From anti-slavery to third sector in development: The transition of non-governmental organisations and limitations

3.1 The transition of NGOs

NGOs arose in the 19th century where they worked as anti-slavery advocates (Davies, 2008). At first, the anti-slavery advocates were led by Frederick Douglass, who escaped from slavery (Page & Adams, 2014). The society (anti-slavery society) was the first to be worried with slavery issues (Davies, 2008). Furthermore, it was an abolitionist; it worked to fight the issues of slavery, and it developed from anti-colonial independence movements (Mustafa, Gill, Azid, & Khan, 2000). This anti-slavery NGOs began as small charitable organisations with the intention to oppose enslavement (McDonagh, 2002). For instance, the anti-slavery organisations involved in opposing public violence also became involved in social contestation and mass protests (Klotz, 2002). Some of the protestors were The American Revolution and Protestant Christians (Lind, 2010). The abolitionist organisations contributed money for directing and leading public lectures as well as distributing pamphlets (Ward, 2007). Consequently, the availability and effort of these organisations drew the attention of the state; as a result, abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807 was approved (Oldfield, 2012). The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807 opposed the transoceanic slave trade (Skocpol, Ganz, & Munson, 2000). The approval of the act also gave impetus to other NGOs, for instance, the International Order of Good Templar organisation that was established in 1852 by the Rev of the Methodist Church (Davies, 2008); the International Workingmen's Association that was formed by in 1864, with the intention of promoting human rights; the International Peace Bureau formed in 1891 that encouraged peace (Davies, 2008). The last NGO was the International Alliance of Women, which can be traced back to1902; its main aim was to fight for the rights of women (Skocpol et al., 2000). Regardless of the role of NGOs as anti-slavery, their work is also seen in areas of health; the Red Cross is the first organisation in this category (Pinkney, 2009). Historically, the Red Cross organisation, just like the anti-slavery organisation, can be traced back in the 1800s where it cared for the injured soldiers during the World War II (Sandoz, 2007). On the basis of this, the work of NGOs was motivated by the interest and the desire for change. Narrowing this to Africa, African NGOs focused much on decolonizing of Africa; this was driven by the Pan-African Congress. African NGOs have contributed to the independence obtained by these countries. In addition, it is noteworthy that by that period, most of these NGOs were not receiving much funding as it is presently.

During the 20th century, the role of NGOs began to be acknowledged by the multilateral institutions, like the UN (Kamat, 2004). The NGOs started to be fully recognized by the UN after World War II (Kennedy & Dornan, 2009). In the early 80s, the UN gave NGOs a permission to partake in the international policy (Kamat, 2004). As a result, NGOs started to be prominent and expand (Galway et al., 2012). Though, they were considered as organisation that would remain at a distance from government, acting as their conscience and giving a moral critique to the work of the states (Leve & Karim, 2001). Throughout the 1980s, NGOs shifted from emergency and conflict relief to focus more on community participation programs (Galway et al., 2012). On the same view, Banks and Hulme (2012) argue that from the 1980s, NGOs started to offer innovative and people-centered approaches (Galway et al., 2012). In the late 1990s, the number of registered NGOs increased in the world to change the economic and political philosophy. During that period, NGOs started to be seen as development alternatives that aim to help the poor (Debiel & Sticht, 2005; Galway et al., 2012). The shifting of the role of NGOs is also noticed in the early 2000s when the UN introduced the Millennium Development Goals and poverty reduction plans (Brinkerhoff, Smith, & Teegen, 2007; Galway et al., 2012; Mubecua & David, 2019).

