ABSTRACT
Any attempt to assess the roles and effectiveness of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in development in Africa is difficult for a number of reasons, not least because their history has been different in each country of Africa. Some started as relief organisations and moved on to development, later including advocacy in their agendas. In others they have always worked in the field of relief and service delivery in response to wars, natural crises and a lack of effective government provision. In some contexts their role has been to meet emergency needs for water, food and shelter. In others they have worked as key service providers. In yet others they have acted as mobilisers of disadvantaged and marginalised people, assisting them to address their own development planning and make demands on the state for support. In some contexts NGOs play all these roles side by side, different NGOs meeting different needs. In addition the burgeoning of NGOs in the past 20 years compounds the enormity of the task: they have multiplied, like mushrooms, and many have grown significantly in size. The problem is exacerbated by the serious paucity of monitoring and evaluation data at every level, which inhibits the drawing of many easy and clear conclusions.
