A Mixed Blessing: The NGO Boom in Latin America
Macdonald, Laura
It is often assumed that the growth of NGOs in Latin America reflects a strengthening of civil society. But in searching for alternative models of development, North American progressives need to...
...The problems of paternalism are not, however, limited to neoliberal NGOs...
...Canadian fishermen were enthusiastic about the experience...
...Since Latin American agencies are reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them, needed program changes are often slow in coming...
...These NGOs may claim to support community development, but they tend to favor individualistic solutions to the economic crisis...
...The CECADE farmers eventually decided to replace the cocoa plants with other crops, while CRS decided to continue support for cocoa production, awaiting better prices...
...Creating direct people-to-people linkages is an important vehicle for stimulating political support in the North for social change...
...8. See David C. Korten, "Third-generation NGO strategies: A Key to People-centred Development," World Development, Vol...
...In fact, assistance from Northern NGOs to small development projects can be even more dangerous than aid from state agencies because it penetrates into the very fibres of a community, creating new forms of clientelism and cooptation...
...Peter Sollis, quoted in Francisco Alvarez Solis and Pauline Martin, "The Role of Salvadoran NGOs in Post-war Reconstruction," Development in Practice Vol...
...Both Southern and Northern NGOs are typically staffed by midVOL XXVIII, No 5 MARCH /APRIL 199531 VOL XXVIII, No 5 MARCH /APRIL 1995 31REPORT ON SOLIDARITY Women participate in a community-organized program to distribute bread and milk to schoolchildren in Perquin, El Salvador...
...15 This is easier said than done...
...In order to achieve these goals, however, Northern organizations must be flexible enough to learn from their mistakes, and to respond to the demands of the grassroots...
...If development organizations-official or voluntary, Northern or Southern-are to make meaningful contributions toward alleviating poverty," says John Clark, formerly of OXFAM-UK, "then they must learn to follow the people, not expect the people to follow them...
...The project was designed and implemented according to the priorities of the Costa Rican government and international donors...
...5. Alan Fowler, "Distant Obligations: Speculations on NGO Funding and the Global Market," Review of African Political Economy, No...
...iii) Popular organizations: Popular organizations are composed of members, to whom they are in some way accountable...
...Conference of Catholic bishops, focused on charity and welfare work in the 1950s...
...The apparent virtues of NGOs tend to obscure the real problems even the most well-meaning and effective NGOs encounter in attempting to promote development...
...The FISS is notably selective in choosing its NGO collaborators...
...It has been difficult to break with the paternalistic mentality," he said...
...3 Reliable statistics on total amounts of NGO assistance to Latin America are difficult to find...
...While acknowledging that progressive NGOs played an important role when the peasant movement was beginning to organize, Carlos HernAndez, Nuestra Tierra's director, argues that they have outlived their usefulness...
...Neoliberal NGOs are flourishing throughout Central America under the auspices of multilateral financial institutions...
...hand from logs...
...In order to bypass national NGOs, some Costa Rican peasant unions got together in 1991 to form a new organization, Nuestra Tierra...
...Until 1979, the abundant varieties of fish and seafood off the coast were harvested only by large privately owned, off-shore trawlers, and sold abroad...
...When it comes to aid, small is not necessarily beautiful...
...NGOs are increasingly on the receiving end as well...
...Nicaragua, one large Northern NGO funded a foodfor-work program run by the right-wing municipal government of Managua...
...The virtuous image creates unrealistic expectations about the possibility of quick fixes if only aid is directed to people at the grassroots...
...See also Brian H. Smith, More Than Altruism: The Politics of Private Foreign Aid (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), chapters 2-4 for a more complete description of the evolution of U.S., European and Canadian NGOs...
...If food crops aimed at the local market are no longer economically viable because of competition from cheap grains imported from the United States, small farmers may have little choice but to produce nontraditional exports...
...In the wake of structural adjustment and the widespread decline of faith in state-led development strategies, both Latin American governments and Northern donors are increasingly turning to NGOs...
...CECADE, formed by intellectuals associated with the Costa Rican left, was critical of existing models of cooperation between North and South...
...Since the state had stopped subsidizing basic grains such as beans and corn, the peasants were looking for alternative crops...
...In 1992, with OXFAM's support, nine regional unions of fish30NAflA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 30REPORT ON SOLIDARITY A young woman builds a bicycle wheel at ECOBICI, a project of the Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technology...
