Overview

One of the major challenges in international development is to deliver aid effectively: how does a non-governmental organisation (NGO) promote and support service provision in impoverished communities in a lasting and effective way?

This report explores one NGO’s – Camfed’s – model for governance in the delivery of girls’ education. This model specifically sets out to help those girls who are most vulnerable and powerless, and ensures this help is permanently effective by encouraging systemic (that is, long term and sustainable) change in these girls’ communities. Camfed does this by striving to ensure that accountability for its aid is not limited to accountability to its donor, or to a government, but that Camfed itself is accountable, first and foremost, to the girls its programs are intended to serve. In other words, Camfed is accountable to its “intended beneficiaries” or “clients.”

We have debated the use of these terms. Camfed certainly views the people it serves as clients rather than dependents or beneficiaries. The term “client” also has the advantage of implying the concepts of accountability and duty of care which are addressed in this report. However, it does not fit in all contexts, and as a result, we use both terms in this report.

This report examines the governance structures that Camfed has erected to meet this challenge, and draws out key principles and practices that may have universal significance and application in the international development sector whenever programs or initiatives are being devised to counter poverty and disempowerment in communities globally.

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