A Participatory Approach to Organisational Renewal and Larning

Abstract

In recent years, a considerable amount of enthusiasm for Organisational Development (OD) has been generated in the development sector. Although OD as a field of theory and practice has a fairly lengthy history, its relevance to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has only recently been realised. There are a number of reasons for this. NGOs by and large, are social change oriented organisations, that is to say, they live in and promote change processes. When independent and autonomous forces create changes in the external constituencies where NGOs conduct their main business, the pressures on these organisations to keep pace with change intensify. Most NGOs today find themselves in a web of relationships with other autonomous actors and agencies with conflicting expectations and demands. Several NGOs have to rely on external resource-providers usually disconnected from the local situations and contexts where NGOs conduct their business.