GREAT ZIMBABWE UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIES.

CHIKUMBU PHILLIMON.DOC
NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

Introduction

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have gained a very high status as the leading
practitioners of development in Africa. To a greater extent NGOs are playing an important role in
promoting rural development. This essay will focus on the roles of NGOs such as poverty
reduction, health services, education, and empowerment of local authorities, women
empowerment and generating income programs. However as every coin has two sides, the other
side of the question will focus on the flaws or failures by NGOs such as dismissal on political
interference, lack of citizen participation as well as shortage of funds. NGOs bring new
perspectives with so much experience in matters affecting the country such as grassroots
development, poverty and most importantly defence of human rights. They have a broad
knowledge base and strong commitment to issues relevant to the emancipation of the country.
NGOs have shown more sensitivity and understanding of Africa's severe economic crisis than their
respective governments and the multilateral institutions, keeping in mind that Africans at the
grassroots level must have the lead in defining their needs and formulating development strategies.
They have demonstrated an awareness of the fact that conventional development models have not
changed the situation of the poorest in Africa and they have been quick to recognize that people
are poor because they have no power.
Non-Governmental Organizations are organizations that are non-profit oriented according to the
Private Voluntary Act (Chapter 17.5) of 19961. The same act also stipulates that NGOs should
benefit society or a particular community in the furtherance of its objectives. In other words NGOs
are private, self- governing, voluntary, non-profit making operating not for commercial purposes
but in the public interest. Rural development can be said to be a program of change aimed at the
alleviation of the poverty of rural dwellers and the ultimate enhancement of their quality of life
and general well-being.

Most rural areas suffer lack of development due to shortage or complete lack of access to resources.
According to Chitongo, studies by the Zimbabwe vulnerability assessment committee indicate that
55% of the rural population has no livestock to sale in times of need2. Most people rely on casual
labor, which is agriculturally based. Incomes are low thus limiting purchasing power hence access
to basic needs. NGOs have been bridging this gap. For example in Murewa the Catholic Relief
Program launched the protecting vulnerable livelihoods program focused on provision of
agricultural inputs, promotion of innovative agricultural strategies and appropriate post-harvest
technology. Through this program food production yield increased by 25 % and

economic

strengthening opportunities created for 250 groups across the district as supported by Matiza. He
furthers that in 1999 agriculture contributes 40% of exports, 50% of manufacturing and 70% of
employment3. Therefore the intervention by NGOs is crucial as not only rural development but the
economy as a whole is directly linked to the performance of the agricultural sector. Thus by
improving the agricultural activities in rural areas, these marginal areas are given the opportunity
to actively participate and contribute significantly to the progression of their local development as
well as to that of mainstream economy
Moreover NGOs also are improving education in Africa .A good example is in Murewa where in
ward 28 there are only 2 primary and 1 secondary school. These 3 schools are supposed to service
children from approximately 30 villages within the ward which is a worrying situation4.NGOs
have intervened in education promotion and provided assistance by building more schools and
maintaining the existing ones which are in bad shape in most cases. In the same vein Action Aid
is actively participating alongside local government in Ethiopia and it has organized an education
committee of NGOs to interact with officials, for instance in 1998 Action Aid launched Campaign
Elimu in several countries which is aimed at strengthening the voice of the poor in education in
relation to decision-making at all levels. The program also encouraged community participation in
school management, involvement in the district education authorities and access to policy forums.
In Malawi NGOs such as Save the Children Trust and Action Aid have participated as members

of the technical team in the drafting of education policies such as (PRSP) as supported by
Kadzamira and Kunje5. The above clearly shows the role of improving education in Africa as
education is important in improving peoples life.
In relation to the above NGOs are also sponsoring childrens school levies. This is of vital
importance as the number of vulnerable children is around 600 in Zimunya at Mutika primary
school6. The Shinga Development Trust and the IM Swedish Organization had selected 300 pupils
with deceased parents to benefit from the program. In the same scenario In Chivhu District at
Munyati primary and secondary schools the CAMPED Organization managed to help vulnerable
children as it offers school fees, school uniforms and books. This promotes rural development as
it reduces illiteracy rate in the remote areas and increased skilled personal in the industries.
Moreover NGOs have been in the fore front of fostering health programs in rural areas all over
Africa and they have had significant success. The efforts in provision of Free medical care ,Safe
drinking water by providing wells, Sanitary latrines and hygiene awareness have yielded
considerable improvement in the wellbeing of rural dwellers .according to Chitongo, CRS health
initiatives improved care and support for 2000 people living with HIV/AIDS through quality home
based cares7. The study by Bhaskar and Geethakutty indicated that the majority of the program
activities ultimately lead to progress in health and hygiene. Also according to Dhillon and Hansra,
73% of the beneficiary respondents and 30% of non-beneficiaries and 90% of NGO workers have
high evaluative perception regarding the effectiveness of NGOs8. NGOs have also been engaged
in the building, repairing and maintenance of health facilities. Projects such as mobile health
clinics and voluntary health provision by specialist who each out to marginalized and rural areas
is a huge effort to be appreciated as both the central and local governments in Africa are having
serious challenges providing such service to the locals. Such efforts lead to the maintenance of
health of both the young, who are the crucial human resource to propel development and the

