A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABILITY
IN THE OPERATIONS OF ANGOLAN NON-GOVERNMENTAL
ORGANISATIONS (NGOs): A CASE STUDY OF ACTIVITIES OF NGOs SAVE
THE CHILDREN AND FUNDAÇÃO YME, FROM 2000 TO 2010

A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABILITY
IN THE OPERATIONS OF ANGOLAN NON-GOVERNMENTAL
ORGANISATIONS (NGOs): A CASE STUDY OF ACTIVITIES OF NGOs SAVE
THE CHILDREN AND FUNDAÇÃO YME, FROM 2000 TO 2010

FILIPE BULOLA PANGE

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have gained an important role in development co-
operation during the last two decades. The development funding channelled through NGOs has
increased and the number of NGOs engaged in development activities, both in Africa and Asia,
has been growing. This qualitative case study set out to assess the critical challenges of
sustainability in the operations of Angolan NGO’s Social activities and the capacity building
process carried out by the NGO Save the Children and NGO Fundação YME, from 2000 to 2010
in Angola. This case study research was based on the organisation Save the Children and an
indigenous organisation, NGO Fundação YME, located and operating in Cabinda, Luanda,
Benguela, Huila and Namibe provinces of Angola. The aim was to evaluate the following major
research question: what are the underlying factors in the challenges of sustainability in the
operations of the national Angolan non-governmental organisations? The sub-questions were:
Why are foreign NGOs’ operations sustainable while local NGOs’ activities are non-sustainable?
Why does the challenge of sustainability in their operations continue to mount in indigenous
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NGOs as shown by the non-sustainability of many NGOs in Angola? What are the mechanisms
or policies for sustainability used by successful NGOs? How do human, material and financial
factors enhance sustainable development outcomes in NGOs? What opportunities exist in
Angola for the realisation of sustainability of NGOs? To answer the above questions, a number
of qualitative methods and techniques were used to collect and analyse data. Among other
techniques that were used are:
Focus Group discussions with employees and volunteers, observations, key informant interviews
with different categories of participants depending on their roles and level of involvement in the
implementation of NGOs projects and also their experience in the implementation of donor aided
programs. These discussions were guided by different interviews scheduled with respective
participants. Conclusions drawn from the empirical study were among others, the major factors
contributing to the mounting challenges of sustainability of NGOs social activities in Angola,
were lack of effective leadership in the NGOs, poor strategic planning, poor vision and mission
statement. This research among others, recommended that there is need to provide for strategic
planning based on accurate information. Planning and managing the sustainability of NGOs
requires the availability of accurate and timely information that links together resource inputs to
NGO managerial outputs and process and appropriate indicators of the knowledge, skills, and
values acquired by the employees. Therefore, it was recommended that efforts should be made to
provide among others support reforms that focus on job training and management outcomes.

ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY

2014