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To what extent does the evidence support the view that NGOs help to reduce
poverty and/or to empower the poor?

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NGOs and Poverty Reduction Ikiemoye I. 741156

To what extent does the evidence support the view that NGOs
help to reduce poverty and/or to empower the poor?

Introduction
The concept of poverty reduction and empowering the poor has been a very complex
issue because the struggle to doing so all over the globe has been the debate or effort for decades.
In as much as it is a global issue, the focus of the discourse right from the late 20th century has
been on how developing countries could be taken out from this situation, and this became a
serious point of discussion by the international community as adopted in the Millennium
Development Goals with the commitment of halving 1990 poverty levels by 2015 (Clarke 2012:
219). In fact, Chandy and Gertz (2011) as cited by Clarke (2012:219) suggest that there has been
significant reduction in the people living in absolute poverty, as a result of the MDG, and that
data show that the number of people living in poverty fell from over 1.3 billion in 2005 to under
900 million in 2010 (p. 219). This data led them in saying that “Poverty reduction of this
magnitude is unparalleled in history” (Chandy and Gertz 2011:3). The developed countries and
international organisations have also no doubt been very much involved in this process through
their development assistance to ensuring that the governments of the developing nations live up
to their duties in liberating the poor and giving them hope to sustain their standards of living.
The main aim of this essay is to survey what Non-governmental organisations have done
over the past decades in empowering the poor and reducing poverty especially in developing
countries. First and foremost, it will review debates on the phenomena of poverty and poverty
reduction and briefly look at the kinds of non-governmental organisations and their roles.
Thereafter, it will weigh the debates or evidence about NGOs performance or role in reducing
poverty and/or empowering the poor. This will be done by evaluating the argument, looking at
the strengths and the weaknesses of their roles, that is by asking the ‘how and what’ questions; if
NGOs have helped in reducing poverty or empowering the poor, what are the evidences to show
how much or little they have done? Or what are the opposing arguments that show that they have
not really succeeded in this pursuit? It will conclude with a clear stand on whether NGOs have
contributed enough in reducing poverty or not.

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Conceptual Clarifications
Poverty is an unending challenge as far as existence is concerned. In as much as we want
every human to get access to all good things of life, practically it is very difficult to exterminate
the phenomenon out of existence. It is very common to presume that anyone you meet can give a
precise definition of what the word ‘poverty’ means, but the definition of course will definitely
be determined by what goes through the mind of the definer-the specific meaning or “underlying
concept of poverty we have in mind” (MacPherson and Silburn, 1998:1). The various discourses
on poverty is analogous so that there tend to be interrelated definitions which are pinned to the
unavailability of income and basic services, whereby some argue that poverty is the insufficiency
of political, social, economic and environmental resources (Wilson et al 2001:3). Clarke
(2012:220) argues that before any move to ‘eradicate’ (a word I do not agree with) poverty
should be made, it is vital to digest what poverty truly mean. Poverty is essentially connected to
development; it is the course of development that leads to poverty reduction (p. 219). He said for
the poor to be improved they need development and this is evidenced by untimely death, diseases
that could be avoided, less access to portable water and clean environment, economic insecurity
and good education. MacPherson and Silburn (1998:1) said many have referred to poverty in its
simplest form as “a basic lack of means of survival” so that those who would be referred as poor
would be those who are “unable to feed and clothe themselves properly and risk death as a
consequence.” This could be very true for those regions of the world where a large proportion of
the population are extremely affected by these features. Therefore, it would be so unwise to
contest such when poverty is conceptualised in this instance. However, it becomes very
contestable in other regions where these kinds of levels have been attained to some appreciable
degree. Hence, in this kind of society, the concept takes a new dimension, so that more emphasis
would now be laid on the “quality of life that even the poorest in a community should be able to
enjoy” (p.2). In this case the definition of poverty becomes relative, hence, including ideas of
“social participation, of exclusion and inclusion, of citizenship, of empowerment” (ibid. 2).
It is contentious to say one has a perfect definition of poverty, thus the consideration of
different approaches to it. Clarke (2012), Lister (2004), MacPherson and Silburn (1998), all in
different ways analysed poverty from monetary perspective, capabilities perspective, inequality
and social exclusion, and participation. From the Monetary perspective, it simply measures
poverty as lack of economic or GDP growth and an individual’s financial income and with the

