Commercial contracts are a real source of income for many NGOs, yet they also remain a major challenge. Pursuing these opportunities is often viewed with scepticism relating to the impact on an organisation’s nonprofit mandate- its soul.
The criticism of the development and aid sector isn’t as constructive as it could be. The debate about the structure, workings, and dynamics of the sector overall is mainly based on prejudice, competing political agendas and a surprising absence of the facts.
Dr. Alexandra Yannias Walker, project manager at MzN International, provides expert advice on what current monitoring and evaluation practices lack and what can be done to make them better.
Dr Adrian Flint and I here make the case for a development paradigm shaped and determined by the people directly affected by aid and assistance programmes.
Answers to the question of how best to help the world’s poor out of poverty and bring opportunity and development to a country usually include some of the familiar buzzwords: economic growth, political stability and an effective government.