...7. Charles W. Anderson, "Toward a Theory of Latin American Politics," in Howard J. Wiarda, ed., Politics and Social Change in Latin America: The Distinct Tradition, 2nd ed...
...145-59...
...ii) Southern NGOs: These are non-profit organizations based in Asia, Africa and Latin America, whose principal function is to implement development projects favoring the poor...
...This problem is exacerbated by the fact that NGOs-regardless of where they are based-tend to be made up of middleclass, usually urban, professionals...
...In searching for alternative models of development for the hemisphere, North American progressives need to question the assumption that NGOs are necessarily allies in a common cause...
...El Astillero is a tiny Nicaraguan community perched on the edge of the Pacific Ocean...
...In general, they have evolved from providing charity and relief, into community organizing and local development, and more recently toward lobbying and advocacy work...
...Lobbying, development education and advocacy work around issues like trade, structural adjustment and human rights, however, often better address the root causes of underdevelopment and poverty...
...These national NGOs have gradually became an end in themselves," he says, "and lost their original purpose, which was to help the popular organizations by channelling funds from the international NGOs...
...2 Although exchanges are an important way to educate people in the North about development issues, it cannot be assumed that people in similar situations in the North and South have the same interests and needs...
...She is the author of Supporting Civil Society: The Political Impact of NGO Assistance to Central America, forthcoming from St...
...After several years of working in the community, one CECADE promoter acknowledged how difficult it was to encourage genuine community participation...
...During the 1960s, CRS, like many other Northern NGOs, became frustrated with its failure to reduce levels of poverty, and began to fund local small-scale development projects instead...
...Although organizationally still weak, the capacity of the fishermen to represent their interests vis-&t-vis the state has increased substantially...
...9. Tim Draimin, "Potential for Partnership," p. 12...
...Peasants found it difficult to compete in this sector, however, because they lacked access to credit, markets, and processing facilities, and were vulnerable to the vagaries of the world market...
...NGOs are seen as a way not only to fill the gap caused by cutbacks in state services, but also as a way to contribute to democratization through support for civil society...
...But in searching for alternative models of development, North American progressives need to question whether these NGOs are invariably the best vehicle...
...OXFAM-Canada (a progressive NGO with links to OXFAMs in the United Kingdom, the United States, Belgium and elsewhere) decided to link up fishermen in Nicaragua with their Canadian counterparts from the Maritime provinces, who, OXFAM thought, had useful technical and organizational expertise to share with the Nicaraguans...
...We forgot that it was their first exposure to Third World issues too, and that they too needed to learn about development strategies...
...Unlike CRS, CECADE was critical of the country's structural-adjustment program, but, ironically, it also chose to promote cocoa production...
...As much as possible, local partners establish priorities for work, and are given control over day-to-day decision-making...
...Quoted in Esquel Group Foundation, "Civil Society, State and Market: An Emerging Partnership for Equitable Development," presented to the Social Forum convened by the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, Washington, D.C., February 10-13, 1993, p. 8. 12...
...Yet when I visited El Astillero in 1989, the local fishermen were sitting in their houses or repairing their nets, while the equipment which OXFAM had provided lay idle on the shore...
...To its credit, CECADE has also consistently emphasized the importance of lobbying and advocacy work...
...2 Diane Fournier and Bernard Martin, "Report of the Evaluation...
...General meetings of the coooperative were held only twice a year...
...The crisis in El Astillero pushed OXFAM-Canada to rethink its strategy...
...2 In a typical case from El Salvador, U.S.AID, together with the World Bank, UNDP, and the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), has helped establish a Salvadoran Social Investment Fund (Fondo de Inversidn Social Salvadoreiia or FISS...
...7 Latin American NGOs are very similar...
...After a Nicaraguan delegation paid a visit to Canada, a Canadian participant remarked, "people in the community are more open and interested in meeting people from other countries...
...Although these groups do not call themselves feminist, they aim through popular education to increase women's selfconfidence and their capacity to participate in community organizations.14 In general, progressive Northern NGOs (many of which are based in Western Europe or Canada) do not directly implement their own projects but provide support for local NGOs or popular organizations with which they have developed a long-term relationship...
...2, No...
...Without doubt, the problems of representation are even more acute for Northern NGOs, who are yet another step removed from the grassroots...
