Indian Social and Political

Environment

MBA Term 2
2024-25

Prof Saurabh Gupta

Prof Rajesh Bhattacharya
Prof Vijay Ganapathy
Popular Images
Lecture Outline

• What are NGOs? What do they do?

• Origins and rise of NGOs (North and South)

• Approaches to studying NGOs

• Some contentious issues: accountability; representation; relations with state

• Philanthrocapitalism

• Social Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurship

INGOs, BONGOs, BINGOs, ENGOs, GONGOs, DONGOs, CBOs, FBOs
GROs…

What is an NGO?
‘Private,non-profit, professional organisations with a distinctive legal character,
concerned with public welfare goals’ (Clarke 1998)
‘Self-governing, private, not-for-profit organizations that are geared toward improving
the quality of life of disadvantaged people’ (Vakil 1997)

Most definitions focus on three key elements:

1.‘Independence’ from the state (non-governmental)

2.Not-for-profit (independence from the market)

3.Concern with people’s well being

The NGO Sector

• Operate at all levels: from the international to the very local and in every
conceivable arena of development

• NGOs have become key components of aid & development architecture since the
period of rapid expansion in 1980s

• NGOs are major conduits of official aid and development assistance

• 2008: $2.4 billion ODA channelled through NGOs
• NGOs are responsible for approximately one third of total overseas development aid
(Riddell, 2007)

• Some NGOs have become major donors in their own right

• Oxfam International spent $704.53 million in 2007
• World Vision International: $2.5 billion in 2008
How many NGOs are there ?

• UK has approximately 189,000 ‘charities’ with a total income of £46.9 billion

• 344 organisations work in ‘international development’

• US has approximately 350,000 ‘non-profit’ organizations, worth $1.3 trillion

• 564 organisations registered with USAID

• Tanzania: 8,000 NGOs are officially registered, but perhaps only 450 are active

• Bangladesh has over 22,000 registered with the NGO Affairs Bureau
NGOs in India
Growth of NGO sector: Global and Indian
Level of Operation

• International (‘Northern NGOs’):

• Work with policy-makers as well as partner organisations
• May have stronger focus on campaigning

• National:
• Focus on projects at national or district level
• Sector emerged largely in the 1980s as result of shifts in donor funding
• Some have become large-scale (and some campaigning)

• Community-based
• Tend to be small-scale, often limited in resources
• Based on particular group (geographic, ethnic, etc.)
Key Drivers of NGO action & policy

Driver Orientation Example

Underlying Religious or secular Impact on shaping overall policy &
Ethos strategy of organisation
Political perspective
Objectives Relief Humanitarian aid, disaster relief,
refugees, etc
Welfare Broad ‘development’ objectives, health,
water supplies, livelihoods
Activism Human rights, pro-democracy, anti-
corruption, challenging global trade rules
Approach Service delivery Providing key services to communities
(vertical delivery)
Empowerment Participatory approaches, building
capacity (horizontal engagement)
Willingness to work GO-NGO partnership
with state actors
Operational / non- Does it implement projects, or channel
operational funds to partners?
The Origins of NGOs

• Several points of origin

• Philanthropic / Christian mission movements of nineteenth century

• Co-operative movement in nineteenth century Europe
• New politics of solidarity amidst wars and conflicts

e.g. YMCA (1855); ICRS (1863); Save the Children (1919);

Plan International (1937); Oxfam and Christian Aid (WW2); World Vision (Korean War)

• NGOs in the former colonies developed with the rise of nationalism

(mainly ‘self help’ and cooperative associations and professional associations concerned with
civil liberties and freedom)
From Relief to Development

• 1960s and 1970s: shift from a relief to a development-oriented approach

• New focus on how to prevent disasters occurring in the first place (Freedom from
Hunger Campaign)
• Emergence of radical social movements & ideologies [liberation theology (Latin
America), Gandhian ideas (South Asia), concerns with gender, environment, appropriate
technology etc.]
• ‘Alternative development’ led by NGOs in the South

• Northern NGOs increased their involvement (funding & running) in specific

interventions

• Initiated small-scale projects

• Linked up with organisations in developing countries
• Beginnings of anti-poverty campaigns
The Contracting Era
Shift from ‘alternative’ to ‘mainstream’

• 1980s:Dominance of Washington Consensus & rolling-back of the state

under SAPs

• Donors saw NGOs as a more efficient conduit for distributing aid & ensuring it
met the needs of the poorest
• Led to huge increase in number of NGOs
• Expansion especially big in developing world: rise of ‘Southern NGOs’

• But expansion of sector was based on funding from donors:

• Increased reliance on donors (instead of voluntary contributions)
• NGOs were being used to bypass the state & privatise services
NGOs as Magic Bullet: 1990s

• 1990s: rise of good governance agenda

• Renewed focus on the state as agent of development

• But a particular type of state: democratic, open, transparent, etc
• Required strong civil society to enable democracy to take root

• Role of NGO reconceptualised as core member of civil society: NGOs as ‘magic bullet’
(Vivian 1994)

• Monitoring & holding government to account

• Protecting & promoting human rights
• Articulating needs of the poorest

• Backlash against NGOs by late 1990s

(accountability, legitimacy, effectiveness, autonomy etc.)
To whom are NGOs accountable ?

