Membership-based organizations of the poor

This volume grows out of a conviction that membership-based organizations of the poor (MBOPs) – organizations whose governance structures respond to the needs and aspirations of the poor because they are accountable to their members – are central to achieving equitable growth and poverty reduction. The literature on civil society organizations generally focuses on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which are treated as a broad category thought to cover all the ways that people get together and act together. However, an MBOP is to be distinguished from a conventional NGO, which, however well intentioned, operates as an outside entity that does not have a membership base of the poor. Political parties are membership-based organizations (MBO), but are not exclusively concerned about the welfare of the poor. Trade unions are membership based, but only some of them are directly concerned with advancing the cause of the working poor. Cooperatives are classic MBOs, but again not all of them are focused on the poor, and some of them have elements of formal contractual obligations that make them akin to private sector firms.