However, I disagree with Bill’s logic that ” Well, the World Bank lists “children and youth” as just one of 34 “major topic areas.” Moreover, the interpretation and practical value of “Children’s Rights” is still controversial – the World Bank did not even mention the concept in its exhaustive 2007 World Development Report on “Development and the Next Generation.”

Since when was the World Bank’s “lists” a reliable indicator of development priorities? The “exhaustive” 2007 report referred to was also about “youth” — not children. In the report, youth are described as aged 15 – 24. (In addition, the report is despicable in some of the ways it represents the needs of “youth” — but perhaps that’s another story.)

I heard people talking about how they would hate to move back to the US because they would have to leave their big house and nanny.

I have heard plenty of people complain that it would be great working for the State Department if only they didn’t keep calling you back to Washington every few years.

You are so absolutely right about this and you have found just the right words to describe the situation. Working with an NGO in Goma, DRC, I witness this on a daily basis: Hundreds of NGOs and GOs all competing for attention and funds, while the actual work lacks coordination, there is not enough communication, too much rivalry, and the cause suffers from it. And yes everybody is now trying to do everything in order to open their net as far as possible to catch a grant – in aid and development work,’less is more’ is not just a saying, it is a crucial rule. We are overstretching ourselves!

Plus, we are trying so hard to ’sell our cause’(in the case of my NGO, it is first and foremost the fight against sexual violence) that we end up also selling the people we try to support – by turning them into mere digits in a project report, by allowing sensation-hungry journalist to take pictures of their suffering, by claiming we know what is right for them, and speaking FOR them rather than WITH them.

We are aware of these issues, we discuss them we try to make a difference – but we also know we are part of a system and in order to survive as an NGO, we need to play by its rules.

We are evaluating the impact of a DFID funded program in education (In an African country). While designing the instruments, we defined the outcome variables as being the students performance, students attendance, teacher attendance, drop outs, and the like.

But that NGO officials wouldn’t let me go ahead with this, they don’t like those indicators. They wanted to include a lot of indicators (not outcome to my view) that will make the “effect” a slam dunk. Indicators like: Have you received the training? Have you developed a school development plan?, Have you elected the PTA committee, etc. These are things that treatment schools had to do in order to get a grant! So, obviously they did it more than the control schools where nothing is require. And we know that from the records. But apparently, indicators like that maybe enough for the DFID to justify further funding of the same program.

It this about money, or is it about real outcomes in term of pupils’ learning?

Switching to a more robust model where NGO officials are either A) Completely self-interested and are trying to just expand their budgets B) Altruistic, but have an altruism bias towards their given area (which actually isn’t much different from self-interest) – we can start to take the information they give with a grain of salt.

There’s a (C) which is some combination of the two.

Perhaps it’s my training, or perhaps it’s the time I’ve spent in Tanzania and Malawi interviewing folks who work at NGOs (in the national offices, district offices, and in the field), but in using a political economy approach, I think NGO workers are akin to bureaucrats. They tend to be higher skilled and sometimes more altruistic, but yes, they have preferences for maintaining their position and for increasing their organization’s budget. Though they are subject to oversight (mountains of paperwork, usually), they are rarely beholden to the intended beneficiaries of their efforts.

alanna_shaikh @bill_easterly My argument with that post – Save the Children is an all purpose NGO now, not especially kids, despite the name

alanna_shaikh @bill_easterly Also, I think people question NGO motives all the time…

Transitionland So, when I advocate the US resettle more refugees, I do so because I want more jobs for my friends? @bill_easterly

Transitionland By yr reasoning, anytime an NGO advocates 4 its cause be taken more seriously, that’s probably a ploy for more $ 4 employees @bill_easterly

Transitionland I get the sense @bill_easterly doesn’t trust anything or anyone not explicitly out to make as much money as possible.

IdealistNYC Super cynic: @bill_easterly says that no one is straightforward about their motives, so I wonder what his truly are.http://bit.ly/13Uzp9

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