Contradictions and Confusions in Development Work: Exploring the Realities of Bangladeshi NGOs

Ambiguous practices and identities of NGOs have become a source of increasing concern
for all involved in development intervention. But apart from pointing at dishonest marketing
and unfortunate unintended consequences of donors’ support, how can we understand
these ambiguities? Based on an ethnographic study of local Bangladeshi NGOs,
the article explores actions and behaviour of grassroots NGO staff. The article shows how,
equipped with an ideal image of the altruistic development worker, the staff ’s encounter
with reality provides them with contradictory and confusing messages as to who they
should be and how they should act, resulting in disillusion and moral discord. The analysis
examines concepts such as altruism, alienation, goal ambiguity, moral selving and moral
discord, with an aim to expand our understanding of some moral dilemmas of development
practice, its sources and unpredictable outcomes.