Here's how Africa is held (hostage) at the mercy of NGO's & donors

[loyola llothta]

NGOs are criticized for focusing on technical solutions to poverty instead of the underlying issues and causes.


Non-governmental organisations have become key actors in responding to poverty and related suffering. In Africa, NGOs play a leading role in providing health care and education.

The non-profit sector continues to grow rapidly in Africa and around the world. In South Africa alone, there are more than 100,000 registered non-profit organisations and in Kenya the number of NGOs grew by over 400 percent between 1997 and 2006. And for most observers, they seem to be well-intentioned actors who do a lot of good on the continent.

But NGOs also have their detractors who argue that they are receiving growing amounts of donor aid, but aren’t the most suitable actors for really improving people’s lives.

The Cases Made Against the NGO Sector

Some critics also insist that the neoliberal policies advanced by powerful international actors have limited the influence of the state and that NGOs have benefited as a result.

Neoliberalism is an approach that favours a smaller role for the state in the economic arena. Advocates believe that the market and other non-state actors provide better services than governments.

Since the 1980s, international financial institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, have forced indebted African states to reduce public expenditure. This has encouraged the flourishing of non-state actors like NGOs.

While both local and international NGOs have benefited from this move, African states have been less able to access international aid. This undermines their sovereignty and places African people at the mercy of donors.

NGOs are also criticized for their focus on technical solutions to poverty instead of the underlying issues. So, for example, an NGO might provide water tanks for the poor without addressing the power imbalances that resulted in some having water while others don’t.

Another criticism is that NGOs are more accountable to their funders than those they serve. Because they are largely dependent on funding, their projects are crafted in line with donor preferences instead of those they supposedly represent.

A final criticism relates to the fact that NGO workers tend to be foreigners or local elites. Instead of empowering local populations to organise themselves, NGOs provide employment and a sense of purpose for elites with degrees in subjects like development studies.

Can NGOs Fix Africa’s Problems?

There’s much truth to these criticisms. But does this mean that NGOs have no role to play in Africa’s struggle for poverty and injustice?

A recent collection of articles titled ‘NGOs and Social Justice in South Africa and Beyond’, which I edited, brings together the voices of NGO workers, academics and social activists to consider this question.

The contributors raise a range of interesting ideas like how radical change can still be achieved. Can profound changes be made while working within existing structures and organisations?

Firoze Manji, who has published widely on the topic of social justice, defines what freedom really means. He makes a distinction between “licensed freedoms” and “emancipatory freedoms.”

Licensed freedoms are achieved “within the system.” As such they improve lives but don’t dramatically change power dynamics. An example can be drawn from the apartheid era when activists convinced the state to make some concessions for Black South Africans.

In contrast, emancipatory freedoms are about bringing about a new order. An example would be when people manage to defeat an oppressive state entirely.

Manji argues that NGOs empower people to attain licensed, rather than emancipatory, freedoms.


Pushing for Social Change

But NGO workers might rightfully argue that it isn’t so easy to distinguish between working within the system and working against it.

When an NGO teaches people to read, for example, this new ability might empower them to challenge things they had previously accepted. Learning this new skill might enable them to act in new, more empowering ways. So the achievement of a basic skill can enable populations to achieve emancipatory freedom.

Another example is brought out by Tshepo Madlingozi who is the advocacy adviser to the Khulumani support group in South Africa.

He shows how NGOs and social movements fighting for radical change have been able to use the courts to gain small victories.

Court victories are often hollow. For example, in the Grootboom case in South Africa, Irene Grootboom won a court struggle against eviction, but ended up dying homeless eight years later.

But court struggles can draw attention to the plight of ordinary people and mobilise and unify those working towards certain radical goals. In this way, the use of “the system” — in this case the courts — can help support the struggle for emancipatory freedoms.

Ashley Westaway, manager of an education NGO and a contributor to the collection, makes a case for providing basic services and technical assistance as a means to give an organisation the credibility required to advocate for more radical, structural change.

Perhaps the correct approach may be to let go of the idea that choices within the NGO sector are limited to either maintaining the status quo or pushing for a revolution.

Perhaps, as is the case with some of the most dynamic NGOs, workers need to operate in the cracks of the current system in ways that challenge injustice and open the door to new possibilities. Other actors, such as governments and social movements, have very important roles to play, but this doesn’t mean that NGOs can’t contribute to pushing for social justice in Africa.

Source:

The Role of NGOs in Africa: Are They a Force for Good?

 

[Cryptocurrency Scarface]

good video

 

[loyola llothta]

good video

Read the article in the OP, i just add

 

[BIXBY]

These donations are POISON to Africa...

Think of it this way:

You have a child and you keep feeding it with a bottle and baby food... it grows bigger but you never teach it to feed itself... then you just increase the amount of food you give it... until it's become an overgrown baby that depends on you to feed it everything...

...this is EXACTLY what they doing to Africa right now.

Oversupply with food/aid... drop them huge bags of rice from a plane... the farmer meanwhile can't sell his shyt cause people are getting it for free... his land goes dry and that's a WRAP.

It's a travesty... and it's CACS behind it all. Africa need to be backed off of to get its shyt in order!

I feel like us AAs outchea shoulda been the ones jumping over there and taking advantage... instead you got Chinese and Europe jumping in right now using the good fertile land for they own benefit.

 

[Strapped]

Africas main downfall is it's bad leaders who sell their countries out ,they need to unite as a 1 african natlon

 

[Claudex]

Africas main downfall is it's bad leaders who sell their countries out ,they need to unite as a 1 african natlon

Them NGO's and donors ain't shyt, but the bad leaders are more villainous than more africans realize. They've managed to amass so much wealth with these Cac crooks that if the Cac crooks miraculously decided to do some good (which is never gonna happen, this is just for my argument's sake) they'd probably get kicked off the country for fukking up the easy-money-scheme by these same bad leaders.

A lot of Africans coming up behind these dying leaders that set a bad precedent would sell their country for $10 billion USD without any remorse at all if they could get away with it. Light a cuban cigar and literally say: "This country was headed to ruin anyway, at least now with the new cac/chinese overlords it'll stand a chance." with an arm around a PAWG.

 

[Emoryal]

they need to unite as a 1 african natlon

 

[How Sway?]

you cant even blame cacs anymore. some of these presidents are evil people

 

[Dzali OG]

Yeah it's as you put it, but it's what Africa need, a little black supremacy.

fukk all that tribe shyt and create 1 new tribe.

 

[Red Shield]

Some African countries will do well, some won't. Just need the usa to be dealt with and for europe to go full retard again