Chris Blattman

Chris Blattman

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The worst NGO on the planet?

My nomination is here.

I’m certain there are other contenders. Suggestions from readers?

39 Responses

  1. After ten years in international aid work I would agree with a comment that Intersos is the worst I have worked with- they took more than they budgeted, made sure their staff had best housing etc and frequent holidays, and implemented next to nothing. And the World Vision were no good.

    I would say the best I have worked with are MSF and MedAir, interestingly also the two who pay their staff the least, not that I am advocating this but it further shows how bad is Intersos. Also an honourable mention to GOAL.

  5. I think the people involved in these organizations are just taking your advice Mr. Blattman. In a post you authored in 2007, How to Get a PhD *and* Save the World, you advised people to:

    7. Do what you love. You can try to game the system and do something that’s hot, conventional, or orthodox. But if you don’t love your topic and your research, it is probably not going to be interesting to anyone, let alone you. Plus you’ll be miserable. Did you really work this hard and come this far to be mediocre and unhappy?

    3. Take chances. The second best piece of advice I ever received came from my dissertation chair, shortly after my oral examinations committee told me that my prospectus was poorly thought out, uneconomic, and overly risky. They were 100% right, and I benefitted from hearing it (although at the time I was miserable). Where I think they were wrong is that they told me to abandon my plans for risky and expensive field work. They favored the less risky route that could get me to a completed dissertation faster. My chair’s response: “Hey, if you really want to do this, why not? Give it a shot. If it doesn’t pan out after three months, then come back and work on something else. Worst case scenario: you lose a few thousand dollars and a summer, but you have a great experience.” I plan to give the same advice to my students.

    Granted, you were offering your wisdom concerning dissertation research, but I think the overarching principles of your guidance can be applied to the people running these organizations. They are out there, interacting with community members, making a positive impact in peoples’ lives and engaging in something they are passionate about. Why should anyone sitting in front of their personal computers spending time reading smart peoples’ blogs feel empowered to attack their efforts?

    Just because we may not be passionate about entertaining or surfing ourselves does not mean that community members in developing countries will not benefit from these organizations. On the contrary, in my experience overseas, it is typically these smaller boutique outfits that make the lasting impact that development workers theorize about.

    Has anyone actually spent time on either of these organizations websites? Do you know their mission, vision and goals? Are you familiar with their budgets and financial plan? Have you spoken to community members in the places that these organizations are active to measure any sort of impact? My guess is that the majority of the readers here would answer no to most/all of these questions. Why then, do we judge? Why are we compelled to hold them up to some great standard, confined to our definitions of successful organizations? With what basis do some of you feel obligated to make such a rude distinction (worst NGO in the world) toward groups of people who are at least trying? Is there not a better use for our intelligence and creativity than to sit and nit-pick? I guess those would be my questions for you, fellow bloggers, to answer…

  6. How great is the Uganda school fee project you plug in your sidebar? The clown thing is humane and harmless.

  7. When I was in Kenya I had the misfortune of witnessing a group of American teenagers give a ‘show’ that included cheerleading, line dancing, and comedy skits to a bemused local audience.

    I have no idea who they were or what they were doing, but it would give a bunch of Spanish clowns a run for their money.

  9. Why are we so quick to judge the efforts of others? Perhaps the worse NGO is the one that is mishandling funds or even worse, the people who are criticizing and aren’t doing a thing. Come on people! At least they are making an effort. Whether or not we agree about the approach or the impact, its still an effort. Would you rather them not do anything at all? Don’t knock the person thats trying…everyone has value.

  10. There is also a German organisation training Afghans how to become waiters in Kabul. The service was fairly terrible the last time I was there.

  11. And what about this other spanish NGO teaching a bunch of congoleese kids the anthem of the soccer team from the city the NGO originated, back in Spain? It was the tv and youtube sensation during last christmas time

  12. I’m with the commenters who disagree with this post. There are far, far, far worse NGOs out there. Even if you don’t think this one helps much (debatable, I guess) it sure doesn’t do much harm. Come on. There’s so many NGOs out there that do such harm.

  13. I know of a similar group that visited kids in East Timor (albeit with doctors). As others have said, I don’t really see what the big deal is here. I think such NGOs are sweet. Obviously not in place of food, shelter and education, but let’s not forget that children enjoy silly entertainment regardless of where they live.

