This presentation shows the different between the mainstream NGOs as the classical methods and alternative NGO which is widely used now among different organizations .

1. NGOs and Development
From mainstream to alternatives

2. Agenda
Mainstream and Alternative development
- Concept and evolution
- Different approaches
- Benefits and Critiques
- Key ideas of Alternative Development
Application on Alternative Development:
Case Study: Self Help Groups and Women development in India

3. Main stream development

4. Origin
Leopold Kohr published The Overdeveloped Nations:
The Diseconomies Of Scale in 1977. Over
development is characterised by the consumption
of goods for non-functional purposes.

5. In mainstream development , the existence of 'underdeveloped'
states, regions or cultures is seen as a problem that needs to
be solved.
States, regions, cultures and people are considered
'underdeveloped'
In contrast, the framework of overdevelopment shifts the focus
to the 'developed' countries of the global North, asking
"questions about why excessive consumption amongst the
affluent is not also seen foremost as an issue of
development".

6. By questioning how and why uneven development is produced in
the world, one can evaluate the global North’s role and
responsibility as “overdevelopers” in producing global
inequality.

7. According to various surveys, consumption is seemingly not
making people notably happy, but rather increasing the
West's ecological footprint. Overdevelopment has a huge
impact on the environment, the social realm,human rights,
and the global economy.
The key area of development to which NGOs have contributed is
that of ‘people-centered’ development, reflecting recent
shifts away from heavily theoretical ideas about
development, to more pragmatic ‘theories about practice”.

8. Critiques of mainstream development NGOs
- The dilemma between human needs and organization needs
- Depends on dependency (Unsustainable)
- Absence of environmental and equity concerns

9. Alternative development
1970

10. What is Alternative development
“Local development on ground”
- Focus on participatory and people centered (grass roots)
- Acts as an alternative paradigm over decision control
- More successful model
- More concerned with real development measures not only
GDP
- Alternative in: agents, methods and objectives (values)
- 3 Pillars: participatory, endogenous, self-reliant

11. Evolution
-Post WWII, Marxist economic philosophy (Rise of socialism)
“ Labour is the sole source of value; natural reources as
such have no economic value”
- Reformist prespective: Correction of conventional method
problem (State intervention, monitor and control)
-Now mainstream development is trying to be integrated with
alternative development pillars – MAD -

12. Different approaches
- Dependency Theory
- Capacity of people theory

13. “Alternative development is development from
below”(Nerfin.1977)
Community - NGOs

14. Human nature being what it is, while everyone likes to
be a social engineer, few like to be the objects of social
engineering. (Ashis Nandy, 1989: 271)

15. Critiques
- Loose model: Objective and scope question is not yet
answered! (intervention? .. Impact measure?.. Tools?)
- Its postconventional ideas are still under the ties of
the conventional political imaginaries (load of
aspirations beyond its scope)
- Follow up on continuity

16. Key ideas of Alternative
development
Participation, Gender, Empowerment

17. Participation
Participation - umbrella term to refer to the
involvement of local people in development
activities
Focus on reversing the power relationship that
exist in mainstream development
Emphasis on the idea that people themselves are
the “expert” on their problem & should be
actively involved in working out strategies and
solutions

18. Dimension of participation
 Appraisal – way of understanding the local community
and their understandings of wider processes PRA, PUA
 Agenda setting – involvement of local community in
decisions about development policies, consulted and
listened to from the start, not brought in once policy
laws been decided upon
 Efficiency – involvement of local community in
projects – building schools
 Empowerment – participation leads to greater self-
awareness and confidence; contributions to development
of democracy

19. Different forms of participation
Nominal –when government-formed groups are created; but
their main purpose is merely tokenistic display.
Instrumental - a way of providing labour under conditions
of resource shortfall created by structural adjustment,
which then counts as a cost to local people.
Representative- a certain group within the community gains
some leverage within a programme or project by gaining
access to the planning committee and is able to express
its own interests.
Transformative- people find ways to make decisions and
take action on their own terms.

20. EMPOWERMENT
A practice of sharing information, rewards, and power with people so
that they can take initiative and make decisions to solve problems.
Achieved through participation
NGO ability to ´empower individuals´ (Willis, 2005102) – important part
of the NGOs enthusiasm
Interest in empowerment reflected a shift from considering poverty simply
as ‘a lack’ of material resources, towards a view of poverty as an
outcome of unequal power
Idea of having greater power and therefore more control over your life.

