Decades of official development aid to the Third World have, largely, entrenched privilege and, through the debt crisis, increased impoverishment. The poor have been increasingly marginalized and disregarded. Often in the teeth of intense opposition they have begun to create their own, democratic, organisations - credit unions, co-operatives, legal and medical aid services and so on - whose natural allies are the voluntary organisations of the North (non-governmental organizations - NGOs) This book, written by a leading activist in Oxfam, describes the immense variety of NGOs both Northern and Southern, their advantages and their shortcomings, and shows how they are increasing in importance, and in financial muscle, in the battle by the poor to achieve democracy and justice. The author writes about the need for strengthening the democratic traditions of the organisations and thus making them the means by which the poor can take control of their own resources and their own livelihoods. John Clark points to a new politics and a new economics of development which may break the current cycle of debt, impoverishment and hunger. He has also written For Richer for Poorer and Zambia: Debt and Poverty.