ABSTRACT
It is commonly believed that NGOs possess a number of characteristics which give them a comparative advantage over governments and official donors in implementing projects and programmes which aim to alleviate poverty. At the same time, it is recognised that NGO activities are generally small-scale and that they reach a relatively limited number of people. It is on the basis of a series of assumptions concerning the ability of NGOs to reach and benefit the poor through low-cost and effective interventions that arguments are made in favour of the need to ‘scale-up’ their impact in order to benefit larger numbers of the poor (Edwards and Hulme 1992).
