Laura Boyer and Joel Selway, Political Science Department

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play an important role in international development. While the NGO sector addresses hundreds of issues and annually administers millions of dollars in aid (Hall-Jones 2006, Djelic 2006), these organizations are often Western based, which generates debates regarding the appropriateness of Western-based interventions in developing countries. One side argues that these foreign NGOs often use a one-size-fits-all approach, which fails to effectively help the community and only perpetrates cultural imperialism; the opposing side argues that Westerners have skills and resources that can provide invaluable assistance to impoverished communities (Easterly 2006, Sachs 2005). Unfortunately, these arguments mainly focus on the sponsors rather than the beneficiaries: currently very little research strives to understand the community’s reaction to different NGOs. If the aim of development is to improve the livelihood of people, it is critical to understand the effect of nationality on a community’s receptiveness to NGO involvement.

Thailand provides the perfect context to study responsiveness to NGO work. Given the unfortunate history of sex trafficking in the country, both Thai NGOs and foreign-based organizations have sprung up in order to ameliorate the sex trafficking situation. This has created a history with NGOs in Thai communities, which allowed preferences to be easily fostered and identified. Additionally, the juxtaposition of Thailand’s historically patriarchal culture with the modernization and liberation of women necessitates discussion of gender roles in development work, which makes identifying gender preferences a central objective of this study.

The research began by interviewing professors, professionals, and NGO leaders in Northern Thailand i in order to better understand history of NGO work in Thailand and Thai culture, specifically attitudes towards anti-human trafficking initiatives, trends concerning women in leadership positions, and other current social problems. These interviews lead to three main conclusions. First, given the corrupt background of Thai-based NGOs, professionals tend to agree that foreign-based organizations fundamentally have more validity, which generally translates into greater support; however, American organizations also have the reputation of cultural insensitivity and implementing strict conditions for aid. This weakens the appeal for purely American NGOs. Second, the increased prevalence of successful women in politics and business offsets the historical gender bias. Indeed, one Thai social scientist described women as the front legs of an elephant – meaning that the woman controls while the man follows and supports. Such an analogy tends to discourage theories regarding gender discrimination in leadership positions. Finally, it was consistently stated that very few Thai people volunteer at organizations. Instead, they lean towards donating money, but this money mostly benefits Buddhist temples rather than helping nongovernmental organizations.

These conclusions provided insights into professionals’ opinions, but a large-n experiment was needed in order to gauge aggregate trends in the community. Therefore, approximately 1,000 Thai citizens were recruited to participate in an experiment. The experiment consisted of each participant reading a description of a hypothetical NGO, which was coupled with a picture of the organization’s founder. The participant was then asked if he or she would be willing to volunteer at the organization and if he or she would be willing to donate a minimal amount to the organization. Each description contained the same language, and only varied by emphasizing the gender and nationality of the NGO founder, as well as the general make-up of the staff: homogenous (all American or all Thai) or mixed staff (Thai and American workers). The pictures varied between a Caucasian American female, a Caucasian American male, an ethnic Thai female, or an ethnic Thai male. The various combinations of gender, nationality, and staffmake- up resulted in eight unique descriptions that were then randomly assigned to each participant.

This random assignment meant that any variation between response is due to the NGO descriptions rather than any differences between the participants, such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, or any other unmeasurable factor. As such, running a simple t-test was sufficient to identify the effect of different NGO leader and staff combinations on the participant’s willingness to volunteer or donate. This test merely identifies whether the difference between two groups is due to the difference in nationality, gender, and staff structure, or whether the difference was simply happenstance.

Results show that gender and nationality of the NGO leader alone do not significantly affect a Thai person’s willingness to volunteer or donate. This means that a Thai person is just as likely to support a NGO led by a woman, as he or she is to support to a NGO led by a man. The same is true for the basic differences between American and Thai founders. However, significant differences occur when comparing the various combinations of gender and nationality. Results so that a Thai person is significantly more likely to donate to a NGO lead by a Thai female or an American female. In regards to volunteering, only a NGO lead by a Thai woman earns special support from the Thai community. These results compliment the interview conclusions, and seemingly contradict the assumption that patriarchal societies view women in leadership positions differently. The results also support the theory that Thai’s prefer a mixture of the two cultures, rather than a homogenous structure of an organization. The data overwhelmingly shows that Thai citizens will be more likely to support organizations that have a mixed staff of both American and Thai staff. In all cases, a Thai person is more likely to donate to and volunteer with an organization that incorporates the two cultures and skill sets together.

These findings pose important implications for Thailand and the developing world. In the case of Thailand, an all Thai NGO or an all American NGO would not secure the same support as an NGO that combines the two together. As such, Western-based NGOs should work closely with Thai staff in order to best help the community; Thai NGOs would also benefit from international partnerships. For a broader application, this study merely acts as a preliminary step for further research. In Thailand, Westerners are welcomed; however, the reaction will be different in other countries with different historical and cultural contexts. The study shows that research is necessary to truly understand the community’s response to different development aims. In order to truly help those impacted by development projects, their reactions must be understood. It is time to contribute hard statistics to the normative debate regarding Western involvement in development.