Solving Local Problems or Looking Good: An Ethnography of the Field Practices of Foreign Sponsored NGOs in Rural African Communities

Abstract

Southern non-governmental organizations (SNGOs) raise funds and advocate for the poor because one of their strongest legitimacy is a connection with the grassroots and hard to reach beneficiaries. There is extensive literature on the close relationship between SNGOs and their donors abroad. However, although growing literature on the relationship between SNGOs and their beneficiaries in local communities is scant, this paper contributes to this gap by exploring how a foreign-sponsored local SNGO navigates the tensions between performance for donors and the interest of farmers in a cocoa-growing community of Ghana. Ethnographic data were collected for several months using participant observation with the participating SNGO. The findings enhance our understanding and reveal insights into how SNGOs adapt their practices on the field to provide evidence of their performance to donors.

Beyond educational workshops: How child‐focused NGOs can draw African rural parents out for sustainable intervention in childhoods

“…However, a recently published report and a documentary on child labour use claimed that 2.1 million children were still involved in child labour across Ghana's cocoa‐growing areas, Ivory Coast and other parts of West Africa (O'keefe, 2016). These developments were not lost on international cocoa buying firms, who collaborated with local NGOs to implement child protection interventions in Ghana and other parts of West Africa (UNICEF & MoWAC, 2011; Yeboah, 2022).…”