7/28/2019 A Book Review on "Non-Governmental Organizations and Development" by Melesse Zenebework

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A Book Review

Melesse Zenebework

Dept. International Development

Environment and Sustainable Development Class

MA Caurse

Non Governmental Organizations and Development, by David Lewis and Nazneen Kanji,

New York, Routledge Taylor Francis Ltd, 2009, xv +239 pp., index, $43.44 (paperback), ISBN

978-0-415-45430-8

David Lewis is professor of social policy and development at London School of Economics who

specializes in development policy and management, with a particular interest in Non-

Governmental Organizations and civil society, and whose work has mainly had a geographical

focus on Bangladesh. He has also written on rural development, organizational issues in

development agencies, and anthropological approaches to development. Likewise, Nazneen

Kanji is a social policy specialist who worked with the government of Mozambique throughout

the 1980s and then moved into policy research, teaching and consultancy work after completing

a PhD at the London School of Economics on structural adjustment and urban poverty inZimbabwe. She has carried out field research in various Sub-Saharan African countries and in

South and Central Asia, including work with many NGOs. Her main research area is related to

gender and livelihoods, in rural and urban contexts. Both of them have long time experience in

the field of development research and practice.

The authors tell us how the Non-governmental Organizations came in to existence and to what

extent they have been providing contributions in development context since then. They have

covered all the ground concerning NGOs in depth and to the point manner. The book starts with

defining the earliest traditional form of civil organizations then it proceeds explaining how they

evolved into more structured with defined roles. The book mainly explains how the NGOs

passed through various historical challenges in order to gain the current attention of the world in

development context. It tells, the NGOs engaged in the roles of implementation, catalyst and

7/28/2019 A Book Review on "Non-Governmental Organizations and Development" by Melesse Zenebework

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partnership. In the early time NGOs used to engage only in implementation, however, it is a

recent phenomenon that many NGOs are performing the role of catalyst and partnership. Non-

Governmental organizations implement policies and programs of a government or donor

organizations at any level but the role of catalysis usually focuses on advocacy in order to

influence the policies of government or donor. They often tend to make partnership with the

national or international or even government organization in order to insure the success of

projects.

The thematic concept of the book is in simply phrase, The existence of Non-Governmental

Organization in development fields is full challenges but important. The authors acknowledged

the challenges NGOs faced from development theories, government politics, and approach of

societies. The influence of donors on NGOs to twist the developing countries politics through

civil society is one challenge that governments suspiciously approach them in any of their

development programs. Correspondingly, the village level practical job also makes things

extremely complex and difficult to solve. If they cant find the better understanding from the

government and donors side, then everything possibly fail.

Finally, I can confidently tell that the writers are in favor of the existence of Non-governmental

organizations in development and even advise they should play a more dominant role in the

future. The book explains NGOs are getting stronger and effective in the development sector for

various reasons. After the 9/11, for instance, NGOs were given the mandate to handle disorders

which possibly affect the rich countries although it complicated their roles and tasks in

development. Globalization also created a new dimension of network activists for the advocacy

role. This in turn, paves their way to play as actors for global governance. It is also a recent

phenomenon that NGOs are being considered as A Magic Bullet for the reduction of poverty

by international donors. All these ideas show that the writers of the book are in favor of the

existence of Non-governmental organizations in the development field.