Kim (2000) argues that the services provided by government and private sector were not no longer satisfying the people's needs; this then brought about the emergence of NGOs as the third sector in development. NGOs were perceived as a third sector because their emergence to close the gap shaped by the ineffective government and market. Furthermore, NGO's role as a third sector has been seen as a promoter of change and as watchdogs; the NGOs push the state to fulfil its duty by holding it accountable (Karnani, 2016). The work of NGOs as a third sector varies from country to country; it is determined by the political history as well as the level of government control (Lyons and Hasan, 2002). Additionally, the third sector is capable of making a measurable impact to the development of the state (Hershey, 2014). It is also able to support poor people at grassroots level in a way that states cannot (Lukaszcyk and Williamson, 2010). According to Mubecua (2018), as much as NGO as a third sector are doing very well, but there are limitations that affect the existence of these organisations. NGOs as a third sector face challenges of transparency and accountability, capacity, and corruption. Having argued that after the failure of the state and market to provide services to the citizens, the NGOs merged as a third sector with the interest of helping and supporting the poor. On the basis of this, the rising question is how can NGOs attain their goals if they are still facing such challenges?

NGOs practice a bottom-up approach that encourages citizens to participate in decision making and grassroots mobilization movement (Panda, 2007). Presently, the concept of NGO is considered as the concept that encompasses a group of organisations with different determinations, drive, and philosophies to attain global goal like the Sustainable Development Goal (Arenas, Lozano, & Albareda, 2009; Zohir, 2004). Borrowing from Teegen, Doh and Vachani (2004), there are four types of NGOs that comprise of social purpose, club, advocacy, and operational NGOs. All of these organisations have different goals for instance, the social purpose NGOs are organisations that support social interest, whereas the club NGOs intend to benefit only its members (Teegen et al, 2004). The advocacy NGOs were formed with the intention to protect the rights of citizens regardless of their status and background (Brown, Ebrahim, & Batliwala, 2012). Furthermore, the advocacy NGOs act as a voice of the voiceless for the citizens. Shivji (2006) also add that they (Advocacy NGOs) focus on human rights, gender, development, environment, and governance. Lastly, are the operational NGOs that pay much focus on development-related programs and provide goods and services to the needy (Kamat, 2003; Teegen et al., 2004). All these types of NGOs exist with one intention, which is to help where government and private sector is failing (Mubecua, 2018).

In short, there is a huge role played by NGOs from anti-slavery to the third sector in the development agenda. However, these NGOs have their own limitations that affect the outcome of their work. Hence, the following section discusses the limitation of NGOs that hinder them from performing or responding to the current challenge of their beneficiaries.

3.2 Limitations of NGOs in development

As stated earlier, NGOs have emerged as a third sector after the failure of the state and private sector meets the needs of the poor. There are factors that affect the operation of NGOs in development agenda. The present section intends to deal with the present issues that affect NGOs. This section interrogates NGOs in terms of their transparency and accountability, capability, and corruption. This section opens by discussing transparency and accountability.

3.3 Transparency and accountability

Although NGOs are praised in some quarters, some scholars are critical of them (Burger & Owens, 2010; Banks & Hulme, 2012; Lopez, et al., 2018). Among other things, NGOs are criticized on the ground that they are facing challenges relating to transparency and accountability. The problem of transparency and accountability in the NGO sector has attracted the focus of researchers and policy-makers alike (Rodríguez, Vitoriano, & Montero, 2010). Some of these organisations have been accused of claiming to be transparent and accountable but at the same time provide incorrect reports in their annual reports (Burger & Owens, 2010). There are very few NGOs that are prepared to face the risk of being transparent and accountable (Burger & Owens, 2010). Regardless of that, there are whys and wherefores that make NGOs to fail to be transparent or accountable; one of the causes is that sponsors always want to hear success stories about how these organisations have been effective in doing their projects (Burger & Owens, 2010). For instance, if the report shows that a certain project was not successful, funders end up withdrawing funds from that NGO (Burger & Owens, 2010). As a consequence, NGOs end up reporting false information, which is ironic, in the sense that false information sometimes qualifies NGOs to access further funding from the funders (Rodríguez et al., 2010). On the other hand, negative reporting to the funders discourages the continuation of funding to the NGOs (Burger & Owens, 2010). On the basis of this, NGOs have to choose if they provide false information that will help them to continue to be funded, or they provide correct information that will eventually discourage the funders to proceed funding their projects. However, to be accountable and transparent is decent because it improves the trust of the donors, and also it eliminates conflicts of interest (Rodríguez et al., 2010); furthermore, it helps the funder to see where are these organisations failing so that they can continue to assist them with training if it is the case.

