Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have participated in social development process throughout the world. In African countries this participation has assumed even greater significance because of the complementary, or occasionally supplementary, role NGOs play to that of government in social development. However, it is suspected that lack of clear definition of the relationship between NGOs and states in social development in Africa has led to uncontrolled, uncoordinated and ineffective participation of NGOs in social development This paper, therefore, argues that participation especially by foreign NGOs in social development will yield better results if stales in Africa clearly define the relationship with NGOs in terms of values, ideology and approaches. The discussion also looks at some of the implications of the relationship using examples from Zambia.
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