of.

Due to this, most people have unrealistic and high expectations of NGOs and assume that NGOs are capable of solving all the problems that we face, on a continuous basis. This perception also hinders people from helping out and supporting NGOs in small ways, by offering their time, money and services, because they wrongly assume that such small contributions do not make a difference.

The depth vs. breadth dilemma
There are different solutions and aspects to a particular problem. The whole solution requires a combination of these. For example, the task of getting poor children to attend school involves a number of issues such as the physical infrastructure, from the building, teaching material, text books, to related requirements such as school uniforms and nutritious food.

Orientation for the families of the children, counselling for the children facing peer pressure, extra coaching for weak students to prevent drop-outs, health and safety issues for the children, and addressing issues of gender are also needed.

An NGO working to bring poor children back to school thus faces the dilemma of tackling all the issues itself and remaining geographically confined or concentrating on some core area e.g. mid-day meals, and spreading itself geographically.

NGOs constantly face this dilemma of breadth versus depth. This greatly impacts their effectiveness while the public perception is that NGOs can equally span both.

Confusing terminology
A change is needed in the language and terminology used to describe non-profit organisations working in the social sector. In India, the commonly used term is non-governmental organisation or NGO. This term only specifies what the organisation is not, rather than explains what it is, thus leading to many different perceptions and views from those who are outside the sector.

There are also different kinds of organisations that are clubbed together under NGOs though they work in very diverse ways:

social businesses (e.g.: organisations maintaining public toilets)
service providers (e.g.: hospices, counselling services that do not use government grants)
advocacy, awareness and networking groups
grant-implementing agencies
religious and medical trusts
educational (school and college) trusts

Using the correct term to define organisations in this sector would lead to greater clarity and better understanding all around. Organisations can also be treated differently under various government registration and tax laws.

How we can all help
It is important for all of us to realise that NGOs are not powerful organisations with deep pockets and great reach. They are struggling organisations daily witnessing the brutal reality faced by their beneficiaries and trying their best to help them. We should individually think how we can contribute our time, intellect, space, and money to support them and improve the world.

The writer is B.Tech. (IIT), MBA (Harvard) and is the founder trustee of www.karmayog.org an online and offline networking platform for civic issues and social causes.

Source: http://www.oneindiaonepeople.com/magazine/mag-feature3.htm#top