3.4 Capabilities of NGOs

Except the factors of accountability and transparency, there are claims that the size of the NGOs is too small to provide and cover the needs of the needy. In addition, questions have been raised about the sustainability of their projects because some NGOs fail to sustain their services (Nega & Schneider, 2014). According to Fonjong (2006), the sustainability of the NGO projects is affected by not having enough resources. On the same view, Naude (2001) reveals that NGOs do not have enough resources to implement according to their wish.

NGOs in the 21st century are criticized for failing to address the grassroots of poverty (Shivji, 2004). For instance, some NGOs only provide poor people with food to eat, which is a short-term relief, rather than teaching them to make sustainable money (Shivji, 2004). At some point, these NGOs lack proper planning (Mubecua, 2018). Moreover, sometimes NGOs lack proper skills, more especially, NGOs in rural areas; the lack of skill affects the capacity of the NGOs in the development agenda. Hence, most of the NGO participants in rural areas lack formal education; this disturbs the ability to deliver the expected services (Marcinkeviciute & Zukovskis, 2016).

3.5 NGOs and corruption

Sometimes NGOs use sponsors resources unethically, spending public funds meant for the benefit of their communities in the pursuit of private wealth or gain (Smith, 2010). Corruption is the sensitive issues, more especially, in developing countries (Mubecua, 2018). At some cases, people start NGOs with the hope of obtaining funding; if such people receive the funding, they deregister the NGO and use the funds of the sponsors to benefit themselves (Dupuy, Ron, & Prakash, 2015). For instance, NGOs in Ethiopia were the first organisation in Africa to obtain big funds from Overseas Development Assistance (Dupuy et al., 2015); however, about 45% of NGOs in Ethiopia deregistered after attaining funds (Dupuy et al., 2015). NGOs that did not deregister were also blamed of not being effective in serving the poor (Fafchamps & Owens, 2009). Corruption in the NGO sector affects the economies of the countries (Smith, 2010).

According to Mubecua (2018), corruption in the NGO sector stems from the lack of proper planning; at the same time, these organisations pretend to have more information than they actually have. Dishonest NGOs use public funds on bribery, instead of serving the poor as argued before (Epperly & Lee, 2015). Corruption is not only seen in the form of financial scandals, but it also results when NGOs turn from their key aim and goal (Edwards & Hulme, 2014). The NGO sector fails to assign their resources fairly, instead, resulting in only a small number of people accurately benefitting from those resources. Funders are vigilant for any fraud or anything that might be considered abuse of their funds (Edwards & Hulme, 2014).

3.6 NGOs and developing countries

NGOs in developing countries are criticized of chasing the agenda of the developed countries. The western agenda influences and encourages NGOs to undermine the work of states in African countries (Wargny, 2011). Moreover, these organisations (NGOs) are also accused for undermining government because they have ideas that contribute to the loss of the rights of the state (Shivji, 2004). As a consequence, NGOs may avoid radical change from happening in cases when it is actually needed. A case in point is that of United States Agency for International Development that was granted a sum of $2 million by the United State to encourage democracy in Venezuela; this was understood as an act staging a “soft coup” (Ebrahim, 2017). Additionally, between 2004 and 2006, United States Agency for International Development has distributed $15 million in support of 300 NGOs in developing countries; this distribution of funds has also been understood as an act inspired by the goal of undermining the developing countries. In some cases, some NGOs work only to satisfy their funders, rather than of fulfilling the needs of the societies that they serve (Banks & Hulme, 2012). NGOs are accused for being a potential vehicle for supporting neo-liberal policies. If the neo-liberalism agenda fails, it results to a situation where the NGOs withdraw and leave the weak economy (Lehman, 2007: Atia & Herrold, 2018).

In summary, there are numerous issues that have been raised by scholars about the operation of NGOs. It may be said that NGOs pursue the agenda of developed countries. Sometimes they spend the finances that they have acquired from sponsors on bribery. It is also the case that some people start NGOs with the expectation of funds, and once they receive those funds, they deregister the NGO. The following section aims to present the findings and discussions of the study.