...From the start, the cooperative members had little input into the project...
...Neoliberal NGOs advocate the merits of market-led strategies for economic recovery...
...Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1982...
...15, Supplement (Autumn, 1987), p. 31...
...55, p. 15...
...Now people see foreigners as interesting people...
...Not surprisingly, they tended to focus on the low levels of technology in El Astillero, particularly the unstable boats carved by Laura Macdonald teaches political science at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario...
...The Sandinistas turned to international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to fill the gap...
...In the first case, the activity of the NGO is directed at provoking changes in order to avoid modifications in the structure of power...
...The older types of NGOs, however, continue to coexist with the newer forms, and probably control more money...
...In addition, since almost all cooperative members were men, women were automatically excluded from participating...
...CRS, the foreign-relief and development agency of the U.S...
...This neoliberal-progressive convergence can be seen in the examples of two NGOs from Costa Rica...
...NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 34REPORT ON SOLIDARITY Bearing out these obstacles, both the CRS and the CECADE projects ran into problems when the world price of cocoa plummeted...
...A Mixed Blessing 1. Diane Fournier and Bernard Martin, "Report of the Evaluation of the Atlantic Fisheries Linkage Project and the L'Acadie Project," prepared for OXFAM-Canada's Atlantic Regional Board and the Central America Work Team, May, 1991...
...In 1986, CRS began to provide organizational, technical and financial support to small farmers, primarily for the production of "nontraditional exports" such as ornamental plants, broccoli, macadamia nuts and cocoa...
...It is not unusual now to have a few of the guys talking about international issues around the wharf...
...According to the UNDP, total Northern NGO aid increased from $1.0 billion in 1970 to $7.2 billion in 1990...
...n the face of the broader constraints of the international market, structural adjustment, state policy, and the general political bias against the interests of small producers, the "alternative" strategies advocated by progressive NGOs often end up looking not too different from those of neoliberal groups...
...They see their role as assuaging the worst suffering caused by economic structural adjustment, in order to ensure social stability...
...It was not clear what the Canadians had to offer Nicaraguans in any of these areas...
...They may get support from state agencies, international NGOs or national NGOs, though many receive no external funding...
...It preferred to work with agencies like Agro Action which took a hands-off approach and supported long-term development programs...
...As the CECADE project revealed, the options open to NGOs are constrained by the broader political and economic context...
...and David C. Korten, Getting to the 21st Century Voluntary Action and the Global Agenda (West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 1990...
...After the Sandinistas came to power, they encouraged landless laborers to move to the coast and establish fishing cooperatives...
...15, Supplement (Autumn, 1987), pp...
...In the United States, they are often referred to as Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs...
...dle-class professionals who provide technical support, training and financial support to communities...
...Concertaci6n Centroamericana de Organismos de Desarrollo, "Memoria: Reunion de organismos no-gubernamentaies para la constituci0n de la Concertacibn Centroamericana de Organismos de Desarrollo," unpublished document, San Jose, November, 1988, pp...
...6 Northern NGOs are the main source of financial support for Southern NGOs, but they may also receive assistance from Northern governments or international organizations...
...A similar cocoa-growing project in Costa Rica was funded by Agro Action, a German NGO, and implemented by CECADE, a progressive Costa Rican NGO...
...Political scientist Charles Anderson once referred to Latin American politics as a "living museum," in which new political actors appeared on the scene, but the old ones refused to disappear...
...But like OXFAM-Canada, CECADE and Agro Action have learned from their mistakes and are responding to peasant demands...
...Southern NGOs serve as intermediaries between the grassroots and government, Northern NGOs, and international financial institutions...
...Workers were hired, among other things, to paint over the large, colorful murals on city buildings which had become a symbol of support for the revolution...
...A group of progressive Central American NGOs, the Concertaci6n Regional de Organismos de Desarrollo, describes the difference between the two accordingly: The difference lies in how they view the problem of power...
...The inshore fisheries were seen as one way to increase food self-sufficiency and employment...
...n Central America, political polarization has led to the emergence of two distinct kinds of NGOs: neoliberal and progressive...
...Moeen Qureshi, "The World Bank and NGOs: New Approaches," remarks before the Washington chapter of the Society for International Development conference on "Learning from the Grassroots," unpublished document, Atlanta, April, 1992...
