The charity sector is battered and sore; ….Oooh Uganda, May God Uphold Theeeee….!
A broken watch tells the correct time twice every day. It’s a curious phenomenon- despite being fundamentally flawed, it achieves perfect accuracy in brief, predictable moments. This paradox provides a revealing lens through which to examine the modern charity sector and its ongoing pains. An industry born from the ashes of World War II that has spent 75+ years grappling with humanity’s most persistent challenges. Plus by the way, done a pretty good job!
The Post-War Genesis
When the Second World War ended in 1945, the world faced unprecedented humanitarian crises. Millions of displaced persons, destroyed infrastructure, and shattered economies demanded immediate action. The international community responded with remarkable speed and coordination, establishing organisations like the UN and its affiliated arms, as well as numerous non-governmental organisations dedicated to relief work.
These early efforts may easily be the charity sector’s finest hours- its “correct time” moments. The Marshall Plan rebuilt Europe, refugee camps provided shelter and sustenance, and medical missions prevented disease outbreaks. The sector demonstrated what coordinated humanitarian action could achieve when faced with clear, immediate needs. Linearity, as opposed to multi-dimensionality, was its thing.
The Evolution to Development
As the immediate post-war crisis subsided, the sector faced a critical juncture. Rather than declare victory and dissolve, these organizations pivoted toward longer-term development work. The focus shifted from emergency relief to poverty alleviation, education, healthcare systems, and economic development in the so-called Third World.
This transition marked both the sector’s greatest ambition and its fundamental challenge. Unlike the concrete objectives of post-war reconstruction, development work increasingly evolved into complex, interconnected problems without clear endpoints. How do you measure success in “lifting people in our village, Nakabugu, out of poverty” or “promoting sustainable development”? In hindsight, this is when the broken watch began its long day of imprecision.
The Global Expansion
Over the subsequent decades, the charity sector grew into a massive global industry. Standardisation or ‘coca-colanisation’ as we fondly call it at the Effectiveness lab, enabled scale and employment of millions, attracting hundreds of billions in funding, and operating in many countries. Major organisations, moniker INGO, became household names.
The sector’s expansion paralleled the rise of international cooperation, increased media coverage of global crises, and the growing prosperity of the middle class in developed nations. Celebrity endorsements, telethons, and sophisticated marketing campaigns transformed charitable giving into a cultural phenomenon. The infrastructure was impressive, the intentions noble, and the resources substantial.
The Persistent Questions
Yet here we stand in 2025, 75+ years after this grand experiment began, confronting uncomfortable truths. Global poverty remains stubbornly persistent, with hundreds of millions still lacking basic necessities. Climate change threatens to undo decades of development gains. Conflicts continue to displace populations, requiring the same emergency responses that characterised the sector’s early days.
Critics increasingly question whether the charity sector has become part of the problem it seeks to solve. Does the constant fundraising cycle incentivize organizations to perpetuate the very issues that justify their existence? Have Western-led INGOs inadvertently undermined local capacity and governance? Has the sector’s growth created a parallel system that competes with rather than strengthens public institutions?
When the Watch Shows Correct Time
Despite these systemic concerns, the charity sector continues to demonstrate its value in specific moments and contexts. When earthquakes strike, when epidemics emerge, when conflicts create humanitarian emergencies, the sector responds with proven effectiveness. Its logistical capabilities, technical expertise, and rapid deployment capacity remain unmatched.
The sector also succeeds in targeted, measurable interventions. Vaccination campaigns have eliminated diseases, clean water projects have reduced mortality, and education programs have increased literacy rates. These achievements represent the “correct time” moments when the sector’s approach aligns perfectly with the nature of the challenge.
The Need for Recalibration
The broken watch analogy suggests that the charity sector’s fundamental mechanism may be flawed, but its occasional accuracy isn’t mere coincidence. Understanding when and why it works correctly offers insights for improvement.
The sector’s ‘penitence’ moment may be the recognition that it performs best when addressing specific, measurable problems with clear solutions and defined endpoints. But that it struggles with complex, systemic issues that require sustained political commitment, local ownership, deep-vein structural change and the knack for pushing boundaries even when it makes others a tad uncomfortable.
Moving Forward
The charity sector has earned its place in the global response to human suffering. Its ability to mobilise resources, deploy expertise, and maintain hope in the face of overwhelming challenges remains unchallenged especially in the developing world.
But like the broken watch, we must understand sector limitations while appreciating the moments when it tells exactly the right time.
Rather than abandoning the humanitarian impulse that created the sector, and subsequent development programmes, we need to recalibrate our expectations and approaches.
Internally, the sector ought to recognise the limits of charitable solutions to political and economic problems. There should be investment in local capacity building, and accepting that some challenges require decades of patient work rather than immediate results and that it may never be the sector, in its current configuration, to deliver the answers.
The next five to ten years will determine whether this sector can evolve beyond its post-war origins. It must become more precise, nifty, nimble, sustainable, and ultimately effective in its noble mission, which at times appears too complex.
The sector must leverage and optimise its two ‘correct time’ moments and offer a new value proposition. Future survival requires learning new gaming. The savvy brands shall reinvent themselves.
Give the sector another chance!
***The Effectiveness lab promotes and respects intellectual-agency; so, all our guests are encouraged to ‘…own their mind..’ – be at the forefront of: actively sharing and learning, understanding and ultimately, meaning-making***
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