And what car do you drive?

Why should local people trust NGOs? As long as they are seen largely as rich, foreign-funded organizations that exist to further their own interests, with no guarantee that the money will reach the intended beneficiaries, it's not likely that local people will support them. But is the answer for local NGO leaders to abandon their Pajeros – the four-wheel-drive vehicle they are said to favour – or does the issue of trust go much deeper?

In his keynote address to the Resource Alliance conference in Nairobi, Alan Fowler identified trust as a vital pre-condition for any organization whose usefulness and survival depends on social recognition and citizen support.

For other types of organization, trust is more of an optional extra. Governments can always apply coercion when they cannot win trust. Businesses like to have customer trust, but people realize that in the final analysis maximizing profits is the first priority. But for non-profits trust is the cornerstone of their interactions with citizens as supporters or clients. It is their USP, or unique selling point.

Where does trust come from?

Society’s trust in NGOs derives first from the behaviour of individual NGOs. The key elements here are performance and accountability – being seen to be doing something that society values and to be accountable for what they do. Trust also results from the messages conveyed by others – government, media, bureaucrats. Where relations of mistrust exist, NGOs, politicians and media often seize on isolated cases of NGO misconduct to blacken the reputation of the whole sector. Where NGOs' own behaviour fails to inspire trust, they lack the means to counter such attempts. 

How can NGOs build trust? According to Fowler, the first step is to put their own house in order. Codes of conduct are helpful, but they must be enforced. Second, NGOs must actively inform the world of what they do, how and why. They must see this 'as a collective necessity that creates a more supportive environment in which an individual organization’s messages will be better heard and appreciated'.

Third, and most difficult, is the issue of foreign support. If NGOs are to be truly trusted, they must stop being seen as foreign-funded organizations with foreign agendas and externally subsidized lifestyles – a perception that is captured in Kenya by the negative term 'Pajero class', used of NGO leaders. Dependency relationships are also a problem. When NGO staff arrive in their Pajeros, poor people often ask 'what are you bringing?' As long as NGOs are seen as conduits for bringing foreign money to local communities, these communities won't expect to have to support them.

Is the local money there?

But is the money there? Katharine Pearson of the Ford Foundation, talking about the potential role of indigenous philanthropies (endowed grantmakers), labelled as 'insidious' the argument that some places are so poor they have to rely on outside help. There are untapped resources in every community, she argued. Other speakers seemed to agree with her. Joana Foster, of the African Women's Development Fund, insisted that there's lots of money in Africa, people just don't ask for it. Elkanah Odembo, Director of the new Centre for the Promotion of Philanthropy and Social Responsibility in Nairobi, stressed that if NGOs are doing good work that is valuable to society, communicate well to the public, business and government, and have well-thought out plans, the resources will be there.

Local attitudes are often the obstacle to local resource mobilization, the feeling that NGOs can't manage without Ford or USAID, that there isn't enough money. In any case, it's much easier to write a proposal than to ask your friends for support.

But local resource mobilization isn't about self-reliance, not yet. It's about local ownership and constituency-building. One speaker maintained that if an NGO can't raise funds locally, it doesn't deserve to exist, but it's not the amount raised that's important.

The word 'Pajero' cropped up again and again during the three-day conference, but are they really the problem or just a symptom of it? It's unlikely that people anywhere will look favourably on non-profits that adopt the sort of 'fat cat' lifestyle typically associated with the private sector. On the other hand, if NGOs are seen as playing a really valuable role in achieving social change, are people going to spend a lot of time worrying about what cars they drive? Personally I doubt it.

Negative perceptions of NGOs
'If government had as much money as NGOs, they'd do a much better job.'
'NGOs should get their house in order before they open their mouths.'
'NGO people just drive around towns in their big cars. They have a lot of money but they do nothing.'
'Most of the NGOs are here just to serve their foreign masters.'
(Quotations collected by Elkanah Odembo)

EVENT Building Capacity for Sustainability Conference
Date  21-24 November 2000
Venue  Nairobi, Kenya
Organizers  The Resource Alliance