New Wine in Old Wineskins? Non-Governmental Development Organizations and New Approaches for Sustainable Community Development

This field study explores Nongovernmental Development Organizations (NGDOs) in East Africa and their receptivity of social entrepreneurship (SE) and other market-based approaches as models for sustainable community development. Casting it within the broader discussions of development, the paper examines how NGDOs in this region are adopting or rejecting new models of community development. The results confirm the NGDOs’ slow embrace for new models due in part to the lack of clarity in what they entail. The research, however, highlights a growing trend to embrace some models especially those with verifiable results within pilot programs. These include microloan and value-add processing programs. A key finding of this study is that traditional NGDOs that embrace these new models prefer to form what the author calls “daughter” agencies to run the market-based alternatives, while the “mother” organization continues its focus on primarily relief and charity programs.