Evaluate the impacts of NGO’s in Zimbabwe

A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a non-profit citizen-based group that functions

independently of government. NGO’s or non-governmental organizations are predominantly
charitable entities set up to serve the state or the nation as a whole. NGOs are a subgroup of
organizations founded by citizens, which include clubs and associations which provide
services to its members and others. However these NGO’s have negative and positive effects
to the community for instance, positively, they work for the welfare of society through
engaging in various sort of activities such as providing food clothes medicines knowledge,
education and employment opportunities and negatively, there is spread of foreign cultures
which are opposed to Africans, they is sponsoring of opposition parties. This essay is going
to shade more light on the positive and negative impacts of non-governmental organizations
(NGO) in our community.

Firstly, non-governmental organizations (NGO) plays a crucial role in our community, in the
sense that they have improved the standard of living of people through employment creation.
Through engagement with NGO’s, some people have received a contact with working life
and they have been able to boost their self-esteem and they also been able to cut their
unemployment period and have gained valuable work experiences. NGO’s have employed
young people through practical training and an increasing number of long-term unemployed,
through the combined labour market subsidy.

Furthermore, non-governmental organizations (NGO) have a become key factor in

responding to health care and related suffering. In our community, NGO’s plays a leading
role in providing health care. Several key NGO’s are involved in sourcing expensive
medications and giving them at discounted rates to the need and also, they are actively
involved in running several health camps and help provide for a free medical checkup. This
results in a healthy community.

NGO’s are not for profit making and non-governmental organizations, not under any
political or governmental influence plays a crucial role in ensuring wellness empowerment
and development of societies and also protect them against bad practices in the sense that
NGO’s act as a bridge between the government and the society. They make the society aware
of the policies and the plans taken by the government for society’s welfare and ensure that
they are properly implemented and also, they appeal to the government to take steps and
formulate plans for the society’s needs

Non-governmental organizations play very vital role in the society in the sense that, they are
not operated for or driven by the motives of earning short term profits so these do no harm to
anyone and continuously work for the betterment of society at large. As a result, they
promote equality amongst people.

As actors in a global civil society, NGOs  helps to recreate a countervailing force to the

process that can excluded people by re-distributing assets and opportunities, injecting social
values into market processes, and holding economic institutions to account for their actions.

Furthermore, they act as financial aid, granted that most of the NGO’s have been set up to
provide aid to various sections of the society and to that end they are quite effective in
providing local governments with either much needed funds or help to fund or develop local
infrastructure projects. On the whole, NGO’s are essential in more ways than one, be it a
question of disbursing financial perks to certain poorer sections of the society or food grains
and other essentials to those in need.

They play an important role in promoting education in the sense that, several NGO’s have
contributed and even helped build several educational institutes across the nation. Most of
these schools and higher institution of learning are funded by NGO’s, various charities and
such, they offer the local residents’ educational opportunities at low or zero cost. As a result,
they is room for education for those who are less privileged with free education.

Additionally, owing to the fact that local cooperation partnerships are regarded by many as
having the potential of giving communities more control over their own lives, and owing to
the fact that decision makers may lack objective reality as frequently they have no direct
experience of the problems which they seek to address, NGOs in Zimbabwe play a
catalyzing role of mobilizing the people for the purpose of undertaking social work in their
communities. In this perspective, NGOs are seen as catalysts and mobilizers of the
community. They play the role of recruiting marginalized people in their undertakings, and
this has undoubtedly benefited the latter through the experiential learning and training
opportunities offered by their involvement.

However, on the other hand, NGO’s possesses negative impacts to the community for
instance, interference in local government, of late, rather than focusing on their charitable
operations, it has been noted that several numbers of the NGO’s are interfering in local
elections to help get their preferred official elected. It is apparent that several number of the
NGO’s who are funded by specific groups have been directed to interfere in local elections
for a specific agenda

To add more, it has also been noted that these NGO’s have no rules or regulations. NGO’s
are not governed by any international charger or agreement and as such, there is very little to
regulate their activities. As a result, several NGO’s operatives have started using their base
of operations for other purposes besides charity, for example child abuse. This lack of
adequate training, background, is resulting in NGOs getting mired in several scandals,
including child abuse over the last few years

Moreso, they little or no respect to local customs. This is another reason why NGO’s are
viewed less favorably by the local residents because of their interference with some of the
local customs and traditions. While it should be pointed out that all NGO’s and their
operatives are given specific directions by the government to not to interfere with any of the
local customs and traditions. It has been suggested that some of the NGO’s had been rather
overzealous in spreading their message of peace that the line between charity and direct
intervention soon starts to blur.

Additionally, there is x

POSITIVE (economic impact)

 Employment creation for locals and externals
 Project funding
 Improvement in the standard of living
 Providing assistance in times of disasters e.g. drought, floods, earthquakes, cyclones etc.
Social impact
 Donation medical equipment and drugs to fight chronic diseases e.g AIDS,
EBOLA.SARSetc.
 Education on health and hygiene
 Offering educational assistance to orphans and the under privileged
 Child feeding in rural areas

Negative impact
 Sponsoring opposition parties
 Representation the interest on their mother countries
 Dumping products
 Testing drugs on people
 Encouraging the dependency syndrome of locals
 Promoting/encouraging laziness and dependency syndrome among
 Zimbabweans working against government policies e.g. black empowerment,
 indigenization, land and redistribution etc.
 - Play a role in dumping useless and/or obsolete products or technology
 - Test drugs on people
 - They sponsor and support opposition political parties
 - They represent the interests of their mother which are invariably opposed to
 government policies
 - Some of them engage in subversion and espionage
 - Encourage brain drain
 - Interfere in the political affairs of the country
 - They cause the spread of foreign cultures which are opposed to African
 values and beliefs