Contested Claims

Abstract

While international development institutions continue to employ the notions of ‘social capital’ and ‘civil society’ to support their policy of channelling development aid through Southern NGOs, a growing number of studies record NGOs' inability to mobilise members. A countrywide survey of public perceptions of the term ‘NGO’ in Pakistan reveals two striking results: one, dependence on development aid is posing serious challenges to NGOs' public legitimacy; two, strong ideological commitment on the part of the leader of the organisation plays a critical role in shaping an individual's decision to support an organisation, and high monetary compensations made available to the leaders of the NGOs through development aid are interpreted as lack of commitment and negatively impact organisational membership. These findings have important implications for the development agencies' ambition to push the ‘good governance’ agenda through the NGOs in the South.

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