Struggling for Survival and Autonomy: Impact of NGO-ization on women's organizations in Bangladesh

Abstract

Sohela Nazneen and Maheen Sultan analyze the impact of the NGO-ization process on the structure, autonomy and accountability relations of different types of women's organizations in Bangladesh. They argue that the impact of NGO-ization varies depending on the resources, level of operation and the organizational motives behind adopting the NGO model. The impacts on smaller women's organizations operating at the local level are an expansion of structure, loss of autonomy and a prioritization of accountability towards donors. However, some national-level women's organizations have been able to manage the process through strategically mobilizing resources and prioritizing own agendas, thus retaining their feminist character. At a wider level, the NGO-ization process has led to a blurring of the boundaries between the gender and development agenda and feminist discourses. This blurring of boundaries created opportunities for raising women's rights issues at different levels, but led perhaps to a generational shift in how younger women engage with gender equity issues. Development (2009) 52, 193–199. doi:10.1057/dev.2009.18

Nonprofit Organizations Becoming Business-Like

“…For NPOs themselves, power effects depend on several factors: NPOs that adhere to alternative forms of knowledge (Harvie & Manzi, 2011), operate on the grassroots level, suffer vulnerable resourcing levels, and passively accommodate to isomorphic pressures (Nazneen & Sultan, 2009) tend to lose power. NPOs that are well resourced, operate above the grassroots level, and proactively adopt business-like approaches stand a chance of gaining power (Nazneen & Sultan, 2009).…”

Building democratic public spheres? Transnational advocacy networks and the social forum process

“…Professionalism in this context is the result of NGOs attempting to imitate professional political agencies, involving a self-conscious form of 'impression management' (Minkoff and Powell 2006: 597) on behalf of NGOs that desire external legitimacy with policy-orientated audiences. In practice, this includes an organizational shift towards hierarchical bureaucratic structures with boards of directors and permanent staff members, as well as the creation of a professional cadre with technical and administrative expertise in project management (Alvarez 2009;Jad 2004;Nazneen and Sultan 2009). Crucially, this shift towards higher degrees of professionalism can affect the mission, goals and management of NGOs, as well as influence the trajectory of their advocacy strategies (Lang 2012: 62).…”

Temporal circuits and social triage in a Papua New Guinean Clinic

“…This is why Sister Yano spoke to Jenny Thomas as if she did not really know who she was, who her parents were, and where she was born. This paper explores how the ''NGOization'' (Nazneen and Sultan, 2009) of public health transforms local temporalities. Through an ethnographic case study of triage in a public-NGO partnership HIV/STI clinic in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, I show how NGO-mandated practices influence the decisionmaking of health workers, increasing the pressure to ''fix'' client identities in ways that privilege urban, educated subjects.…”