Development Point: Motivations of NGO Workers

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Development Point: Motivations of NGO workers

I know that one of the biggest shocks for me when I started getting involved with development work and when I went to India, was that a lot of the time, the people working in your NGO were mainly there because it was a just a job. This came as a huge surprise to me because my perception back in Canada was that everyone who worked for NGO’s was there because they really deeply cared about positively contributing to helping people and making some necessary sacrifices to do so. However, after arriving in these developing world countries you start to see that development NGO’s are very similar to any regular business company. Many times, the people they employ, both local and ex-pats, are more interested in just doing whatever it takes to get their salary as opposed to making decisions that are best for the people in poverty.

Now, this doesn’t mean that all development workers share this trait and I have met many fantastic people working in the field, again both local and ex-pat, who are amazingly good at what they do and have inspired much of my work. I also don’t want to denounce those people who are working in the sector mainly for the money. Working for an NGO is most of the time one of the better jobs you can get in many of these countries. Many of these people working for NGO’s come from the exact same vulnerable circumstances as the people we are trying to help and they need this job to help feed their families and send their kids to school. Many of them have sacrificed a tremendous amount to save up enough money to pay for a proper education and NGO’s provide them with an opportunity to apply those skills.

The point I am making is more intended to talk about the misperception many people in Canada, including myself before I left, about why people work in the NGO sector. This point is almost always one of the biggest shocks most first time overseas volunteers talk about when they return home. I wanted to give a heads up for those thinking of doing the same so when they show up, wanting to put in 10 hour days, 7 days a week for free and the rest of their co-workers are scrambling to get out the door before 5:00pm, they don’t get too frustrated.

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Steve and Simon Hard at Work
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