elderly, lengthening their lives and subsequently boosting life expectancy which is a development
indicator not just at the rural level but nationally.
Furthermore a good number of NGOs are on the ground in Nigeria carrying out different
developmental projects all geared towards socio-economic upliftment of the people in their various
areas of interest in Edo State. These includes Emmanuel Arigbe Osula Foundation which are
providing contents of Community Home Based Care and medical needs of clients. The contents
of the kit have resulted in improved hygiene for the sick and enabled the care giver to provide
services safely and to maintain a cleaner home environment9. The medicines accessed in the clinic
kit have gone a long way in caring minor ailments such as oral thrush wounds and the reduction
of pain. These services should not be underestimated since it is in rural areas where many people
suffer as they fail to access medicines so NGOs should be credited because healthy citizens are the
greatest asset any country can have.

In the same vein, food provision in rural and marginalized areas by NGOs also is an appreciated
effort towards rural development by NGOs. Most African countries are affected by severe and
prolonged and almost casual droughts due to a combination of factors which include low rainfall
and unreliable rainfall patterns, shortage of agricultural inputs and weak government capacity to
implement development initiatives. Ridell contends that in many years between 25% and 60% of
farming families fail to produce sufficient food for themselves.10According to FAO 2001 in
southern Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and Somalia in east Africa and Guinea and Liberia in West
Africa had a sharp reduced crop production11 Food difficulties were experienced by rural
communities. In Zimbabwe the nutrition gardens program which supports horticultural farming
not only improves nutrition but also provides a source of income for the rural households
increasing their spending capacity. Sahley argues that NGOs have an important role to play in
supporting the efforts of poor people to tackle causes and effects of food insecurity12. He further

suggests that they have been conceptualized as something of a panacea for rural household food
insecurity problems. Such assistance is crucial as rural dwellers can use their little capital to invest
in other small profit generating ventures to sustain themselves rather than having to spend on
purchase of food. Local government defines development as including the alleviation of poverty
and food shortage13. Without the efforts of NGOs like the World Food Program, UN and UMCOR,
the rural situation in most African countries would have been way more pathetic than it is. Coupled
with food provision is the distribution of information and training of the rural people on ways they
could improve their lives and wellbeing. To this extent therefore it can be argued that NGOs are
playing a crucial in promoting rural development.
NGOs are also promoting women empowerment in supporting women, men and households so
that they can meet the welfare. Their roles ranged from counselling and support services,
awareness raising and advocacy, legal aid and micro finance. Desai has it that these services help
people to achieve their ability, skill, and knowledge as well as taking control over their own lives
and finally become empowered14. Oxfam is a vivid example and this is important in a country like
Zimbabwe where the state does not make provision for such services. These services comes against
a back ground where NGOs have gained a very high status as leading practitioners of development
in Africa. In Zimbabwe NGOs are playing an important role in supporting women, men and
households, and expected that they can meet the welfare. This role ranges from counselling and
support service, awareness raising and advocacy, legal aid and microfinance Desai15. These
services help the people to achieve their ability, skill and knowledge, and take control over their
own lives and finally become empowered. This is very important in a country like Zimbabwe
where the State does not make provision for such services. There is an argument that NGOs are
today still seen as possible alternatives to government in addressing the needs of communities
which are not reached by official development programs as enunciated by Desai16.

