NGO's (Non-Governmental Organizations) are possibly the most visible arm of policy and practice in development studies, and questions of improving their efficacy, in terms of operational efficiency, goal attainment, and assessing development impact, are paramount.

This book illimunates the dangers of over-conceptualizing NGOs as representative actors of civil society, as well as the problems of ignoring questions of power, particularly in mobilizing knowledge for development outcomes. The author argues that the group of actors usually termed NGOs, operate within the forces of the development industry, generating troubling questions of power and accountability. Controversially, the book argues that:

• There is no single authoritative understanding of the term NGO. The historical perception of the 'non-governmental' has shifted, with contradictory meanings that make it arduous to establish a single understanding of the NGO.
• There is a certain understanding embedded within international aid agencies as well as professional schools, that NGOs are autonomous agents committed to international development, towards accepted public goods, in cooperation with state-level actors.