2020 Dec 07. Transcript of Audio Clip on NGO-ization

Transcript of Audio Clip Recorded December 7, 2020

Angela Okune:

So in a version--basically I got feedback on the blog post that I had shared you that you said you got the chance to look at--I also revised that and submitted it as a paper. And so the professor responded to that paper. And she said that one thing to note that might be interesting is like how organizations like the World Bank and other donor agencies...initially before tech entrepreneurs, they were really especially investing (and before investing in like SMEs), they were investing in NGOs, and the whole like "NGO-ization" you know... there were like so many NGOs that came up. That was like '80s, '90s, probably, early 2000s.

And I think the critique that arose out of that was like, because initially the NGO was like, oh, the ideal group to like put money into, because they were "helping their grassroots community." So this idea that like, if you want to get away from being the big development from the global north and just coming with your development projects, then you should actually give money to the NGO. And the NGO will know the environment better and be able to like give money to the community.

But they found out that actually, it was messing like local dynamics up more because it was creating more politics and more friction and now people were fighting within the community because who gets money from the NGO, you know, like it was creating a lot of micro politics.

Leo Mutuku:
And!

Angela Okune:
Sorry, go ahead.

Leo Mutuku:
And their money was ending and there were no impacts. Like they kept on putting money year in and year out into projects that like have no sustainability--what is it called--sustainability measures in place. Once the World Bank money is done for this NGO, and then what? There was never this issue at that point as well.

Angela Okune:
And so then I think the next iteration from there became, okay, let's invest in [techpreneurs and small businesses]...and I think that's also maybe where the rise in investing, making sure that research then couples on top of whatever development money they gave out right because now it was like, "we need to measure the impact." So I need to see if there's other work out there that kind of makes that connection for us that we can just cite. I know there's a literature on like NGO-ization that we could just cite. So, how should we go about it?