NGOs AND SOCIAL WELFARE: New Research Approaches

The non-governmental sector is a little-understood area of institutional life, and has so far received very little attention from scholars. Its increasing roles within a range of public services – health, education and rural development – have also been accompanied by a growing non-governmental ‘voice’ in the form of campaigning and advocacy within public policy at local and international levels. Yet, our understanding of the implications of the growth of the non-governmental sector, and of the trends and changes within the sector itself, remains quite limited. There is a need to consider factors like the quality of the services provided by these organizations and perceptions of service users; the implications of the growth of a set of non-profit yet commercialized service providers; the differences in the management of non-governmental organizations from other types of organizations; the changed accountability relationships between citizens and government implied by the growth of NGOs; the international dimensions of the growth of the non-governmental sector; and the wider role of NGOs as actors within wider neo-liberal economic processes. The growing profile of NGOs has both its supporters and critics. Nonetheless, this book addresses towards a set of exciting and important issues in relation to the non-governmental sector, such as the question of funding, issues relating to democratization and governance, and the management challenges in terms of building improved sustainability and more accountable public policy. It is hoped that this book will build better links between researches and NGO practitioners, in support of strengthening the potential role and contribution of NGOs to development processes.