Every country has some objectives and goals to achieve set by its government. But the objectives and goals differ from country to country. Most of the time there are similarities in objectives between some countries. Usually those developed have similar objectives and so do the developing countries. But again the implementations and achievements of these goals differ for different countries.
One of the objectives set by the governments of the developing countries is promoting growth and development. But in any country’s growth and development program, there are NGOs and donor agencies, besides the government, working as government partners. NGOs are organizations which are not dependent or related to the government and work for social benefits. That is why they are sometimes called non-profit organization in some countries. NGOs contribute a lot to the development of a country through their different programs. But as they emerge as development partners, they need to inform the public and the government their objectives, their policies, achievements, what they stand for and plan to do in the future.
The World Bank defines NGOs as private organizations that pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development. Similarly, the code of conduct for NGOs in Ethiopia (1999) defines NGOs as a voluntary, not-for-profit, non-self-serving, non-governmental, non-partisan and independent organization or association involved in the promotion of social justice and development. Because of these definitions, the government sees NGOs as development partners especially in developing countries like Ethiopia. This is because governments, with limited financial capacity, cannot achieve the goals set alone.
The history of NGOs in Ethiopia directly correlates with the occurrence of severe droughts and famines during the last four decades. The climate changes in the...