...The El Astillero project was part of OXFAM's effort to increase solidarity in Canada with the Nicaraguan revolution, to identify common struggles between people in similar positions in their respective countries, and to find ways in which groups in the North could assist their Southern counterparts...
...Shifting responsibility for the welfare of the poor away from the state (which at least has the capacity to do something about it) onto civil society is problematic...
...In Guatemala City, for example, numerous women's organizations are engaged in such diverse activities as establishing a Pap-smear clinic, sexual-education talks, legal advocacy for abused women, and a drop-in center for prostitutes...
...Given the growth in numbers and competence of Latin American NGOs, Northern NGOs are rethinking their mandate and role...
...More often than not, the groups are hierarchical, and led by one dominant individual...
...Cathy Blacklock, "Reading Political Practices: Women's Contestation of Human Rights in Guatemala," prepared for the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, Calgary, Alberta, June 12-14, 1994...
...Their origA Canadian fisherman holds up a fish at OXFAM-Canada's pro- ject in El Astillero, Nicaragua...
...ing cooperatives formed the National Federation of Inshore Fishermen (FENICPESCA...
...U.S.AID viewed NGOs in Costa Rica as a privatesector alternative to state paternalism and as a "shock absorber" for social tensions in the context of the volatile Contra war raging to the country's north...
...Of key importance is the question of who makes the critical decisions about development-the community itself or the NGOs...
...The story of El Astillero illustrates many of the dilemmas faced by Northern NGOs throughout Latin America...
...Yet NGOs do have an important role to play in promoting more participatory, egalitarian, and sustainable forms of development...
...First, paternalism has not disappeared, even though many NGOs like OXFAM recognize the problem and have tried to eliminate it...
...None of the fishermen were going out to sea because there was no market for their fish, and because they had no money to pay for gasoline to fuel their boats...
...NGOs are seen as people-to-people organizations capable of creating direct links between people in the North and South, thus providing a human face to the problems of development...
...Their objectives and political agendas, however, are very different...
...Even if they claim to support popular participation, neoliberal NGOs are usually interventionist and paternalistic...
...The poor themselves know the capabilities of their communities, and know what needs to be done...
...In the second case, the NGOs try to promote changes in order to achieve transformations in the relation of social forces, in a manner which favors the majority.' 0 Both types of NGO are responding to the needs of large marginalized populations who lack economic alternatives...
...Needless to say, not all do useful work...
...Similarly, direct people-to-people linkages between groups of the North and South may not be the best way to promote development...
...Moeen Qureshi, senior vice-president of the World Bank, says the Bank considers NGOs "important coworkers in a common cause...
...According to a World Bank official, the financial institutions "are beginning to see NGOs as important vehicles for dissemination and constituencybuilding for a variety of macroeconomic efforts including structural-adjustment programs...
...In addition, the group has carried out extensive research on the impact of structural adjustment on peasants, which led to the development of policy recommendations by Costa Rican peasant organizations for a roundtable discussion with the government...
...John Clark, Democratizing Development: The Role of Voluntary Organizations (West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 1990), p. xi...
...NGO which receives much of its funding from U.S.AID...
...Finally, as OXFAM learned, long-term success requires moving beyond the local community to confront broader economic and political structures at the national and international levels...
...5 Several different types of organizations are involved in this growing phenomenon: i) Northern NGOs: These are non-profit organizations based in North America and Europe...
...As in other countries of the region, the fund pays for projects meant to alleviate the worst effects of structural-adjustSNACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON SOLIDARITY ment programs on the poorest...
...The limited effort to create a framework to incorporate NGOs into the FISS," says one observer, "reflects government policy to work only with NGOs with proven links to business groups, and the IDB's relative inexperience with welfare-orientated NGOs...
...The Canadians organized shipments of basic equipment like nets, ropes and knives, and built a flat-bottom boat...
...They still don't feel like the project is theirs...
...3 Not surprising, the NGOs allied with the popular sectors during the 1980s have found themselves largely shut out of government plans for postwar reconstruction...
...CECADE was also closely aligned with one of the country's peasant unions, UPANACIONAL, and promoted political participation by peasants at both the local and national levels...
...8 The boom in NGO aid has been fueled by the reputation of NGOs as paragons of development action...
...In one particularly egregious example, after the 1990 election in In the wake of structural adjustment, the"alternative" strategies advocated by progressive NGOs often end up looking not too different from those of neoliberal groups...
