ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the various criticisms of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and details the validity of these criticisms as well as contradictions and inconsistencies. Critics of NGOs can be found across the political spectrum, ranging from rightists who object to NGOs in principle to leftists who criticize NGOs for their failures to advance a progressive agenda or for deferring to government preferences. During the course of the 1990s and early 2000s, a clearly defined set of critiques of NGOs have appeared focusing on: their performance and actual effectiveness, accountability issues, issues of autonomy, commercialisation, and ideological and/or political interpretations of their rising influence. Compared with NGOs working in humanitarian crises and conflict situations, however, the performance failures of NGOs in the area of international development seem minor. Although most of the criticisms of NGOs regarding effectiveness and performance have been directed towards service-providing NGOs, advocacy NGOs have not been immune to similar criticisms.