NonGovernmental Organizations are also involved in environmental conversations and

sustainable use of resources so as to mitigate rural poverty in rural areas. It is now celebration time
for the Makoni Organic Farmers Association (MOFA)s 450 members who are literally making
waves globally after winning the coveted Equator prize in 2014. This was supported by UNDP
under the Global Environment Facilitys Small Grants Program (GEFSGP). Chambers and
Conway states that the farmers are making a leading way in their lives after winning a US$ 50 000
in 2011 which the farmers used to scale up their activities by establishing 7 organic gardens and
receiving training on organic farming 17.The Makoni people are now earning a decent living.
However although NGOs had championed developmental projects in Africa for the past half
century, most African governments do not see it this way. Zanu-PF national chairman Comrade
John Nkomo argued that western countries are using non-governmental organizations to foment
political instability and to pursue a regime change agenda in Zimbabwe. He also said that NGOs
receive money from Britain and the United States of America to create disturbances in the country.
He furthers that they are creating an unAfrican culture, giving money to people to remove their
leaders. They are fronts for regime change who have no real purpose or reason to be in the country,
the Herald Newspaper reports18 . This is however contrary to what neither the NGOs nor their
beneficiaries say. NGOs play a major role in development especially in Zimbabwe mainly because
they have characteristics that make them more suitable than public and private sector institutions
to advance micro-level development. Thus NGOs gain a comparative advantage from their features
justifying the financial backing they get from international donor agencies and national
governments. This is however not the real picture for many NGOs in Zimbabwe. With reference
to the statement by the Zanu-PF national chairman above, the NGOs surely do not have the backing
of the Zimbabwean government and this had resulted in NGOs like Care International and Cadec
leaving the country at the same time hindering rural development.
The other factor affecting the sustainability of the NGOs according to the interviews is the issue
of funding. The major sources of funding for NGOs continue to be voluntary private sources and
governments. Before, African governments were the only key recipients of official aid from donor

countries and multilateral organizations nowadays more aid is being conveyed through NGOs,
many of which are recognized by the donor community to work more competently in sustainable
development and to work in those areas which are not accessible to governments as supported by
Ndegwa19. The re-direction of aid from the governments to NGOs had both positive and negative
impacts on NGOs. On one hand it meant more resources for them to pursue their work, however
creating some tension with the governments as they were being bypassed as implementing agents.
In turn, most governments are trying to 'coordinate' NGOs anticipating that they might be able to
control them now that they are recipients of more official funding. The government control over
the NGOs however scares away many donors says a former VSO (Zimbabwe) Placement Officer20.
The donors could no longer trust the NGOs with their funding. The Christian Care representative
however admitted to one of the biggest challenge to this way of funding stating that dependence
on donor governments or multinational institutions for funding may compromise their flexibility
to deal with grave development issues. It may also undermine their ability to speak out against
those policies of funders which they see as harmful to the interests of the poor.
There is certainly a lack of coordination of the activities of NGOs in Nigeria. Attempts at
networking are faltering while efforts to create coordinating bodies in the country are sectorial in
scope and still on the drawing board. The pioneering position on this is occupied by the Nigerian
Association of Nongovernmental Organization on Health (NANGDH) but there are presently
practical on the drawing board21. The problem of lack of coordination is worse at the first level
of NGOs, where the less organized CDAs of each community operate in a free hand competition.
The results of all this lack of coordination between NGOs are regrettable overlapping, paralyses
and atrophy of initiatives and resources. The strategy of doing-it-alone does not permit operations
on meaningfully substantive scope but on small, experimental and limited basis. The outcome is

the littering of the rural landscape with dotted, disjointed projects. As Dunning asserted small may
be beautiful, but it can also be insignificant22. What obtains today at the community level amongst
the CDAs is duplicated projects, even within a community, that are grossly underutilized,
uncompleted and abandoned .This is an obvious demonstration of NGOs failure, thus diminishing
public, and even some NGOs operators' confidence in the capability of NGOs as poverty
alleviation agencies. Waning confidence takes as its first toll, people's willingness and enthusiasm
for participation in and support for further NGOs activities

Conclusion
The essay has tried to show the crucial role being played by NGOs in fostering rural development.
This is evidenced by programs related to education, poverty alleviation, healthy systems,
environmental sustainability as well as women empowerment. However the other side of the
question points out to factors that affects NGOs in effectively enhancing rural development such
as lack of financing, termination of NGO contracts by governments as well as addressing
symptoms of poverty not the real cause although to a lesser extent.
Phillimon Chikumbu is a student at Great Zimbabwe University, Masvingo Zimbabwe
Email chikumbupower@gmail.com
Mobile 263 777 436 666

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