Engaging with an NGO

From NGOPedia

Once you are satisfied that a particular NGO is the ‘right one’ to engage, it is important from the first to be open and allow the relationship to develop without too many initial expectations. A patient and tolerant attitude will go a long way to finding the true measure of the organisation’s experience, wisdom and potential to be a good partner.

Working in the NGO environment can be tricky and the organisations that survive and have competent and passionate leaders who are seasoned survivors, are familiar to disappointment and having to reinvent the wheel over and over again.

Initial resistance to significant engagement could be a good sign! Resistance can be an undervalued indicator of integrity. These ‘good’ leaders are used to working in ‘muddy waters’, like Gangetic dolphins (fresh water Ganges and Indus River dolphins) who are virtually blind and live in muddy water, they are able to navigate through engagement processes using other faculties, which might not be standard in the business world.

At the same time if you feel, early on, on an instinctual level that something is ‘not right’, don’t dismiss it and ensure that appropriate checks and balances are put in place. Write it down, keep records, report it to your colleagues and ensure that there is a space within the engagement process to report and air misgivings about processes and programmes. What is important is to allow the partner to explain or contextualise the situation without it damaging the relationship as it develops in the early stages.

Providing a space to negotiate around and air differences can go a long way to finding creative solutions and new ways of doing things thus enabling the partnership to harness and marry diverse skills and resources that benefit all parties and result in constructive and meaningful development.

Establishing the credentials of an NGO | Regional Summary