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target of the MDGs to reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day,
it simply connotes that for one to be out of poverty, one’s income must be above US$ 1.25 per
day. With the inconsistency of this perspective comes the Capabilities perspective which was
made popular by the works of Amantyr Sen who gives an alternative to the former definition, by
influencing UNDP to seeing “poverty as a denial of choices and opportunities for living a
tolerable life” (UNDP, 1997:2). Sen (1984, 1985, 1987, 1993) argues that poverty is the absence
of well-being, and well-being which is not measured by income or commodity is all about what
the individual actually does with the commodity. When the individual lacks in this ‘capabilities
and functionings’-the ability to use his commodity, he is said to be living in poverty. However,
Lister (2004: 20) also noted that the perspective enhances understanding but does not constitute a
definition of poverty.
As for inequality and social exclusion, it explains poverty as the gap between the poor
and the rich, which could be in absolute terms and relative terms and this is basically
characterised by monetary differences. The inequality in absolute terms is often times scaled on
nutritional basis and could be defined by “reference to the actual needs of the poor and not by
reference to the expenditure of those who are not poor. A family is poor if it cannot afford to eat”
(Joseph and Sumption ,1979: 27). Logically, when a family cannot afford to eat, it definitely
cannot afford education and there is bound to be health crisis. This agrees with UNDP’s HPI
definition of poverty-a long and healthy life, knowledge and decent standard of living (Clarke
2012:222). However, in relative terms, poverty is multidimensional and it is when people
“cannot obtain at all or sufficiently, the condition of life-that is, the diets, amenities, standards
and services-which allow them to play the roles, participate in the relationships and follow the
customary behaviour which is expected of them by virtue of their membership of society”
(Townsend 1993: 36).
The bottom line is ‘poverty’ is an unfortunate and inescapable global phenomenon. The
‘poor’ will always constitute the society and its definition is relative because of the cultural
differences amongst the peoples of the world. However, for now, I shall remain with poverty
being understood in the wider social contexts of ‘well-being, capabilities, human flourishing,
quality of life, social quality’ (Lister 2004: 36).
So far, I have been engaged in conceptualising poverty to usher in the pending issue
which is how NGOs help in the reduction of poverty and empowering the poor. The question is

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what are NGOs? What are they known for? These are queries I intend looking at before
discussing what they have or have not done as development alternatives or complementisers to
alleviate poverty, regardless of the responsibility of duty bearers.
Non-Governmental Organisations, NGOs, are only a part of actors in a larger civil
society, thus they are “a sphere of public life beyond the control of the state” (Colas 2002:26).
Interestingly, Streeten (1997: 194) says they are “voluntary, private organisations that mobilise
the commitment and enthusiasm of volunteers to objectives of relieving suffering and of
development.” Moreover, they are not-for-profit seeking organisations which distinguishes them
from other private organisations which are non-governmental as well but profit-seeking. Suzuki
(1998: 217) says that a good number of the NGOs that came in the last 100 years worked
overseas for the interest of their governments, and this could be seen from the “cultural and relief
activities they performed” (p. 218). But then, from the 1980s, more than 2220 NGOs received
contributions and grants from industrialised states and they in turn put into partner private
organisations in the developing states. OECD (1987) confirmed that during this period, twenty
thousand organisations in the developing states received assistance and tried to work for the
poor. These NGOs worked specifically during times of earthquakes, floods, famines, crises, and
they were commended for their ability to react more swiftly than government agencies (Suzuki
1998: 218 citing Van Der Heijden 1985).
NGOs both in the South and North because of their diverse methods of operation,
development specialists, Fisher (1993: 8); Private Agencies Collaborating Together (PACT)
(1989: 4) ; Korten (1990:95); Clark (1991) have categorised them differently as well. A
summary of all their classifications show that there are NGOs that are village/locally-based
working closely with the communities, some work from overseas, some are national, with
various functions like service delivery, advocacy, social, economic (market-business)
development and lobbying government. Nevertheless, the issue is how do NGOs contribute to
alleviating poverty? Just as Van Der Heijden (1985) pointed out that they act much swiftly than
government, how much evidence is available to show that they indeed help in empowering the
poor and reducing the concept of poverty that I have earlier conceptualised in this essay? Let’s
find out.

