Scaling Up NGO Impact on Development in South Asia

Over the past two decades, the idea of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has achieved prominence in political and developmental discourse. NGOs occupy the space between state and the market. With the fall of the USSR, a paradigm shift took place that altered the conditions for the emergence of civil society on global level. This has changed the political map of entire world and under such an environment, the South Asian region witnessed a tremendous growth of NGOs. During the past two decades, these civil society groups are struggling to withstand the fragile democratic environment. Many of these civil society groups are continuously fighting with the establishment in order to create suitable democratic governance, participative environment and facilitate developmental programmes at grass root level. NGOs are part of generic concept of civil society that constitutes plethora of institutions outside the state. They play an important role in articulating the views of downtrodden, bringing to limelight the violation of human rights and governance-related issues, among various others. It is in this background that the present chapter is a humble attempt to highlight the role of NGOs in the socio-economic development of South Asia.