ABSTRACT
“Most NGOs in Africa are purely functional, whether they are working in the area of welfare, development, refugees, debt or human rights. There are only very few that might be considered as ‘thinking’ NGOs, organizations that sit back and reflect on what they are doing and how their particular activity is related to the broader issues related to state, society and development in the present international conjuncture. Unthinkingly, thus, many purely functional NGOs act as mere palliatives to reduce the effects of the deteriorating social and economic conditions in Africa. In recent years many large international NGOs that used to undertake ‘development’ work in Africa have now shifted their resources to welfare and refugee work. Many of them are doing ‘good work’ in these fields, no doubt, and yet they unwittingly help perpetuate the very conditions that they seek to alleviate” Yash Tandon (1995).
“I have to have my own. To have my own NGO, I can achieve so much; but first I have to get someone to sponsor me”. – Private correspondence
