Madeleine Bunting has an interesting piece on the Guardian development blog on attempts to fight NGO proliferation in disaster areas. Near the end, she touches upon how the media might play a large role in the problem:
There were plenty of interesting and useful ideas at the table, but many people were aware that they were unlikely entirely to solve the problem. Disasters prompt an intensification of the close symbiotic relationship between the media and NGOs. The media pour in to cover the disaster and that brings the money the NGOs want. And it brings many more NGOs. The NGOs want the media and the media rely heavily on the NGOs to get the stories.The proliferation of (foreign) NGOs is partially the results of the media's "you can make a difference" attitude towards overseas philanthropy. To use Peter Singer's famous example of jumping into a lake to save a drowning child: we need to stop convincing everyone that they are able to swim.
That said, I'm not convinced that finding ways to reduce foreign NGO proliferation will have as large of an impact on overall NGO proliferation as we might hope - whenever there is immense pressure to spend lots of money in a disaster area, someone will be incentivised to set up shop, and if it isn't a foreign NGO, it will be a local one. This might be a good thing - we might expect local NGOs to be better suited - but it could also mean a lot more TWACIBs.
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The proliferation of NGOs is in the first place linked to the funding. Without the free floating money looking for an NGO they would disappear.
We fund NGOs because they seem to have effectiveness and legitimacy. However, the effectiveness is anecdotical or spin. Some NGOs are indeed effective, others not. There is absolutely nothing you can say about the effectiveness of NGOs as a group. It is even not relevant about NGOs as a group as they are so different.
Their legitimacy comes from their identification with the civil society, while in fact they don't have any mandate from the groups they claim to speak for. Even worse: where NGOs crop up, the unions and co-operatives cannot compete with the better funded NGOs and weaken. This means that the services delivered by NGOs lead to less empowerment and less accountable government in the long run.