Strategic alliances among development NGOs in Kenya

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to determine the extent to which strategic alliances are being formed in development Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Kenya, determine factors driving NGOs towards strategic alliance and establish key challenges being faced by development NGOs in the formulation and implementation of the strategic alliances. The study is focused on development NGOs headquartered in Nairobi. Random sampling was used to select 60 NGOs out of the 650 registered under the NGO council. Questionnaires were distributed through the drop and pick later method for Program Managers or CEOs of the organizations to fill. The data collected was analyzed through descriptive statistics such as frequencies, mean, standard deviation and cross tabulation. The study found out that NGOs were increasingly forming alliances for various reasons and with various partners. The alliances are mainly among NGOs or with the government. Partnerships with the private sector are not so common. Competition in the NGO sector was rated as fairly strong, strong or fierce by 75 % of the respondents. Analysis of the competition against size of NGO, sector of operation and type of NGO gave similar results. For instance competition was rated as more than moderate by 55% of NGOs with 1-100 employees and as strong by 75% of NGOs in the social economic development sector. Most of the NGOs indicate that they competed for provision of better services (67.5%) and donor funds (60%). This means that to succeed in this sector NGOs are forming alliances to improve their funding base and to be able to provide better and more sustainable projects as demanded by their clients. The study also sought to determine factors leading NGOs to form alliances. This was analyzed using means and standard deviation. The higher the mean the more important the factor. The most important factor was sharing of resources and competences (mean =4.65). Others included joint project implementation, advocacy, sharing of information, fundraising and to increase impact and sustainability of the projects with means of between 4.45 and 4.0. Finally, the study sought to determine the main challenges in the formation of the alliances. Fear of dependency was seen as the greatest challenge. Others- include hidden costs, strategy clash, culture clash and hidden agenda by the partners. The study also sought to find out how these challenges were dealt with. The most important factor employed to counter the challenge was open communication (mean=4.575) and signing of memoranda of understanding at the inception of the alliance (mean= 4.625). Other factors included having similar goals and involvement of partners at the planning stage. Overall, the study found out that strategic alliances are a very important and core issue in the NGO sector and on which the future of many NGOs depend. The form of alliances are also diverting form the common form of NGOs that we know of, that is alliances formed by NGOs which are very similar and working in the same field, to alliances formed by NGOs with different specifities so as to form one big whole that covers several sectors. This trend should be taken note of, tested and used for policy development in the NGO sector, private sector and government.