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Evaluating NGOs contributions to Poverty Reduction

One thought that always comes to mind any time the NGO discourse is raised has been
the so much confidence that has been ascribed to the ability of NGOs to deliver at the expense of
the non-performance of governments. Streeten (1997: 194) claims that so much hope was placed
on NGOs to liberate the people because the people have lost confidence on their governments
and markets have been out rightly left for private businesses that have the ‘purchasing power’,
thus the poor are left behind and excluded from the scheme of things. This failure on the side of
government and the private sector (markets) has cooked up hopes that NGOs would succeed. In
this regard, the begging question becomes; how much or little have they done to sustain this new
hope?
Earlier in this essay, I mentioned that according to the work of Chandy and Gertz, people
living in poverty were reduced from 1.3 billion to 900 billion between 2005 and 2010, which was
a significant achievement. Following this data, I would argue that NGOs contributions, to some
extent, helped in recording that feat. Although there are so many arguments that point to their
(NGOs) weaknesses, there are some regions that NGOs have been pretty successful. Even before
the dawn of the millennium, NGOs have worked with governments, bilateral and multilateral
organisations to improve the well being of the vulnerable or poor (OECD 1987). And with the
declaration of a more goal oriented structure, the Millennium Development Goals in 2000, even
though faulty in its own way, the task became more focused. NGOs in different capacities
tackled poverty ranging from micro financing-agriculture-capacity building to be self employed
(Goal 1), education and training (Goal 2), to health (Goal 4, 5, 6), and other social services. It
will be an impossible task to enumerate all the activities of NGOs around the world in order to
show how much or little they have contributed in empowering the poor, however, to illustrate
this a bit, I shall for the purpose of space, provide a few NGO cases.
Indonesia, like many developing countries, has a high poverty rate but it was recorded
that before she experienced the 1997 financial crisis, the number of poor people dropped from
56.7% in 1986 to 17.4% in 1996, but after the crisis, it increased drastically. However, it
decreased again in 2002 from 23% to 18% and by 2004 it was 16% (Suharto, 2007: 2 citing
Bappenas, 2006). This decrease to some extent was attributed to the efforts of Indonesian NGOs
who ceaselessly developed initiatives to improve the livelihoods of the poor. They are estimated
around twenty thousand. One amongst the prominent ones is Yayasan Bina Swadaya.

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Suharto (2007: 5) elaborates that Yayasan Bina Swadaya (Self Reliance Development
Foundation) is an NGO that provides public services in the regions of Lampung, Jakarta, West
Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, Papua, Central Kalimantan, and East Nusa Tenggara
through two main activities. First, services to empower communities by establishing education
and training centres, consultancy and research centres that engage in developing human
resources, local areas and agriculture, increasing community health including sanitation and
environment (p. 6). Second, the poor were helped to access capital through the establishment of
microfinance institutions (ibid. 6).
The beauty of this NGO is that it is now self reliant with no dependence on foreign grants
unlike when it started with 90% dependence on foreign grants in the 1980s. It was able to
achieve this feat because they were able to define what poverty was in Indonesian context. Sadi
et al (2003: 394) quoted a senior staff of the NGO as saying:
“Poverty reduction should be properly perceived and understood, especially in
terms of its backgrounds and current obstacles and subsequent impacts [...].”

From their activities, I would argue that Bina Swadaya understood and conceptualised
poverty in line with the various concepts of poverty earlier mentioned above, which leaves me
with the conclusion that the activities put up by Bina Swadaya and its fellow NGOs operating in
other areas could have contributed to the decrease in poverty level in Indonesia.
India is another perfect example of a country where NGOs have made some little impact
in the move to poverty reduction since the government’s development policies to poverty
reduction have been less effective. They are today seen as “complementary to government
programmes both in terms of providing additional resources and in making government
programmes more effective” (Riddell et all, 1995: 138). The importance of NGOs became
glaring in the late 1990s with India recording over 20,000 NGOs whereby a huge number
ventured into education campaign and some into advocacy activities. Almost all went into
economic activities such as “income generation, appropriate technology, agriculture, and micro-
credit besides activities in social sectors especially in the issues of health, education and
environment” Sato (2002:60). Among the prominent NGOs that help in alleviating poverty is
Gram Vikas, which of course due to the diverse regional differences in India, came up with

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programs that concentrate on livelihoods and food security, education and health which are the
major indicators of poverty as stipulated by UNDP.
Furthermore, I want to emphasise that a decade before the declaration of the MDGs,
evidence on NGOs empowering the poor abound from projects centred on income generation,
credit and training situated in the rural areas of Bangladesh, India, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Robinson (1992:31) noted that though people criticised NGOs activities, the poor identified with
the changes because they helped them from not falling into more hardships. Projects like the
CASA Phase III programme in India, ActionAid credit programme in Bangladesh (not to
mention projects by BRAC), Simukai Collective Cooperative and Camp fire project in
Zimbabwe, UWFCT and ActionAid projects in Uganda (Robert 1992:31,32) and even in Nigeria
(where I come from), NGOs are increasing their impact on the poor by introducing credits and
technical assistance. An example is Southernfield Development Partners in Rivers State, Nigeria,
which is out to support communities build and sustain whatever enterprises they engage in as
well as rendering social services that will empower them.

