“NGOs tend to view CBOs in two ways: with suspicion and mistrust on the one hand, and as instruments for community organising and project implementation on the other.” Excerpt from a paper by Samuel Maruta, Southern Institute of Peace-building and Development, Zimbabwe.[...]
Posts Tagged ‘partnership’
June 5th, 2011 - 4:36 pm § in Guest Bloggers
The Marginalization of CBOs by Development Actors: A Perspective from Zimbabwe
Tags: aid effectiveness, aid partnerships, aid workers, capacity building, community participation, community-based organizations, donor fatigue, donors, foreign aid, foreign assistance, grassroots organizations, international aid, international development, NGOs, organizational development, partnership, social movements, Zimbabwe 11 Comments
April 17th, 2011 - 6:18 pm § in Reflection & Rumination
Got ‘Em: An Evaluation Story
The evaluation report was scathing, but I felt honest. And given the sharing of the preliminary results, it should have hardly come as a surprise…But it did.[...]
A New Discipline for Development Practitioners
Organizational development is a discipline that needs to become more central to the practice of the development sector as a whole, not just a small professional enclave. [...]
Tags: ActionAid, aid workers, alternatives, CDRA, civil society organizations, Community Development Resource Association, community-based organizations, complexity, crisis, donors, foreign aid, foreign assistance, grassroots organizations, international aid, international development, NGOs, organizational development, organizational learning, Oxfam, partnership, power dynamics, social change, social movements, South Africa, sovereignty, The Barefoot Guide, values, VSO 4 Comments
September 2nd, 2010 - 1:23 am § in Good Practice, Guest Bloggers
Listening to People on the Receiving End of Aid
Aid recipients “are more concerned about ‘how’ assistance is provided than how much is given.” Initial findings from The Listening Project, a systematic exploration of the insights of people who live in societies that have been on the recipient end of international assistance efforts.[...]
Tags: academics, accountability, Aceh, Afghanistan, aid workers, alternatives, Angola, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burma, business people, Cambodia, capacity building, civil society, community leaders, community participation, community-based organizations, East Timor, Ecuador, Ethiopia, foreign aid, foreign assistance, funding mechanisms, government officials, grassroots organizations, Harvard Hauser Center, health workers, impact, Indonesia, international aid, international development, Kenya, Kosovo, Lebanon, listening, Listening Project, Mali, Mindanao, Myanmar, NGO staff, organizational development, ownership, partnership, power dynamics, religious leaders, respect, solidarity, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, teachers, Thailand, US Gulf Coast, women, youth, Zimbabwe 15 Comments
July 26th, 2010 - 7:39 pm § in Good Practice, Guest Bloggers
Seeing the future in sovereign local organizations – Part 2
A local sovereign organisation is an authentic expression of the will and voice of its own constituents. While it may accept funding to provide services, it is not a surrogate vehicle for the projects of another agency's purpose.[...]
Tags: alternatives, capacity building, CDRA, civil society organizations, Community Development Resource Association, community-based organizations, consultant, donors, foreign aid, foreign assistance, grassroots organizations, injustice, institutional development, international aid, international development, learning, NGOs, organizational development, organizational sovereignty, partnership, poverty, power dynamics, project cycle, reform, rights-based approach, social change, social movements, South Africa, sovereignty, strategy, The Barefoot Guide, values 1 Comment
July 25th, 2010 - 6:00 pm § in Good Practice, Guest Bloggers
Seeing the future in sovereign local organizations – Part I
Sovereignty is both a quality to be developed and a right to be respected and defended. It is a particularly powerful concept when applied to organisation, suggesting authentic qualities, describing a home-grown resilience, an inside-out identity, the idea of an organisation being the expression of [...]
Tags: alternatives, capacity building, CDRA, civil society organizations, Community Development Resource Association, community-based organizations, conflict, donors, food sovereignty, foreign aid, foreign assistance, globalization, grassroots organizations, institutional development, international aid, international development, leadership, learning, NGOs, organizational development, organizational sovereignty, partnership, poverty, power dynamics, reform, social change, social movements, South Africa, sovereignty, strategy, The Barefoot Guide, values 2 Comments
July 15th, 2010 - 6:03 am § in Good Practice
What is our true job?
Who will revolutionize the development industry? It’s those with a professional, but more importantly, a personal resolve to nurture alternative models of “development” that genuinely build on the dignity, knowledge, skills, culture, and abilities of local people.[...]
July 5th, 2010 - 6:15 pm § in Good Practice
How to build strong relationships with grassroots organizations, Part 2 of 3
Under-resourced and under-recognized local organizations face immense challenges on the ground. Yet we as outsiders most often choose to express frustration or impatience if an organization does not appear to be responding to our expectations. [...]
