A Book Review

Melesse Zenebework Dept. International Development Environment and Sustainable Development Class MA Caurse

Non Governmental Organizations and Development, by David Lewis and Nazneen Kanji, New York, Routledge Taylor Francis Ltd, 2009, xv + 239 pp., index, $43.44 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-415-45430-8 David Lewis is professor of social policy and development at London School of Economics who specializes in development policy and management, with a particular interest in NonGovernmental Organizations and civil society, and whose work has mainly had a geographical focus on Bangladesh. He has also written on rural development, organizational issues in development agencies, and anthropological approaches to development. Likewise, Nazneen Kanji is a social policy specialist who worked with the government of Mozambique throughout the 1980s and then moved into policy research, teaching and consultancy work after completing a PhD at the London School of Economics on structural adjustment and urban poverty in Zimbabwe. She has carried out field research in various Sub-Saharan African countries and in South and Central Asia, including work with many NGOs. Her main research area is related to gender and livelihoods, in rural and urban contexts. Both of them have long time experience in the field of development research and practice. The authors tell us how the Non-governmental Organizations came in to existence and to what extent they have been providing contributions in development context since then. They have covered all the ground concerning NGOs in depth and to the point manner. The book starts with defining the earliest traditional form of civil organizations then it proceeds explaining how they evolved into more structured with defined roles. The book mainly explains how the NGOs passed through various historical challenges in order to gain the current attention of the world in development context. It tells, the NGOs engaged in the roles of implementation, catalyst and

partnership. In the early time NGOs used to engage only in implementation, however, it is a recent phenomenon that many NGOs are performing the role of catalyst and partnership. NonGovernmental organizations implement policies and programs of a government or donor organizations at any level but the role of catalysis usually focuses on advocacy in order to influence the policies of government or donor. They often tend to make partnership with the national or international or even government organization in order to insure the success of projects. The thematic concept of the book is in simply phrase, The existence of Non-Governmental Organization in development fields is full challenges but important. The authors acknowledged the challenges NGOs faced from development theories, government politics, and approach of societies. The influence of donors on NGOs to twist the developing countries politics through civil society is one challenge that governments suspiciously approach them in any of their development programs. Correspondingly, the village level practical job also makes things extremely complex and difficult to solve. If they cant find the better understanding from the government and donors side, then everything possibly fail. Finally, I can confidently tell that the writers are in favor of the existence of Non-governmental organizations in development and even advise they should play a more dominant role in the future. The book explains NGOs are getting stronger and effective in the development sector for various reasons. After the 9/11, for instance, NGOs were given the mandate to handle disorders which possibly affect the rich countries although it complicated their roles and tasks in development. Globalization also created a new dimension of network activists for the advocacy role. This in turn, paves their way to play as actors for global governance. It is also a recent phenomenon that NGOs are being considered as A Magic Bullet for the reduction of poverty by international donors. All these ideas show that the writers of the book are in favor of the existence of Non-governmental organizations in the development field.