A non-profit organization (NPO) has as its charter, the goal of fostering some sort of human improvement -- either through research, social assistance, health awareness and so on. The NPO, because it is structured as an organization that spends money without generating income, must rely on the support of other organizations and governments and contributions from individuals to finance its operations. Usually there are tax benefits for the individual contributors.
Africa is a breeding ground for Non-Profit Organizations. An excellent guide to the agencies functioning in that nation has been prepared by Kwasi Bosompem and is called A Guide on Who is Doing What in Africa. This book provides comprehensive information on social and economic development programs funded by federal government agencies, foundations /corporations and work being done by US non-profit organizations in Africa. The document provides an inventory of these organizations and, most importantly, their sources of funding, along with the amounts. This source reveals that more than $17 billion in non-profit development funds have been alloted. The remainder of this paper will attempt to determine to what use that money has been put.
After a period of unprecedented decline, there is fairly unanimous agreement among non-profit leaders that Africa's development prospects now appear brighter than at any time since the decade of independence. A new generation of leaders has absorbed the lessons of the past and is boldly moving ahead with reforms, liberalization of economies, and discipline in management (Bayliss, 1994).
In 1995, more than half the nations of Africa enjoyed real GDP growth in excess of their population growth. At least a third of these countries recorded growth rates of 6 percent and above in 1995, and only three countries experienced negative growth compared to fourteen countries the year before. Even Africa's terms of trade are showing modes...