That is the title of a forthcoming paper by Jennifer Brass in World Development. Here is the abstract:
“Using Kenya as a case study, this paper provides preliminary evidence of the factors influencing nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to choose their locations within a country. Interpreting the findings from a range of models evaluating 4,210 organizations in 70 districts, and drawing on in-country interviews with NGO leaders and workers, government officials, and politicians, it finds that sub-national NGO location corresponds to an area’s objective level of need, as well as the convenience of the location for accessing beneficiaries, donors, and elite goods. Contrary to dominant theories of African political economy, political factors like patronage appear to have little or no significant influence.”
Now that we have a good idea of which interventions work and which ones do not, the question of where specific “interventions” — contract farming, development projects, NGO activity, etc. — take place is an important one, especially given heterogeneous impacts in different locations and the fact that it is difficult to randomize location on a large scale.
I have had the pleasure of meeting Jen at the inaugural meeting of the Midwest Group on African Political Economy, at which she presented another paper in which she looked at whether the presence of NGOs entail a decrease in government legitimacy.