The other side of the coin

In spite of these evidences, there are some weaknesses that have left many also think that
NGOs have not really done much, hence should not be given too much credit. I will begin
with a Romanian example where it was observed that NGOs executed their programmes based
on available funding. Pralong (2004: 238) noted that there is high tendency that quite a number
of NGOs were created based on the available funding which was also confirmed by Local NGO
officials that their programmes were often times designed to suit funds made available by
western donors (Emoke 2009: 20). The situation was pathetic because NGOs were forced to
consider the choices of the donors even when their programmes were designed to attend to
common local needs. Emoke emphasises that western donors have their own special priorities
which could be in line with social change but to a great extent do not satisfy local needs. And
from the findings, NGOs selections of programmes do not regard the needs of the poor but often
times suited donors taste. This particular weakness was affirmed by Streeten (1997: 196) who
said that NGOs do not live up to their expectations because most times the poor are not reached

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in the real sense and their views are ‘autocratic and elitist’-top-down, which is as a result of
excess donor influence since they are bound to aid. This practice can in no way reduce poverty.
The Romanian example is also typical to so many developing nations especially in
Africa. The fact is NGOs have had recognisable impact in Africa such as in areas of service
delivery like making available services like health, education, water supply and micro-finance
aimed at alleviating living standards of the less well off. Just I have earlier highlighted, even
Salih (2002: 1-7) also confirmed that NGOs in sub-Sahara Africa have made relevant
contributions in ameliorating rural environmental and agricultural problems, drought and
economic challenges. Also, big NGOs in Asia like BRAC in Bangladesh have performed
significantly in areas like micro-credit, education, training, and so forth, but there still remains a
question mark to their ability to really surpass the percentage estimated by Fowler (2005: 18)
which he said was 20 per cent even though Chandy and Gertz (2011) claimed that by 2010 there
was a significant drop of people living in poverty. As regards this stand, a good number of
arguments maintain that the “complementary role” played by NGOs is not strong enough to
restore lasting hope for the poor. This is because NGOs have been accused of reproducing
services instead of serving the poor (Leopold 2001: 9), and this was ascribed to their failure to
create projects that recognise local actualities and perhaps donors demands for NGOs to come up
with frameworks that would produce short term successes rather than looking at long lasting
sustainable impacts.
Furthermore, the fact that NGOs are unable to reach the ‘poorest of the poor’ but the
‘middle poor’ because they don’t have the basic assets or requirements to organise has marked
them down (Carroll. 1992: 68). This is because they should have been their foremost priority, the
reason for their intervention. Also with the problems highlighted by Riddell et all (1995: 60-61)
that projects failed to reach the poor because they are costly to implement and time consuming,
and with indications that most projects exhibited signs of collapsing should NGOs end their work
in the area, are major evidences to counter proposing arguments.
Following these arguments, one is tempted to see NGOs as not done much, besides the
poverty rate is still very high, and up till now the goal of halving the number of people living in
poverty is far from being realised.

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Conclusion
This essay began with an overview of the concept of poverty and poverty reduction
giving the various conceptualisations overtime by different scholars. It went further to give a
brief insight of what Nongovernmental Organisations are viewed before evaluating and assessing
the strengths and weaknesses as well as how much and/or little NGOs have helped in reducing
poverty, with some country examples.
Determining the extent to which NGOs in general have contributed to reducing poverty
or empowering the poor to me is a challenging and tricky task. I believe that the little successes
recorded by NGOs in some regions of the world should not be used to conclude or make
generalisations because the main problem is there is no universally accepted definition of
poverty. Hence, if we cannot define poverty universally, then it is impossible to measure its
reduction universally as well. For instance, it would be fallacious to generalise with the little
success that is probably recorded in Brazil, India, Bangladesh or Indonesia, when in some other
developing countries people are still wondering the impact that has been made by NGOs. The
issue still remains that many NGOs, though have good intentions and programme frameworks,
have not really localised their global development ideas to suit local realities. Also, the idea that
people have lost confidence on their governments and markets, thereby painting NGOs as the
good development actors has not helped the situation either. Rather, the NGOs are put under
pressure to deliver by every means, and factually, much is often times not expected from such a
one. Therefore, NGOs, whether they play the complementary, substitute, agents of donors’ role
(Tvedt 1998; Fowler 2000; Amutabi 2006), should build and sustain the mentality of success by
cooperating with central governments as well as holding them accountable for their actions, so
that the generations yet unborn would not come and experience even a more severe situation of
the same phenomenon which has constituted the core of global discussion for the past 40
decades.

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