Common Counsel, Common Policy

Healthcare, Missions and the Rise of the 'Voluntary Sector' in Colonial Tanzania

Bibliographic Data

ID5062358
AuthorsMichael Jennings (0000-0001-8619-2178, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume44
Issue4
Pages939-963
Publication date2013-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDevelopment and Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0012-155X • E-ISSN: 1467-7660
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/dech.12044
OpenAlexW1938624938
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited19

Analysis of the voluntary sector in sub-Saharan Africa has tended to focus on the role of the NGO, and the types of relationships this institution establishes and maintains with donors, national governments and the communities with which they work. The voluntary sector in Africa is therefore usually defined through, and often treated as synonymous with, the institution of the NGO. As a result, the boundaries of understandings of the 'third sector' space occupied by the vast number of NGOs - its origins, the nature of the relationship of voluntary sector actors to the state, the types of organizations that characterize the sector - have tended to reflect a narrow concern with the NGO type and its experiences. This article suggests that this view is too narrow in its gaze. The voluntary sector was not a creation of a post-colonial (and especially post-1970s) development crisis. It emerged from an evolving relationship between colonial-era non-state (voluntary) actors and governments determined to demonstrate that they were meeting their commitments to the welfare of Africans under their charge. Missions and mission welfare services, expanding across much of rural sub-Saharan Africa by the beginnings of the twentieth century, and increasingly coordinated from the late 1920s and early 1930s, created the foundations for the emergence of sub-Saharan Africa's formal voluntary sector as it exists today. This matters for more than just historical accuracy. To understand the constraints, challenges and opportunities faced by NGOs, we need to move beyond a narrow focus on the institution of the NGO itself, and look in addition to the environment in which it operates: its history, its evolution and the shifts that created those conditions

Colonialism · Economic growth · Economics · Health care · Institution · Political economy · Political science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Tanzania · Voluntary association · Voluntary sector · Welfare · International Development and Aid · Law · Public Administration · Religion, Society, and Development · Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development