Managing Beneficiary Involvement in Non-Governmental Organisations : Implementing with, for, and by the Beneficiairies

Abstract: Lack of appropriate level of beneficiary involvement during the project lifecycle may lead to mismatch between the project output and needs of beneficiaries. Therefore, involving beneficiaries in the project helps to assure that the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) provide the right solution to needs of beneficiaries as well as sustaining project results. Although beneficiary involvement is useful, the challenge is to determine how and when to involve beneficiaries in the project.    The purpose of this study is to improve the process of managing beneficiary involvement in NGOs. To achieve this, a review of the existing literature was done to have an initial understanding of beneficiary involvement. During our literature review, we identified six progressive levels of involvement which include: information sharing, listening and learning, joint assessment, shared decision-making, collaboration and empowerment.  Based on this literature review, we suggested a framework for managing beneficiary involvement.   In addition, we conducted a multiple case study and collected data from five different cases through interviews. Our respondents were professionals with several years of experience in developing and implementing development projects which are aimed at improving the livelihood of vulnerable communities. Through the analysis of the empirical findings, we got new insights on how the process of beneficiary involvement is managed. We identified four additional levels of beneficiary involvement within the project cycle. These include incentive system, peer facilitators, group forming, and cost sharing. The study also reveals the factors that affect beneficiary involvement, such as cultural context and, donors’ influence and requirements. We also highlighted that the appropriate level of beneficiary involvement should be chosen depending on the project context. Regardless of these factors, the research findings show that beneficiary involvement creates a sense of ownership, enhances project outcome and is useful in sustaining a project’s results in the long term. Therefore, NGOs should endeavour to involve beneficiaries as much as possible to ensure that the projects being implemented are addressing community needs.