Roles of Ngos to Development

EXAMINE THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF NGO’s TO DEVELOPMENT NGO is an acronym which stands for “non-governmental organization. The UN defines an NGO as a kind of private organization that is independent from government control and is non-profit, non-criminal and simply an opposition party. According to professor Peter Willets, from the university of London , argues the definition of NGO as an independent voluntary association of people acting together on a continuous basis for some common purpose other than achieving government office, making money or illegal activities.
The most common classification of NGOs is by orientation and level of operation. Orientation refers to the type of activities it takes on, these may include human rights, environmental protection or development works. Level of operation refers to whether it is community based, citywide, national or international. The contributions to NGO’s are: Education, this plays a major role in development since without it development cannot take place. Education can be formal or non-formal.
They provide teaching and learning materials for some schools in the deprived areas in Ghana, improved access to education for adults and child rights in quality education. An example is GIGDEV an NGO based in the north which aims at helping adolescent girls by training them in batik tie and dye, hairdressing and sewing to prevent them from going to the south to seek nonexistent jobs. 150 junior high schools in 13 selected districts from the Brong Ahafo, Central region, Eastern region and Greater Accra region to benefit from a project aimed at improving the quality of education in the country.

Which is been implemented by Plan Ghana. Agriculture, this is done by providing equipment to the farmers in deprived areas to help them get better yields. Also they are taught new farming techniques that can improve the quality of yields, advised on crops to cultivate. They help farmers advocate policies that promote market access, control over productive resources by small scale farmers and sustainable agric in the face of climate change. Examples of such NGO’s are SNV and SARI. Also in the economic sector NGOs help alleviate poverty. Since 2009 Technoserve has supported 4209 women in the northern, Upper East and Upper west.
They have been economically marginalized. 12 women groups were supported to secure Shea processing centres. This means that these people are assisted to start small scale businesses to earn capital which will in turn improve their standard of life. This helps the people immensely because they now gain capital to improve their standard of living. SNV is implementing four year project to assist smallholder farmers in three African countries, Ghana included to supply their national school feeding programme. it is been funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation with a grant of 7. million dollars. Science and technology is also an area NGOs tackle by providing the right materials for science programmes which help upcoming students with keen interest in science to develop their potentials. Some of these NGO come out with research findings which help in development of some sectors. Some of the NGOs SARI, UNESCO. In the area of health care, this is done by providing health centers, providing potable water. Providing the deprived with nutritious food to eat. Some NGOs like USAID provide cooking oil and rice to some of the deprived areas.
They also help them with the guinea worm eradication in the northern parts by giving them mouth filters which can be used to drink water from some water bodies. Some examples are water Aid, Oxfam and WHO Some NGO provide relief items in cases of conflicts and natural disasters like floods which is prominent during the rainy season in Ghana. This relief items like bags of rice, sugar, corn, mattresses, clothing, building materials are donated to the affected people in these areas. An example is ADRA. In addition, others play a role in the rights of people be it the mentally challenged or not.
Basic needs Basic rights belief mental health is not a right or a privilege . They help people with mental illness and epilepsy. When they recover their health they learn new skills or go back to their work. Actionaid promote women’s rights, the organization worked on women’s participation in leadership and decision making, violence against women and girls. To conclude, the contributions of NGOs to development cannot be over emphasized since it deals with major aspects of development like education, agriculture, economic, healthcare, provision of relief items and human rights