Women’s NGOs are changing the world – and not getting credit for it

In contemporary global development circles, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are now performing many more roles and activities than they did a few decades ago.

NGOs work with governments, community groups and the private sector — to develop and implement programs, monitor and evaluate their progress and help train people working on those projects.

They’re considered more nimble than other institutions in accomplishing development goals, because they can reach the most vulnerable or disaffected people in a community and find innovative solutions to problems.

Although their funding streams and institutional decision-making structures are typically multinational, NGOs’ legitimacy, indeed, often rests on perceptions of them being “local” and “close to the people.”NGOs are increasingly taking on the responsibility of implementing the gender equality and women’s empowerment agendas of the global development sector.But very rarely have researchers tried to understand or document the specific challenges and opportunities that NGOs working on gender equality, or those that […]

View original article at theconversation.com