Monika Krause The Good Project Analysis

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In Monika Krause’s, The Good Project, it is argued that humanitarian organizations present a desire to help people in need of assistance, but their underlying goal is on creating profitable, sustainable projects to present to donors. Krause presents the work of NGOs as commodities, things that are sought after and can be “bought” or “sold” to donors and the beneficiaries, the people in need. In turn, because donors are choosing where to place their money, the beneficiaries become commodified in the decision of how they will receive the project and if they are beneficial to serve. Utilizing her argument, I will apply it to the proposal presented by Malaria No More. Throughout their proposal there is evidence of beneficiaries becoming commodities …show more content…

As such, the organizations need to present themselves with high similar standards with other organizations but present their difference by emphasizing its uniqueness. In this way, the commodity individuals choose is not much different than choosing vanilla ice cream from two different companies. The one that presents itself as both different and better, will receive the most profit. NGOs will develop their policy positions, not only in direct response to the dilemmas that are identified, but also in ways to react to other agencies’ views to actively differentiate themselves from each other (Krause, 123). In this way, each organization exists as a new way of aid, but targets different groups of individuals - for instance, many want to help education in one area of the world, but another finds food security to be a larger problem. Both groups will seek to provide aid for the same area, but they will present themselves as the greater need. Like most other international organizations that presented to us, Malaria No More presents itself as a good (worthwhile, investable) NGO by targeting the area of Cameroon. It has shown to the donors that it found a high needs area and that they have established a strong track record for their work in Cameroon, thus investment in the program would be of …show more content…

A good project is one that can successfully put itself out of business, by having the community it was supporting surpass. Malaria No More’s primary goal for their work, as presented to us, is give hard to reach communities bed nets and Malaria education. In addition to this, I believe Malaria No More could be more successful if they provided additional materials for Malaria care, in not only focusing on prevention education, but also rehabilitation for those who have already contracted the disease. Additionally, Malaria No More can help these areas, by providing ways for the community to produce their own bed nets effectively. In this regard, if there is a situation where there are limited or too high a number of damaged bed nets, the community will not have to worry for the next batch of nets to come as they can be producing their own. This, however can lose some donors who may want to keep their involvement with the program. In my view, a good project is one that becomes sustainable even after the NGO and donations decrease or are removed entirely. Yet, in this method of working through and solving the problem, there can be more needs identified and addressed. This presentation allows for more solutions for more problems, while the donors can be confident that they are making a sustainable

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