Leadership and Trust
Trust seems to be the key trait linked with leadership. A leader cannot lead if his followers do not trust him. A leader discovers the employees’/followers problems and tries to solve them, but it is the trust that his followers hold on him which tells whether the leaders retrieve the knowledge and intellectuality required to […]
The Ever Shortening Business Cycles and What They Mean for Business Leaders
How the Modern Forms of Annual Reporting and Business Cycles Came into Being The advent of the modern form of the corporation ushered in several changes in the way corporations and business entities are run and managed. While hitherto, it was possible for feudal lords and highly wealthy individuals to own large businesses and trading […]
Different Types of Communication
Let us now go through the various types of communication: Verbal communication Verbal communication is a type of communication where the information flows through verbal medium like words, speeches, presentations etc. In verbal communication the sender shares his/her thoughts in the form of words. In organizations, individuals communicate verbally among each other in the form […]
The Phenomenon of Failed States and Consequences for the Global Political Economy
The Phenomenon of Failed States The previous articles discussed how state formation and state development takes place in the world. Though there are many examples of states that have managed to develop and progress, there are an equal number of states that have regressed and lapsed into chaotic conditions. These states where governance is absent […]
Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) vs Traditional Risk Management
Enterprise risk management (ERM) is a buzzword that has been doing rounds in the risk management field for the past few years. It is often used by managers in a context that implies that it is wider in scope than the traditional risk management function. However, the number of risk management professionals who do not […]
The phenomenon of the NGOs or the Non Governmental Organizations entering the field of social welfare accelerated in the 1990s. In earlier decades, though there were several charitable trusts and organizations like Red Cross, Medicine Sans Frontiers, and Doctors without Borders, the explosion in the number of NGOs and the concomitant rise in their profile were relatively muted. This aspect of the NGOs taking center stage has been attributed to the failure of the various governments across the world to deliver development and actualize the principles of social justice and social welfare.
Hence, the reasoning goes that the NGOs had to step in and deliver where the governments had failed. This trend became more noticeable in the first decade of this millennium wherein the NGOs were seen by many as the real votaries of social welfare with the rise in the failed states of Africa and other parts of the world where governance simply collapsed.
Having said that, it needs to be mentioned that even now the government is the best bet to actualize social welfare because it has the size and the scale to reach out to large populations. No matter how much the NGOs try, they simply cannot match the power of the governments in actualizing social welfare simply because the governments are the agencies tasked with the purpose of social welfare and because the amount of money that is at the disposal of the governments is something that even the biggest NGOs cannot match.
Hence, the implications of this are that the government and the NGOs are in a seesaw battle with each of them trying to outdo the other where social justice and social welfare are concerned. This is the reason why the governments and the NGOs exist in a state of tension with each other.
The ideal model for actualizing social welfare would be one where the government is directly in charge but where the NGOs are tasked with the objective of ensuring smooth delivery of social services and where they are called upon to monitor the delivery mechanisms and provide objective feedback. This means that the external audits of the programs undertaken by the government have to be done by the NGOs no matter how much the governments resist such efforts.
Further, this model of development is being practiced in India where the National Advisory Council or the NAC advises the government on schemes like the Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Food Security Bill and performs external audits of these schemes to ensure that the benefits are reaching the intended recipients.
Finally, both the government and the NGOs have to realize that each cannot do without the other and hence, instead of a tense relationship, a creative tension wherein each complements and supplements the other would be preferred. After all, social welfare is a topic that is of paramount importance and something that should not be marred by personality clashes or overlapping areas of interest.
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The Corporatization of the NGOs and How It Impacts Funders, Beneficiaries, and Others
February 12, 2025
