Navigating Institutionalised Donor Driven Procedures and Ideals of Social Justice Among Community Development Workers in Nigeria

Many International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) partner and support local NGOs in Nigeria to promote community development through project interventions; providing funding, technical assistance, materials and guidelines on project implementation. These projects are targeted at improving lives of individuals who are vulnerable and or infected or affected by diseases. However, the institutionalised approach they employ to achieve the goals of various projects and initiatives contradict the ideals of social justice, by worsening inequality especially, among the vulnerable population and communities they serve. Using data from 48 interviews, 1 FGD, and several months of participant observation in Lagos, Nigeria, this paper reveals how community development workers and volunteers struggle between adhering strictly to project guidelines, standard operating procedures and the moral economy of shrinking inequality and relative deprivation. It reveals further that community development workers, being more conscious of the reality of the communities they serve, scrutinise and reflect on donor driven “guidelines” which are mostly targeted at some demographics and defined by specific deprivations; and go on to take (in)actions they strongly believe will benefit their community and its members, without reinforcing existing stigmas and inequalities. This paper concludes that deviations from project guidelines are inevitable at the grassroots level, as workers in the process of their work find ways and practices to navigate stigma of project beneficiaries, the expectations and realities of the everyday in communities they serve. The paper advances conversations around local practices of social justice norms in the global south, while illuminating the ongoing importance of bottom-up approach and local relationalities in NGO-driven community development work.