NGO Coordination

I heard from a Canadian here with me the other day that Burkina Faso has 440 NGOs working here.  440!  That sounded great to me at first because that means this country has to be getting a lot of help and should be improving in more ways than it can handle.  Then I began to wonder how many successful ones where here in Burkina Faso.  

My one Canadian friend is working for an NGO and his job is was so save a jam factory because it was going out of business.  The only problem was that the company has no money and has no ingredients for which to make jam.   There are almost not workers there because there is not work and no money and their storage is filled with onions.  Why didn't they just give him a mud hut and ask him to make some fresh baked apple pies?

I've also heard of how an NGO came into Niger to start a trash collecting system, but completely left 3 months after the project was up and running.  The system ended up failing and things went back the way they were.  I'm sure the reports that were sent to the NGOs financier didn't include that fact.  

I have to say that I'm all for NGOs.  I can't even say that I know a whole lot about them to criticize them.  I've never worked for one, but I have closely known people who have worked for and with them.  Some of them sound like success, but I've heard more stories of failure.  It always sounds like to me its taking a lot of effort for little results; like pouring water into a bucket with holes in it.  

The thing that I do know is that with 440 NGO's in one region there should be some huge things going on.  I mean, if you put 440 people together to solve a problem there should be some major progress.  We are talking about organizations though.  So there is enough for a large army of people trying to help this country out.  

Lack of coordination has to be the culprit that is costing thousands of dollars and countless hours for little improvement.  I know that I have to get more educated on the subject, but when I hear things like how one of the directors of one of the NGOs here will be stationed in Dakar, Senegal and overlooking the region as well, I think of how little action can be taken without a leader that knows what's going on in any situation.