• Legally
• NGOs are subject to laws in home & host countries
• But generally relate to administrative (tax, etc.) details

• Institutionally
• Donors: generally limited to questions of finance
• Donating public: interests vested in board or trustees, but do these adequately challenge
NGO decisions?

• Accountability to communities & partners

• Are INGOs accountable to their partners?
• Where do communities go to challenge actions of an NGO?
• How real is participation if NGOs will only fund projects that fit in their vision? What about
power relations?
NGOs and State

• NGOs are conditioned by and gain much legitimacy from relationship with
government and the nature of the state

• NGOs can oppose/ complement/ reform the State but cannot ignore these

• Government attitudes to NGOs vary place to place and change with successive
regimes (active hostility ……. active courtship)

• State may be threatened ~ NGOs reveal State’s “inability to deliver” and often
“compete for the same resources”
India’s crackdown on foreign funding
India’s crackdown on International NGOs
Representing the poor or what NGOs think is best for the poor ?

• How real is the assertion that NGOs speak for the poor on the
national & international stage?

• Are NGOs able to capture all voices within a community?

• Even local CBOs are likely to be drawn from an elite
• Communities are not monolithic: whose voices take priority?
• There is a critical difference between:
• Representing the stated demands & wishes of a community
• Representing the interests of a community

But… generalized criticisms against NGOs need to be avoided

Differences between NGOs and Social Enterprises
Entrepreneurs and Developmental Challenges

• Tradition of Charity
 Ford Foundation or Tata Trusts classic examples
 Bill & Melinda Gates or Azim Premji Foundation recent examples
 Mainly financial support to make people’s life better

• Rise of Philanthrocapitalism
 Need for philanthropy to become more like the for-profit enterprise
 Two essential features (The Economist, 2006):
o First there must be something for philanthropists to “invest” in—something
that, ideally, will be created by “social entrepreneurs”
o Second, philanthropists themselves need to behave more like investors.
Some might operate as relatively hands-off, diversified “social investors”
and some as hands-on, engaged “venture philanthropists”
Social Entrepreneurs: why important for
development?

• State and NGO sectors can’t solve all the problems effectively
• Poor management and lack of innovative thinking
• Most global problem requires local and tailor-made solutions
• Social entrepreneurs work with problem-solving approach
 Teach for America/Teach for India
 Several examples in health and hygiene areas
• Delicate balance between Profit, People and Planet
• Social enterprises are potentially more sustainable in the long run
• Social entrepreneurs are not an alternative to the state or NGO
sectors: need for learning and sharing
Social Entrepreneurs
Social Entrepreneurship: Training and Support

• Social entrepreneurship is not simply ‘non-profit’ but increasing the

‘performance capacity of society’ (Drucker)
• Part of a trend among elites in many countries who just do not want to make
money but make a “difference”
• Money may not be as big as in business but a bright student would make much
more significant difference even in non-profit sector
• Need to bring together philanthropic capital markets, social entrepreneurs and
researchers
• Incubation centres (e.g. IIMU)
• Can social entrepreneurship be learnt formally?
 Harvard Business School in the mid-1990s
Social Entrepreneurship: Indian context

• State most important player in the arena of development

• Global trend of ‘rolling back the state’ from early 1990s
• Conventional NGOs mainly implementing state-sponsored programmes
• Rapid increase in microfinance in the past decade or so; not so encouraging
• But…none of these leading to inventions or new thinking about solving
societal problems; here comes the role of social entrepreneurs
• Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA); Dabbawalas in Mumbai
• Ashoka, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Skoll
Foundation and other organisations (e.g. NDTV) promoting social
entrepreneurial initiatives
https://www.ashoka.org/en, http://skoll.org, http://www.schwabfound.org/
• Social entrepreneurship growing field with great potential!
Some food for thought…

• Can small initiatives add up to make a big difference?

 Socially aware youth: largely missing in our management/tech institutions

• How to create a virtuous circle of development-oriented research,

philanthropic capital and social enterprise to counter the vicious cycle of
poverty and deprivation?