Whether acting as advocates, watchdogs, or service providers, it is widely recognized that Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) play a crucial role in countries across sub-Saharan Africa.
However, their ability to make a true impact depends not only upon their own organizational capacity and financial viability, but also upon such external factors as their country’s legal framework, communications, and other sectoral infrastructure.
USAID is now giving users an easy way to understand the opportunities and the threats facing NGOs across the region with our roll-out of the NGO Sustainability Index for Sub-Saharan Africa (PDF).
The Index measures NGO sustainability using a methodology that employs seven “dimensions”. These include legal environment, organizational capacity, financial viability, advocacy, service provision, infrastructure, and public image.
By combining numerical scores with narrative justifications, the Index offers a useful description of the state of the NGO sector in 19 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Mirroring the long-established Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia NGO Sustainability Index, this first edition of the Africa NGOSI will provide a benchmark for observing trends across sub-Saharan Africa as well as between
