Culture Guides

Mini-guide by Suzie Capelli

Throughout my childhood years I saw many advertisements and campaigns for a well-known religiously affiliated Irish NGO. My impression that this NGO worked in relief aid working with the poor and starving was shared by many people Ireland. They had very well organised campaigns, run through the church, invariably featuring some pathetic looking African kid.

While at a cocktail party in Kigali, I ran into a representative of this NGO based in Rwanda and asked what it was they actually did here. It turns out that they provided support and advice to Rwandan NGOs. Local NGO support is necessary, but collecting for this type of work under the guise of relief work strikes me as false advertising.

But there are other misleading aspects to NGOs. For instance, the abovementioned Irish NGO (Non Government Organisation) attracted criticism recently for being “too close to government”. It begs the question that as an INGO (International NGO) in a developing country where you need the acquiescence of the government for work visas and your organisations continued presence, how far can you really be from the government?

And many local NGOs get most of their funds from INGOs, so when one gets kicked out of a country, the other collapses. One is tempted to say that in many countries, particularly the more heavily authoritarian ones, NGOs and INGOs would do well to stick quite closely to government.

On the other end of the stick, most of the big-name INGOs that I know, are either fully funded or substantially funded by first world donor governments. It begs the question is a Non-government Organisation funded by government, really an NGO?

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