21. Dimensions of power (Rowlands, Willis, 2005:102)
Power over – the ability to dominate
Power to – the ability to see possibilities for change
Power with – the power that comes from individuals
working together collectively to achieve common goals
Power within – feeling of self-worth and self-esteem
that come form within individuals.
An effective empowerment strategy was one which focus
on ‘power to’ in order to resist & challenge ‘power
over.’

22. A key elementt of empowerment as development
outcome – interventions leading to empowerment.
Often claimed – NGOs empower communities – in
reality not the case
Empowerment is something that comes from within
NGOs can provide context within which a process
of empowerment is possible, only individuals can
choose to take opportunities and use them

23. GENDER
Feminist scholars and women’s groups began to raise important
questions about the degree to which women were included in such
process (Sen &Grown 1988,Guijt &Shah 1998)
Feminist argued that participation often involved a handful of
women in participatory exercises and often obscured women’s
interests and contributions to development.
Moser(1989) ,in her overview of gender and development approaches
in the post-colonial era, argues that the empowerment approach has
been led by women’s groups and NGOs in the South.
Example-SEWA

24. Sen and Grown (1985: 20), writing for
Development Alternatives with Women for a New
Era (DAWN), argued that
Equality for women is impossible within the
existing economic, political, and cultural
processes that reserve resources, power and
control for small groups of people. But neither
is development possible without greater equity
for, and participation by, women.

25. Encapsulating the essence of the
key propositions of The theory of
Alternative Development i.e.
Participation, Empowerment and
Gender is the concept of SELF HELP
GROUPS

26. Self Help Groups (SHGs)
And Women Development in India

27. International Network for self- help centress say
“ SHGs follow a process of self help support wherein people
who share common problems, experiences and situation can
offer each other a unique perspective of mutual support which
is not available to those who have not suffered that
situation”

28. Thus, a SHG can be described as
A group seeking strength of collectives
By following the principle of mutual self-help
It works as a convergent community action

29. Roles of SHGs
•Empowerment, non- hierarchical decision making, inclusion
and shared responsibilities
•Non –exploitative models of mutual help
•Promotion of habits of savings, credit management, and
management of micro finance activities
•Social support
•Social and political inclusion of members

30. Women SHGs have played a catalytic and a multi-
dimensional role in upliftment of their members

31. Credit security and Economic Upliftment
Promoting habit of thrift and voluntary savings
Doing away with exploitative interest rates (of usurpative
money lender) and oppressive formal procedures (of formal
banks)
Developing an in-house capability of managing a small mini
bank

32. Entrepreneurship Development
Set up their own eco activities through micro-industries and
other self employment generation activities like kuteer udgoy
in sectors like handicraft , food processing etc
SHGs also ensure buyer linkages
40 lakhs SHGs have been registered under SGSY which provide
training, skill development, technical and marketing support

33. Social Empowerment
Promote elementary education for girl child, adult female literacy for
destitute, widows
Promoting facilities for children of working mothers like crèches or
balwadi
Social awareness against practices of dowry, superstition, child
marriage, small family norms, health and nutrition
Setting up vocational training centres which double up as centres of
creating awareness and advocacy about gender rights
Social Capital for the group

34. Women’s leadership development and political empowerment
With small beginnings as a mini bank organiser provided women
with exposure about administrative and political processes
This catapulted them towards bigger roles in village/block or
district level
So SHG- PRI linkage is on an upswing and more women leaders
of SHG are finding possible to become elected people’s
representative in PRIs

35. The UNICEF- Yavatmal case study on SHGs
The Yavatmal(district In Maharashtra) has shown immense
multi-dimensional potential of women’s collective
The Yavatmal SHG strengthened the concepts like co-
governance, social audit, SHG-PRI linkages

36. Thus, SHGs which made a
humble beginning as a
micro credit management
institutions have led to

37. Refrences
http://aud.ac.in/upload/Development-
Alternative_Post_and_Reflexive-Jan_Petrse.pdf
http://www.sociologydiscussion.com/development/alternative-
development-theories-for-local-development/1129
http://www.prayaspune.org/reli/PUBLICATIONS_files/A_1_5.pdf
Book - Non-Governmental Organizations and Development (By - David
Lewis, Nazneen Kanji)

38. Team memebers
Ashmeet Baweja
Manar Ramadan
Richa Joshi
Saurabh Bhowmic