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January 1, 2002
REVIEW: Managing for change
MANAGING for change is the outcome of research commissioned by the Aga Khan Foundation, Canada, on management practices of South Asian non-government organisations. The authors have at the outset made it clear that the book is about the management of NGOs and not the work they do. So any questions the reader may have as to what these NGOs have actually delivered in terms of their ‘mission’ is not moot.
The nine NGOs chosen for the study included the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), India, AKRSP, Pakistan, the Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF), the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Pakistan, Mafatlal Sadguru Water and Development Foundation (Sadguru), PROSHIKA in Bangladesh, Sungi Development Foundation and the Sarhad Rural Support Corporation (SRSC).
The CEO of the AKFC in his preface points out that these NGOs were chosen because “they are well respected in the development community for their contribution to poverty alleviation, the quality of their work and their management skills and they are organizations that AKFC has collaborated with or learnt from”. One would question at this point how a corporation (SRSC) can be termed an NGO and how BRAC with over 58,000 full and part time staff, and an annual turnover of US$260 million cannot be termed a corporation. But, as the authors put it, “The organizations discussed in the book were invited to participate because they have all become going concerns.”
After the introductory chapter in which the geneses of the participating NGOs are dealt with the book delves into a description of the vast scale of poverty that these NGOs try to end. A large part of the discussion centres around donors and how they have related to the recipients of their somewhat generous largess.
“An NGO is funded to do what the donor wants ..” but the authors prove that these NGOs have moved away from donor priorities or worked around it. Most of these NGOs began with money from Northern NGOs like the OXFAM. Development agencies like the CIDA, Sida, Danida, and NORAD entered into the picture in the 1980s and multilateral agencies like the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Asian Development Bank and the UNICEF in the 1990s. The Aga Khan Foundation acts as a channel for Dutch, British and European Union funding to the AKRSPs and acts as a conduit for CIDA funding to BRAC.
These NGOs have learnt to handle the dictates of the donors, the governments and, indeed, the critics, by spreading their risks and manoeuvrability.
What however is lacking is information on the way these NGOs manage the money they receive for the poor. Do they make the spending public in some form of report or are the accounts for special eyes only? A large part of development activity and poverty alleviation is necessarily about how much of the money in terms of services or credit, etc actually goes to the people it purports to serve and how much is spent on ‘overheads’.
The authors then examine the organizational behaviour of the NGOs under study. They emphasize the role played by the way people socialize and work together in shaping the dynamics of the process of building the organizational culture. Most of these NGOs now offer a comprehensive range of benefits comparable at least to that offered by the government.
PROSHIKA’s package includes gratuities and provident fund. Sadguru’s benefit package includes a rent allowance, pension facilities and among other things a bonus scheme. As the IUCN grew there was increased investment in new management systems and the creation of new layers of authority. BRAC has a system of executives, senior and junior. The AKRSPs reward group achievements and there are annual rewards for the best performing teams.
BAIF remains true to the Gandhian principles and believes in long hours and teamwork and although it has more levels of hierarchy than many organizations it seeks to create a culture where hierarchical issues are minimized. In Sungi there is an official understanding that conflicts are to be resolved at a programme level, with the head of the programme acting as the arbiter. There is a tendency towards more formal management principles as the NGO grows.
For capacity building these successful NGOs invested heavily in formal training and dedicated research early in their experience. They also gave their staff the freedom to perform, encouraging them to take individual initiatives. As for strategy, the conclusion is that participation is not so much a part of the strategy-making process as part of the strategy affirmation process. The strategy may originate from the chief executive or the donor or a worker, in order to realize it participatory processes are needed.
Governance structures, specifically hierarchy, and whether it is inimical to participation is discussed in great detail. The nine NGOS all have hierarchy and several have worked hard to ensure that it is as flat as possible. Also that decentralization is not the same as participation. Participatory techniques may help in achieving the final goal and that organizations may have simply ‘deconcentrated’ their management.
Finally the authors dwell on the leadership question. In each of the NGO case study there was one individual whose vision initiated the organization. These leaders operate on a personal level and invest considerable time in building contacts and developing relationships of trust. Sometimes they undertake a political role as well. Their success depends on how much they are able to respond to the needs of the community they wish to serve.
Also examined is whether the organization collapses when the founder is no longer with them. Six of the NGOs under study went through leadership changes and survived. The remaining three are still managed by their founder.
About the book it must be said that it charts a hitherto unknown aspect of management — that of private individuals setting up organizations solely to work for the disadvantaged. To the credit of the authors goes the manner in which they were able to put together the varied cultures, backgrounds, and value system of these diverse NGOs into a coherent piece of analysis. Perhaps it would have been a good idea if the management techniques were collated with the real achievements of these NGOs in their respective fields. Then, perhaps one would not have to simply take the words of the authors that these nine NGOs are “...some of the most successful in the world”.
Managing change: leadership, strategy and management in Asian NGOs
By Ian Smillie and John Hailey
Oxford University Press, 5 Bangalore Town, Sharae Faisal, Karachi-75350. Tel: 021-4529025
Email: ouppak@theoffice.net
ISBN 0-19-579712-4192pp. Rs395
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