The Role of Non-Profit Organizations in Development: the Experience of the World Bank

The Role of Non-Profit Organizations in Development: the Experience of the World Bank | | | | | In both industrialized and developing countries, there is a growing body of experience, which attests to the positive roles that non-profit organizations (NPOs) play in development. (Clark, 1991) These roles include, in particular: - * providing goods and services - especially meeting needs which have not hitherto been met by either the State or by the private sector; * assisting the government achieve its development objectives - in particular through contributing skills for which NPOs have comparative advantage, such as public information, education and communications campaigns, or providing information about the situations and needs of particularly vulnerable groups; * helping citizens to voice their aspirations, concerns and alternatives for consideration by policy makers, thereby giving substance to governments ' policies regarding freedoms of association and speech; * helping to enhance the accountability and transparency of government and local government programs and of officials.
For such reasons, the World Bank, in common with other development agencies, has become increasingly interested over the past decade in the work of non-profit organizations. The World Bank usually speaks of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) by which it means NPOs and community-based organizations (CBOs) that are (i) entirely or largely independent of government; (ii) not operated for profit; and (iii) exist to serve humanitarian, social or cultural interests, either of their memberships or of society as a whole. (World Bank, 1996)

The proportion of Bank-financed projects, which involve NGOs in one role or another, has increased steeply in recent years. While there were examples of such involvement in the 1970s, collaboration really only began to grow significantly in the 1980s, especially in the social and rural sectors. Most of this engagement was with NGOs

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