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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.