Perceptions of Non-governmental Organizations and Socio-economic Progress: The Case of Four Latin American Countries

Interdisciplinary Journal of Best Practices in Global Development, Apr 2015

This article identifies multiple roles and functions of non-governmental organizations as perceived by various stakeholders. The primary purpose of the study on which this article is based was to test the theory of community capacity that states that social capital, human capital, and organizational resources available to the community are predictors of its collective ability. The methodology for this article included secondary data analysis from a survey and qualitative study conducted to assess the effectiveness of Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Internationals’ food security programs. The four Latin American countries in which the study was done are Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Honduras. The study relied on a survey that was administered to approximately 1,200 heads of household, 300 from each of the four countries. It also relied on a qualitative component that drew from eight focus group discussions and eight in-depth interviews. The experimental and comparison groups were each composed of approximately 150 subjects per country; the experimental group participated in the food security programs of ADRA International while the comparison group had not received any food security services. Many study participants reported the perception that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are more effective and efficient than the agencies of their respective governments in responding to disasters and poverty. Most study participants also shared the perception that they have progressed economically as a result of the development services they received from ADRA international. They expressed strong support for International NGOs in these four Latin American countries. This study provides a base level empirical model for testing theses with respect to the neo-liberal perspective on non-governmental organizations. However, the researchers believe that a test of the neoliberal economic model calls for a larger and diverse sample of International Non-Governmental organizations located in randomly selected developing countries. [AUTHOR ABSTRACT]

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Perceptions of Non-governmental Organizations and Socio-economic Progress: The Case of Four Latin American Countries

Interdisciplinar y Journal of Best Practices in Development Perceptions of Non-governmental Organizations and Socio-economic Progress: The C ase of Four Latin American Countries Héctor Luis Díaz 0 Vijayan K . Pillai 0 0 The University of Texas at Arlington , USA Follow this and additional works at: https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/ijbpgd Part of the International and Area Studies Commons Recommended Citation - Article 2 Perceptions of Non-governmental Organizations and Socio-economic Progress: The C ase of Four Latin American Countries Cover Page Footnote Thi s Article is brought to you for free and open access by KnowledgeExchange@Southern Adventist University. It has been accepted for inclusion in The I nterdisciplinary Journal of Best Practices in Global Development by the journal’s editorial board. For more information, please contact Thi s article is available in Interdisciplinary Journal of Best Practices in Global Development: https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/ ijbpgd/vol1/iss1/2 Perceptions of Nongovernmental Organizations and Socio-economic Progress: The Case of Four Latin American Countries Héctor Luis Díaz Western Michigan University Vijayan K. Pillai The University of Texas at Arlington ABSTRACT This article identifies multiple roles and functions of non-governmental organizations as perceived by various stakeholders. The primary purpose of the study on which this article is based was to test the theory of community capacity that states that social capital, human capital, and organizational resources available to the community are predictors of its collective ability. The methodology for this article included secondary data analysis from a survey and qualitative study conducted to assess the effectiveness of Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Internationals’ food security programs. The four Latin American countries in which the study was done are Peru, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Honduras. The study relied on a survey that was administered to approximately 1,200 heads of household, 300 from each of the four countries. It also relied on a qualitative component that drew from eight focus group discussions and eight in-depth interviews. The experimental and comparison groups were each composed of approximately 150 subjects per country; the experimental group participated in the food security programs of ADRA International while the comparison group had not received any food security services. Many study participants reported the perception that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are more effective and efficient than the agencies of their respective governments in responding to disasters and poverty. Most study participants also shared the perception that they have progressed economically as a result of the development services they received from ADRA international. They expressed strong support for International NGOs in these four Latin American countries. This study provides a base level empirical model for testing theses with respect to the neo-liberal perspective on non-governmental organizations. However, the researchers believe that a test of the neoliberal economic model calls for a larger and diverse sample of International Non-Governmental organizations located in randomly selected developing countries. Introduction According to the University of California at Berkeley, there are over 47,000 International NonGovernmental Organizations (INGOs) around the world that provide services to developing countries in areas such as health promotion, socio-economic development, promotion of democracy and civil society, and micro-enterprise (University of California Berkeley, 2006) . The United States of America, like many other industrialized countries, is significantly involved in the provision of humanitarian, socio-economic development services to countries in need of such assistance. The registry of private volunteer organizations of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for instance, shows that more than 600 national and international non-governmental organizations are headquartered in the United States (USAID, 2014 December 16) . Available information also shows that this agency of the United States federal government, which in turn provides funding to INGOs, is well funded in spite of the fact that USAID’s budget was reduced by 9.5% from 2009 to 2010. In 2009 the agency’s annual budget was $11,015,751,000 (USAID, 2009) while its budget for 2010 was $10,406,296,000 (USAID, 2010) . This budget reduction took place in the face of mounting public criticisms of foreign aid waste due to inefficient non-governmental organizations. It seems evident that a large amount of resources is being invested in supporting INGOs, in spite of concerns about their effectiveness and/or efficiency. It is noteworthy that the United States trails all industrialized nations in the amount of money it allocates for foreign aid as a percentage of the country’s Gr (...truncated)


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Héctor Luis Díaz, Vijayan K. Pillai. Perceptions of Non-governmental Organizations and Socio-economic Progress: The Case of Four Latin American Countries, Interdisciplinary Journal of Best Practices in Global Development, 2015, Volume 1, Issue 1,