The meaning of foreign aid insecurity for senior leadership of the southwestern Uganda NGO/CSO Sector striving for financial sustainability.

摘要

Rooted in the inter-disciplinary background of corporate leadership and Not-For-Profit Motivated Organizational economics, this phenomenological research is entitled, The Meaning of Foreign Aid Insecurity for Senior Leadership of the southwestern Uganda NGO/CSO Sector Striving for Financial Sustainability. The purpose of this research was to investigate the southwestern Uganda NGO/CSO Sector senior leadership's experience of foreign aid insecurity, to understand how they experienced it, and to describe the meanings they attributed to it.;This study contributes to ongoing efforts to achieve a three-fold goal: comprehending the multi-faceted nature of foreign aid insecurity and its impact on the southwestern Uganda NGO/CSO Sector; improving senior leadership knowledge, experience and practice; and cultivating a spirit of constancy in effort in searching for the most sustainable homegrown solutions to relieve, reduce, or reverse the high scores of the intensity of foreign aid insecurity.;A purposive sample of 25 senior leaders from 25 different NGOs/CSOs from four different districts of southwestern Uganda; namely, Kabale, Kanungu, Kisoro, and Rukungiri were interviewed. The research participants consisted of 22 men and three women with ages ranging from 25 to 62 with a shared experience of foreign aid insecurity. Data collection methods included in-depth interviews with semi-structured open-ended questions, direct observation, and secondary data analysis. Using the descriptive eidetic phenomenological analysis method of data analysis, the researcher extracted 357 significant statements from 25 verbatim transcripts. Eight themes developed. A synthesis of composite textural and composite structural descriptions of the experience of foreign aid insecurity generated six action-centered, eight textural-centered, and eight structural-centered descriptions.;The overall finding of the research is that foreign aid insecurity is a fearful temporary economic situation and leadership organizational experience of the scarcity, inconsistency, and uncertainty of foreign funding with the potential to cause a prolonged multifaceted destabilizing socioeconomic situation in Uganda, especially to this country's NGO/CSO sector. The sector is unsustainable and deficient in net-income, liquidity, working capital, and solvency capacity. These measures show the depth of malaise of considerable dependence on foreign aid. Foreign aid insecurity can be good for this sector because it is a wake-up call for awakening from the slumber of dependence on foreign aid, paternalism and welfare handouts which aid indignity. The generalizability of the research findings is affirmed. Contributions to the leadership and management studies are identified. The implications and recommendations to improve practice are provided and future research is proposed.