Introduction There are now some 4,000 development non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in OECD member countries alone (OECD 1989), dispersing almost three billion US dollars’ worth of assistance every year (Clark 1991, p.47). They work with around 10,000 to 20,000 ‘Southern’ NGOs who assist up to 100 million people (ibid p.51). Yet despite the increasing scale of this sector, and the growing reputation that NGOs have won for themselves and for their work over the last ten years, their contribution to development on a global level remains limited. Many small-scale successes have been secured, but the systems and structures which determine the distribution of power and resources within and between societies remain largely unchanged. As a result, the impact of NGOs on the lives of poor people is highly localised, and often transitory. In contrast to NGO programmes, which tend to be good but limited in scope, governmental development efforts are often large in scale but limited in their impact. Effective development work on a sustainable and significant scale is a goal which has eluded both governments and NGOs.