NGOs and Development Reconsidered
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Gustav Ranis
Abstract
The remarkable rise in the number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide during the 1980s and 1990s has led to the need for a sober reassessment of their role in development. By the late 1990s, the NGOs’ earlier celebration as the “magic bullet” for achieving development objectives was replaced by a number of questions concerning their legitimacy, accountability and transparency, and ultimately their ability to effectively reduce poverty in developing countries. The present paper readdresses this set of questions and attempts to provide some answers based on studies conducted over the past ten years. In this context, we found that marginal improvements in the NGO impact at the country program level can be recorded. Other issues, however, remain unresolved. Finally, we offer a number of suggestions enabling these institutions to act more effectively as contributors to development. Overall, our findings suggest the need to take off our rose-colored glasses and adopt a more realistic view.
© 2012 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Article
- NGOs and Development Reconsidered
- Editors' Forum: Law and Human Rights in Global History
- Prefatory Note
- International Law and Human Rights: Diverging and Converging Histories
- The History of Human Rights: The Big Bang of an Emerging Field or Flash in the Pan?
- Stigmas and Memory of Slavery in West Africa: Skin Color and Blood as Social Fracture Lines
- Counter-Elites Swimming Up-Stream: The Challenge of Pursuing a Political Rights Agenda where Economic Rights Trump
- Decision-Makers in the Dock: How Trials, Human Rights Advocacy and International Law are Shaping the Justice Norm
- Book Reviews
- Review of Jürgen Osterhammel, Die Verwandlung der Welt. Eine Geschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts
- Review of Noel Salazar's Envisioning Eden
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Article
- NGOs and Development Reconsidered
- Editors' Forum: Law and Human Rights in Global History
- Prefatory Note
- International Law and Human Rights: Diverging and Converging Histories
- The History of Human Rights: The Big Bang of an Emerging Field or Flash in the Pan?
- Stigmas and Memory of Slavery in West Africa: Skin Color and Blood as Social Fracture Lines
- Counter-Elites Swimming Up-Stream: The Challenge of Pursuing a Political Rights Agenda where Economic Rights Trump
- Decision-Makers in the Dock: How Trials, Human Rights Advocacy and International Law are Shaping the Justice Norm
- Book Reviews
- Review of Jürgen Osterhammel, Die Verwandlung der Welt. Eine Geschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts
- Review of Noel Salazar's Envisioning Eden
