in defense of the NGO

I'm an arrogant business person. So before I came to Rwanda I was sure that people at non-profits were a bunch of bozos. I figured hey, they don't ever get fired (because everybody's trying so hard to be nice) and donors don't have any clue what they're doing (so why work?). And jeeze, what have they really done with all that development money?

But turns out they're mostly not bozos. They're hard-working, underpaid people that tend to be pretty darn good at what they do. Surprise.

No, the folks you have to worry about are the ones that have been working for the big donors for 20 years (in development speak, big donors are "multilaterals.") Often they used to be young, hip NGO people. Then they got a job at the World Bank that pays three times as much so they could stop working and start attending conferences.

The trouble with NGOs trying to solve the world's problems is not the people. It's that the problems are big and the budgets are small. And then the budgets get spliced into tiny little grants by donors (to hedge their risk of funding someone stupid and looking bad).

So you end up with a budget of $200,000 (a nice-sized grant) and a goal of eradicating poverty in a country with zero infrastructure. This year. Go.

I think I'd struggle, too.