Public Policy toward Nongovernmental Organizations in Developing Countries

Jack, William

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGENTS;    ALTERNATIVE POLICIES;    ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION;    CG;    COLLUSION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2639
RP-ID  :  WPS2639

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The author presents two descriptivemodels of nongovernmental organizations and poses mormativequestions about public polcy toward nongovernmentalorganizations (NGOs). In situations in which optimalgovernment intervention in a distorted or inequitableeconomy employs an NGO-like body, he considers which kindsof NGO might be used. First, in many developing countriesNGOs participate in the delivery of what are essentiallyprivate goods--in particular, health care and education. Inan economy without NGOs, there may be good redistributiveand efficiency reasons for the government to provide thesegoods in kind. But if direct government provision of suchservices is ineffective or inefficient, when is contractingout to an NGO-like institution preferable to using atraditional for-profit firm? (Another way to frame this isto ask: What is the optimal taxation and regulation ofprivate providers of publicly financed services?) NGOs alsoprovide useful real and financial links with externaldonors. They are used to provide services the governmentfavors and donors are willing to fund. In this model, theservice provider is chosen to yield the best outcome forboth government and donor. In this context, the authorcompares an international NGO and a grassroots organization.It may be more efficient to transfer donor funds through aninternational NGO than through a local NGO, but whendonor-government cooperation fails, a project implemented byan international NGO is effectively killed. If a projectimplemented by a local organization can limp along, thisotherwise less efficient organization might be preferred.