In “Foreign Aid, NGOs and the Private Sector: New Forms of Hybridity in Renewable Energy Provision in Kenya and Uganda,” Lauren M. MacLean and Jennifer T. Brass analyze the hybridization of NGOs and business through a case study of the electricity sector in Uganda and Kenya. The electrification rate in Kenya and Uganda, and Africa as a whole, is extremely low. Since the mid-1990s, there has been a shift towards non-state-led electrification efforts. “Hybridization,” for instance, describes a model in which NGOs incorporate a for-profit component to help create a long-term, sustainable business model. The authors determine that hybridization is a result of a decrease in donor funding, an emphasis on self-sustainability, and increased economic liberalization. Hybridity allows for the NGO component of the business to sustain equitable access for longer periods of time, thus better benefitting the communities that it aims to reach.
The authors highlight several concerns that have resulted from this shift towards hybridization. For example, in Kenya and Uganda interviews have revealed popular distrust in hybrid organizations, as well as a desire for greater regulation in order to ensure quality control of the renewable energy products that these hybrid organizations offer. In response, the authors argue that hybridity is able to more successfully provide electricity to its consumers, as well as equitable access to rural and poor communities, as discussed below.
For-profit businesses require more accountability to shareholders, whereas NGOs focus on accountability to the energy consumer. Hybridization creates tension between these models. The authors note, however, that hybridization allows for greater accountability to the energy consumer by lowering NGOs upward accountability through self-sustainment autonomy. The authors argue that NGOs with a for-profit spin-off sister company are most successful in reducing this tension and increasing accountability to the end user. In this model, the two entities are kept separate, allowing the NGO to focus on accountability to consumers because their funding is secure and separate from the for-profit business entity.
The authors suggest that, while these two countries display widely varied characteristics, they are representative of developing countries experiencing similar organizational hybridity, both within and outside of Africa. Both Kenya and Uganda have a high number of active NGOs, but the number of energy sector NGOs is representative of trends in the rest of Africa. There is a divide between Uganda and Kenya in the government treatment of private actors in the energy sector. Uganda has implemented regulations that aid hybrid organizations and has been more successful in the privatization of its electricity sector. In contrast, in Kenya hybrid business enterprises have been met with passive government policies, and the energy market has not been fully privatized. In addition, Kenya’s energy sector has been accused of corruption and the government’s lack of support has not aided in reversing this trend.
NOTE: This summary is produced by the Rule of Law Collaborative, not by the original author(s).