Foreign NGOs

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem asks
Are they the right answer for Africa?

A critic's opinion of Foreign NGOs

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the Secretary General of the Pan-African Movement.

This article gives HIS opinion about Foreign NGOs in Africa

He believes that foreign NGOs are not the right answer to Africa's problems.
He believes that African unity is the right way forward for the continent of Africa.

This is what he has to say about the role of foreign NGOs in Africa.

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Foreign NGOs are everywhere in Africa

In the last few years, NGOs have become part of life in Africa.

There is almost nowhere in Africa that does not have some kind of contact with NGOs. You see their 4-wheel-drive vehicles everywhere . They have become part of the landscape, like the climate, or the sun, or the hills.

But they are not truly part of Africa. They are all financed and controlled - directly or indirectly - by their rich Western governments. They are all managed by Europeans or North Americans.

Some of the most powerful foreign NGOs seem to be like civilian branches of their home governments, who give them a lot of money. Foreign NGOs enjoy the support of their governments, their embassies, and companies from their own countries. This wealth and support gives them a lot of influence, and it puts them above the community groups and local NGOs of the countries where they work.

NGO: private organizations including charities and educational institutions. The letters NGO stand for Non-Governmental Organization. (NGO is pronounced EN-GEE-OH).
More about NGOs

CRITIC: Someone who gives a negative opinion about something

PAN-AFRICA MOVEMENT: the political movement to make all of Africa unitied.
PAN- = all

TO BECOME PART OF THE LANDSCAPE: to become something that is everywhere; a regular part of daily life

CIVILIAN BRANCHES: not officially part of a government, but acting as ifthey are a part of the government

HOME GOVERNMENTS: the governments of their own countries in the developed world

ENJOY SUPPORT: are helped by

Problems created by foreign NGOs

1) "We know better than you"

It has become almost impossible to criticise Western NGOs. If you do, people react as if you are being rude and ungrateful. They look at you as if to say: "How dare you speak ill of these selfless missionaries who have come to help you?"

The fact that people do not feel able to criticise the NGOs has encouraged the NGOs to become arrogant and to believe that they know more than local people, and can provide better answers to their problems.

SELFLESS: putting the needs of other people before one's own needs

MISSIONARIES are people who try to spread their own religion to people in other countries

ARROGANT: acting in a very proud way

2) Permanent Disasters

I am sure that many NGO workers really have come to Africa because they believe they are doing something good and right. However, it is also true that many are here because of their careers. Our misery is their job. Where will a disaster manager work if there are no more disasters? There is a danger that emergency situations will become permanent situations, especially now, when more NGO money is spent on disaster relief than on long-term development projects.

One example is the Ngara refugee camp in Tanzania, a camp for refugees from the terrible atrocities of the war in Rwanda. The Ngara refugee settlement became the second-biggest city in Tanzania (after Dar-es-Salaam). However, it was not under the control of the Tanzanian government, it was controlled by the NGOs. Each NGO seemed to have its own "territory" where it flew its own flag. The message seemed to be that rival NGOs were saying to each other "If you stay away from my refugees, I will stay away from yours".

Many of the NGOs did not want the camp to close because they would lose their influence. The settlement was becoming a permanent city because the NGOs provided facilities that the refugees would not have if they returned to their homes in the hills of Rwanda.

The best answer would be for the NGOs to start long-term projects in Rwanda, to improve living conditions there, and encourage the refugees to return home. But the NGOs said they couldn't do that because it wasn't part of their mandate; it was not what they were sent to Africa to do.

MISERY: suffering

ATROCITY: a very cruel act

REFUGEES are people who have been forced to leave their homes because of war

SETTLEMENT: a place where a group of people live

A RIVAL is someone opposed to you, with competing goals.

LONG-TERM: for a long time

MANDATE: if you have a mandate to do something, you have been given the authority to do it

3) The African Brain Drain

A brain drain is when a lot of well qualified and educated people leave their own country and go to work in other countries, where they can earn more money.

Thousands of skilled and highly qualified Africans leave Africa and live in the West, where they do unskilled jobs but are better paid. At the same time, the Western NGOs send skilled (and usually white) foreign "experts" to work in Africa, where they receive salaries and living conditions that are high by African standards.

Wouldn't it be better if the NGOs employed the skilled Africans and paid them the same high salaries, instead of sending foreign employees? By doing this, they would bring back to Africa a larger pool of well-educated and well-qualified Africans.

This is important, because right now too few skilled Africans stay to work in Africa. That means that when NGOs do employ skilled local people, they are taking them away from public institutions that also need them. (Well-paid NGO jobs are more attractive than poorly paid jobs working for the government.) Furthermore, NGOs often use local university professors as consultants and researchers with the result that many professors spend more time working for NGOs than teaching their students.

SKILLED WORK: jobs that require training and experience

UNSKILLED WORK: jobs that do not require training or experience

4) Cultural Attitudes

Another serious problem is the fact that the NGOs represent a new kind of colonialism in Africa. Africans once again have white expatriates in positions of authority and influence over them. This is a bad thing for African countries, which need to build confidence and a sense of pride in themselves after their long years of slavery and old-style colonialism.

An agenda based on African Unity is the only way that Africans can take back their dignity and become equal partners with the rest of the human race. Of course Africa needs help; but Africa should become strong enough to decide where that help is given, and how it is used.

"Hope is not what somebody else gives you. It is what you give to yourself."

COLONIALISM: the political system where more developed countries control as colonies other parts of the word

EXPATRIATES are people who have chosen to leave their own country and live somewhere else.

AGENDA: a plan for what must be done