IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v590y2003i1p227-242.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Paradox of Sustainability: Reflections on NGOs in Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph Devine

Abstract

Drawing on research from Bangladesh, this article questions the dominance of a narrow view of sustainability that rests predominantly on financial considerations. The push for financial sustainability has produced ambiguous results and, more important, has also introduced a degree of uncertainty into the relationship nongovernmental organizations maintain with their members. This article will argue that in the context of Bangladesh, an accurate notion of sustainability rests more on social and political considerations than on economic ones. Fundamental tensions exist between social/political and economic considerations, and paradoxically, the relentless pursuit of one may undermine efforts to establish the other. The article therefore seeks to subject the logic and validity of efforts to promote sustainability among nongovernmental organizations in Bangladesh to theoretical and empirical scrutiny.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph Devine, 2003. "The Paradox of Sustainability: Reflections on NGOs in Bangladesh," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 590(1), pages 227-242, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:590:y:2003:i:1:p:227-242
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716203257067
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716203257067
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716203257067?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stiles, Kendall, 2002. "International Support for NGOs in Bangladesh: Some Unintended Consequences," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 835-846, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Emily Haddy & Julia Brown & Faith Burden & Zoe Raw & Juliane Kaminski & Leanne Proops, 2023. "Sustainability in NGO Programming: A Case Study of Working Equid Welfare Organizations," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlson, Laura A. & Bitsch, Vera, 2018. "Social sustainability in the ready-made-garment sector in Bangladesh: an institutional approach to supply chains," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 21(2), March.
    2. Barr, Abigail & Fafchamps, Marcel & Owens, Trudy, 2005. "The governance of non-governmental organizations in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 657-679, April.
    3. LY, Pierre-Emmanuel, 2006. "Bringin? Home the Curry and Givin? it away: Commercial Ventures of NGOs in Bangladesh," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Berlin 2006 19, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    4. Fink, Elisabeth, 2018. "Transnational Social Movement Unionism als Vitalisierungsstrategie und Chance für Gewerkschafterinnen? Das Beispiel des Bekleidungssektors Bangladeschs [Transnational Social Movement Unionism as a ," Industrielle Beziehungen. Zeitschrift für Arbeit, Organisation und Management, Verlag Barbara Budrich, vol. 25(2), pages 188-208.
    5. David Lewis, 2003. "NGOs, Organizational Culture, and Institutional Sustainability," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 590(1), pages 212-226, November.
    6. Catherine E. Herrold & Khaldoun AbouAssi, 2023. "Can service providing NGOs build democracy? Five contingent features," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(1), pages 80-91, February.
    7. Mary Kay Gugerty & Michael Kremer, 2004. "The rockefeller effect," Natural Field Experiments 00263, The Field Experiments Website.
    8. Gauri, Varun & Galef, Julia, 2005. "NGOs in Bangladesh: Activities, resources, and governance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 2045-2065, December.
    9. Mushtaq H. Khan, 2013. "Aid and Governance in Vulnerable States: Bangladesh and Pakistan Since 1971," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-122, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Anna Fruttero & Varun Gauri, 2003. "Location decisions and nongovernmental organization motivation : evidence from rural Bangladesh," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3176, The World Bank.
    11. Abigail Barr & Marcel Fafchamps & Trudy Owens, 2004. "The Resources and Governance of Non-Governmental Organizations in Uganda," Development and Comp Systems 0409047, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Palash Kamruzzaman, 2013. "Civil society or ‘comprador class’, participation or parroting?," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 13(1), pages 31-49, January.
    13. Banks, Nicola & Hulme, David & Edwards, Michael, 2015. "NGOs, States, and Donors Revisited: Still Too Close for Comfort?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 707-718.
    14. Solava Ibrahim & David Hulme, 2010. "Has civil society helped the poor? - A review of the roles and contributions of civil society to poverty reduction?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 11410, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    15. Malin Arvidson, 2008. "Contradictions and Confusions in Development Work," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 3(1), pages 109-134, June.
    16. Davidson, Angus Alexander & Young, Michael Denis & Leake, John Espie & O’Connor, Patrick, 2022. "Aid and forgetting the enemy: A systematic review of the unintended consequences of international development in fragile and conflict-affected situations," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    17. Muhammad Mahboob ALI, & Md. Kamrul HOSSAIN, & ABM Alauddin CHOWDHURY, & Alexandru Mircea NEDELEA, 2017. "Sustainable Development Goals (Sdgs): 1 And 5 –Complementary Towards Fulfillment Of Goals Through Bnf Grant: An Analysis Among The Beneficiaries," EcoForum, "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, Romania, Faculty of Economics and Public Administration - Economy, Business Administration and Tourism Department., vol. 6(3), pages 1-7, august.
    18. Md. Rana, 2011. "Urbanization and sustainability: challenges and strategies for sustainable urban development in Bangladesh," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 237-256, February.
    19. Syed Mahbubur Rahman, 2019. "Structural Analogy in Development and Climate Aid: The Case of Bangladesh," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 4(1), pages 89-116, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:590:y:2003:i:1:p:227-242. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.