IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/prodev/v3y2003i2p131-145.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

NGOs and poverty reduction in a globalizing world: perspectives from Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Gina Porter

    (Department of Anthropology, University of Durham, UK, r.e.porter@durham.ac.uk)

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the factors that influence and constrain NGO contributions to poverty reduction in a globalizing world, focusing on their role as transmitters of grounded knowledge about poverty in very poor countries. Interviews with staff in 33 NGOs in Ghana, a country where the NGO sector is heavily dependent on overseas funding, indicate that local understandings about poverty are being overridden by so-called programmes of partnership support that erode local confidence in home-grown ideas about poverty and how to combat it. This is illustrated by reference to the common donor preference for working with groups and for ‘Asian’ development approaches.

Suggested Citation

  • Gina Porter, 2003. "NGOs and poverty reduction in a globalizing world: perspectives from Ghana," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 3(2), pages 131-145, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:3:y:2003:i:2:p:131-145
    DOI: 10.1191/1464993403ps057ra
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1191/1464993403ps057ra
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1191/1464993403ps057ra?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Uvin, Peter & Jain, Pankaj S. & Brown, L. David, 2000. "Think Large and Act Small: Toward a New Paradigm for NGO Scaling Up," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 1409-1419, August.
    2. Janet G. Townsend & Gina Porter & Emma Mawdsley, 2002. "The role of the transnational community of non-government organizations: governance or poverty reduction?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(6), pages 829-839.
    3. Linda Mayoux, 2001. "Tackling the Down Side: Social Capital, Women’s Empowerment and Micro‐Finance in Cameroon," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 435-464, June.
    4. Sarah Lister, 2001. "The consultation practice of Northern NGOs: a study of British organizations in Guatemala," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(7), pages 1071-1082.
    5. Porter, Gina, 2002. "Living in a Walking World: Rural Mobility and Social Equity Issues in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 285-300, February.
    6. E. A. Brett, 1993. "Voluntary Agencies as Development Organizations: Theorizing the Problem of Efficiency and Accountability," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 24(2), pages 269-304, April.
    7. Sam Hickey, 2002. "Transnational NGDOS and participatory forms of rights-based development: converging with the local politics of citizenship in Cameroon," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(6), pages 841-857.
    8. Alan F. Fowler, 1998. "Authentic NGDO Partnerships in the New Policy Agenda for International Aid: Dead End or Light Ahead?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 137-159, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Barr, Abigail & Fafchamps, Marcel & Owens, Trudy, 2005. "The governance of non-governmental organizations in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 657-679, April.
    2. Diana Mitlin & University of Manchester & Sam Hickey & University of Manchester & Anthony Bebbington & University of Manchester, 2006. "Reclaiming development? NGOs and the challenge of alternatives," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-043, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    3. Mitlin, Diana & Hickey, Sam & Bebbington, Anthony, 2007. "Reclaiming Development? NGOs and the Challenge of Alternatives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 1699-1720, October.
    4. Gilles Nancy & Boriana Yontcheva, 2006. "Does NGO Aid Go to the Poor? Empirical Evidence from Europe," IMF Working Papers 2006/039, International Monetary Fund.
    5. Howson, Cynthia, 2013. "Adverse Incorporation and Microfinance among Cross-Border Traders in Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 199-208.
    6. Lucia Dalla Pellegrina & Giorgio Di Maio & Paolo Landoni & Emanuele Rusinà, 2021. "Money management and entrepreneurial training in microfinance: impact on beneficiaries and institutions," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(3), pages 1049-1085, October.
    7. Shenggen Fan & Xiaobo Zhang, 2008. "Public Expenditure, Growth and Poverty Reduction in Rural Uganda," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 20(3), pages 466-496.
    8. Lavlu Mozumdar & Geoffrey Hagelaar & Valentina C. Materia & S. W. F. Omta & Mohammad Amirul Islam & Gerben Velde, 2019. "Embeddedness or Over-Embeddedness? Women Entrepreneurs’ Networks and Their Influence on Business Performance," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(5), pages 1449-1469, December.
    9. Tzeng, Cheng-Hua, 2010. "Managing innovation for economic development in greater China: The origins of Hsinchu and Zhongguancun," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 110-121.
    10. Roberts, Susan M. & Jones III, John Paul & Frohling, Oliver, 2005. "NGOs and the globalization of managerialism: A research framework," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 1845-1864, November.
    11. Hackl, Andreas, 2018. "Mobility equity in a globalized world: Reducing inequalities in the sustainable development agenda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 150-162.
    12. Gutiérrez-Nieto, Begoña & Serrano-Cinca, Carlos, 2019. "20 years of research in microfinance: An information management approach," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 183-197.
    13. Deborah C. Menezes & Kanchana N. Ruwanpura, 2018. "Roads and development = environment and energy?," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 18(1), pages 52-65, January.
    14. Beekman, Gonne & Bulte, Erwin & Nillesen, Eleonora, 2014. "Corruption, investments and contributions to public goods: Experimental evidence from rural Liberia," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 37-47.
    15. Syrus M Islam, 2022. "Social impact scaling strategies in social enterprises: A systematic review and research agenda," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 47(2), pages 298-321, May.
    16. Yusuf Bangura, 1994. "Economic Restructuring, Coping Strategies and Social Change: Implications for Institutional Development in Africa," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 25(4), pages 785-827, October.
    17. Massingue, Suzanna Allen & Oviedo, Daniel, 2021. "Walkability and the Right to the city: A snapshot critique of pedestrian space in Maputo, Mozambique," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    18. Saurabh Gupta, 2014. "From Demanding to Delivering Development," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 9(2), pages 121-145, August.
    19. Gaurav Paruthi & Enrique Frias-Martinez & Vanessa Frias-Martinez, 2016. "The Role of Rating and Loan Characteristics in Online Microfunding Behaviors," Papers 1609.09571, arXiv.org.
    20. Nassani, Abdelmohsen A. & Aldakhil, Abdullah Mohammed & Abro, Muhammad Moinuddin Qazi & Islam, Talat & Zaman, Khalid, 2019. "The impact of tourism and finance on women empowerment," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 234-254.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:3:y:2003:i:2:p:131-145. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.