...In Central America alone, some 4,000 NGOs currently receive an estimated $350 million annually from all sources...
...The first is Catholic Relief Services (CRS), a mainstream U.S...
...The El Astillero project stumbled at first because it did not adequately take into account the national socioeconomic framework in which the fishing cooperatives operated...
...One of OXFAM's representatives called the linkage "a perfect example of how concrete the international solidarity between working people can be...
...inal sin was that they were born outside of the popular movement-from small groups of the left-not as a result of the suggestions of the popular movement...
...Before you would have heard a lot of racist comments...
...Perhaps it was wrong to think that primary producers know best what other primary producers needed in terms of development," one organizer reflected...
...Local participation is often limited to providing voluntary labor so that development projects can be implemented more cheaply...
...In most of Latin America, the cards are stacked against the poor, and NGO activity can do little in the short term to reshuffle the deck...
...4 During the 1980s, the growth rate of official aid to Southern NGOs was almost five times higher than the growth in governmental development assistance...
...As the examples of both CECADE and OXFAM-Canada show, even progressive NGOs strongly committed to grassroots participation face real problems in developing strategies which respond to local demands...
...It eventually decided to withdraw from involvement at the community level and to focus on supporting attempts to organize inshore fishermen at the regional and national levels...
...The fishermen have also organized to market their fish collectively, rather than rely on the state or large private buyers...
...Small delegations of Canadian fishermen began visiting El Astillero in 1986...
...Moreover, NGOs are a varied lot, with diverse motivations and ideological perspectives...
...Though much work remains to be done, the boats of El Astillero are now returning to the sea, and their owners have more secure access to markets...
...Since the cooperative would forfeit CRS' aid if it decided to produce food for domestic consumption, the cooperative's role in the project's design was limited to making suggestions about which nontraditional export crop it should grow...
...A rapid democratic transition and a strengthening of the institutions of civil society are the only appropriate responses...
...The 1993 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) argues, for example, that governments need to find new ways to give people greater influence and participation in decision-making: Unless this is done, and done in time, the irresistible tide of people's rising aspirations will inevitably clash with inflexible systems, leading to anarchy and chaos...
...The people expect us to arrange everything...
...By contrast, progressive NGOs in both the North and the South define their main objective as altering the political and economic balance of forces within their societies, often through empowerment of people at the grassroots...
...2 (June, 1992), p. 108...
...Even if they are poor and marginalized within their own countries, groups from the North cannot automatically transfer their experiences and knowledge to the South...
...While such work is usually less appealing to private donors in the North, it is more sharply aimed at the structural constraints which impede sustainable development and the alleviation of misery in Latin America...
...24-5...
...That year, the local fishing economy had entered into crisis when the state-the only purchaser at that time of local fish-stopped buying from El Astillero...
...They fund, and sometimes implement, development projects, usually in more than one country...
...As part of this program, CRS established a project in Uvita to promote cocoa production among a group which was forming a cooperative...
...They include neighborhood associations, agricultural cooperatives, peasant unions, and women's groups...
...Martin's Press...
...They receive money both from governments and private donations...
...3. United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 1993 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 5. 4. Tim Draimin, "Potential for Partnership: International Cooperation Institutions and Canadian and Latin American NGOs," discussion paper prepared for the International Development Research Center, Ottawa, Ontario, July, 1994, p. 12...
...The setback revealed that the real needs of the community were not in production, but in organization, marketing, and increasing their political impact on government policies...
...Development is done by people, not to people...
...As a subsequent evaluation of the program at El Astillero noted, OXFAM's approach reflected the wrong-headed assumption that modern technology could solve "Third World" problems...
...Because of their small scale, NGOs can be more flexible and innovative than bilateral or multilateral aid agencies, and therefore are often a source of alternative development strategies.9 In recent years, however, doubts have emerged about the real impact of assistance from Northern NGOs to their Southern counterparts...
...After 1985, however, because of the advancing economic crisis, government support for the inshore fisheries dwindled, and promised assistance to El Astillero such as a processing center did not materialize...
...6. Mario Padr6n, quoted in Leilah Landim, "Non-governmental Organizations in Latin America," World Development, Vol...
...This reputation comes from their small size, efficiency, moral commitment to the cause of helping the poorest, their proximity to the grassroots, and the high levels of popular participation...
Vol. 28 • March 1995 • No. 5