  14. ¨Payasos Sin Fronteras¨ came to visit when I was working in the only refugee camp in Mozambique. They entertained the kids -who usually receive little attention or stimulus- for an entire morning and asked for nothing in return. In addition, some of the clowns have their jobs back in Spain and dedicate their vacations to do this very difficult task -have you tried to make dozens of refugee children laugh?
    Your post was pretty unfair, I think.

  15. Clowns – if they’re doing their job right – provide a huge amount of relief for people affected by disasters, especially those stuck in IDP or refugee camps. Being a clown doesn’t necessarily mean dressing up in a fright wig – that might be the source of the terror. Having seen the effects at first hand, I’m inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

    Waves for Development – who doesn’t love surfing? My most terrifying NGO was one that appeared in Kosovo called “Operation Light Force” – I would google for a link, but I suspect I wouldn’t enjoy the results.

    Conor – ho ho ho ho ho.

  16. May be a case of misplaced enthusiasm, providing something that a lot of people don’t like, and a bit of a resource drain, but I think there are worse NGOs than these, or even the Waves for Development. At the very least they aren’t adding to the problem.

    Unless this was an early April Fool’s day special.

  17. Honestly, I definitely don’t get what’s wrong with providing some fun time to kids in a refugee camp. What’s the problem? is it that smiles are for free? is it that you don’t need 1000s of K dollars from the IMF or WB on a fancy project to get some smiles? Chris, I’d be grateful to you If you could explain me why these guys are the worst NGO in the world… because I totally miss the point here.

  19. Isn’t there probably some NGO doing physical harm? Like some group promoting the autism vaccine link in Latin America or something?

  21. I don’t think there is any doubt that Accupuncturists Without Borders blows Clowns Without Borders away.

    I’m not making this up: AWB advocates for using accupuncture to “heal the wounds” in Darfur and provide the basis for a lasting peace.

    Seriously.

  22. A guy I know at Google has “slacker without borders” as his signature. Could be the next big thing.

  25. I think the IMF is much worse because they have 1000’s of clowns and a much bigger budget

  26. All the places I have worked in the past…. the clowns’ intentions seem more honest than any of the clowns I have worked at

  27. The Belgian clowns without borders who showed up in Thailand to entertain some Burmese kids there seemed to do a good job; I think in some places kids are terrified by them while in others they really do help lift their spirits a bit. Better something than nothing, if they aren’t causing problems (which probably depends on which clown ‘missions’ we look at).

    I’m not sure that it would be easy to argue that the money some might call ‘wasted’ on the clown trips would be better spent on other projects, as it’s possible that this money would simply not be donated to other groups.

    When I visited one NGO office in Mae Sot, Thailand they had the door wide open in the hot afternoon sun with the aircon blasting on full power to keep the reception area cool. While that org does some great work, the amount of cash they waste seems phenomenal. Things like this make it hard for me to rate NGOs as the ‘worst’ unless we can consider groups like L’Arche de Zoe as NGOs.

  30. where is your sense of humor chris? there are lots of ngos that add as little value as clowns without borders but actually take themselves seriously. i think this makes them far worse…

  31. Having worked in over half-a-dozen African countries I must say that these clowns are no worse than the apple-toting do-gooders who clog up the hotel bandwidth with their incessant skyping. At least these clowns know how ridiculous they are.

  32. I was in rural Mexico and the (Italian) head of the local NGO decided to bring a friend who was a clown to perform for the kids in the village. The kids were absolutely petrified!!! I might be culturally relativist here, but I’m not sure the clowns = fun equation translates globally.

  33. Until it can be proven that there is no such NGO as Mimes Without Borders, I am withholding my nomination of anyone else.

    -Dave S.

  37. chris, why would that be the worst ngo in the world for you? i was in rural areas of el salvador in summer 2001 working in a post-earthquake reconstruction project, and i remember the people of the village telling me the best that had happened to them since the earthquakes in january and february was the visit of “payasos sin fronteras”, much more than all the “classical aid” they received…

  39. Don’t you thing that every profession/vocation needs to get behind the development bandwagon.

    Just look for the “Idiots without Borders”…

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