ABSTRACT
Primarily considered as organizations that are non-state, not-for-profi t and voluntary, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) cover a diverse array of functions to provide essential services to populations who are often unreached by formal state and market structures. This is particularly true of the postcolonial countries of South Asia that have some of the best-known NGOs in the world, such as the 2006 Nobel Prize winner the Grameen Bank,1 BRAC and the Association for Social Advancement (ASA) in Bangladesh; the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), the now-notorious SKS, and the Smile Foundation in India; the Sarvodaya Sharamadana Movement and SANASA Development Bank in Sri Lanka; and the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) and Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) in Pakistan.2
