The flow o f official aid funds to the NGOs was based on the belief that they were more efficient and cost effective in small scale development programmes, and in particular in their

ability to bring real help to those most in need. The flow o f AIDAB money to Australian NGOs has grown from less than $A 1 million in 1976-77 to over $ 20 million in 1986-1987 [Australian International Development A ssista n ce Bureau (AIDAB), AIDAB/NGO CO: operation Program Annual Report [1986/87). Canberra: AIDAB, 1987, p. 11].

Over the decade the NGO movement has grown in Thailand so that there are today some 150 NGOs in Thailand which are involved in participatory development activities. They are involved in a range of overlapping activities and it is difficult to classify them simply into particular types. Nevertheless, the Thai Volunteer Service (TVS) has attempted to group the NGOs according to their areas of involvement such as rural and urban development; their target groups, such as children and youth groups; their activity, such as public health service, appropriate technology, networking and promotion; and following concepts, such as human rights.38 Here I will simply summarize the NGOs into three categories: those involved in rural community development activities, urban community development activities and networking and promotion.

Consistent with the fact that the major problems of underdevelopment in Thailand are in the countryside, TVS reported that there were 103 NGOs active in rural community development. Apart from the NGOs previously mentioned, there were, for instance, the Thai NGO Committee on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, the Appropriate Technology Association (ATA), Primary Health Care Groups (very active in Korat and in Khon Kaen), the Northeast Human Rights Group of the UCL, and the Towards Self-Reliance in Northeast Thailand Project (NET).39

About thirty NGOs were active in urban community development for the urban poor (slum dwellers and workers) and urban middle class. For the poor, NGO activities were directed towards finding ways to encourage self-development in their own community and helping rural migrants to adjust to life in the big cities. With the middle class, NGO activities were designed to encourage an awareness of the plight of the poor and to gain their support. The NGOs involved included the Union for Civil Liberty (UCL), the Foundation for Slum Child Care, the Foundation for Children Development, and the Health Development Foundation.

Another group of about ten NGOs provided co-ordination and promotion activities among NGOs both in rural and urban areas. These were the "nurse maids" of the small participatory NGOs in Thailand and provide all sorts of assistance. Their activities included the dissemination of information about funding agencies, networks both inside and outside the country, personnel resources, and the promotion of co­ operation among NGOs. Examples of this category were the Thai Volunteer Service

Thai Volunteer Service (TVS), The Directory o f Thai Non-Government Organizations. Bangkok: Samakkhisan Co. Ltd., B.E. 2529 (1986).

The NET Project, supported by the Canadian University Service Overseas (CUSO) and Canadian International Development Agencies (CIDA), is helping reconstruct the Northeast villages severely disrupted by natural disaster and by war along Thai-Kampuchean border. 39

(TVS), the Thai Development Support Committee (TDSC), and the Rural Development Documentation Centre (RUDOC). On a more casual basis one could include "committees" which worked to exchange ideas and to bring together NGOs working in the same areas such as the NET Project; co-operation with fieldwork such as occured with the Northeast Development Worker Group; the Working Committee for Children, and the Co-ordinating Committee of Human Rights Organizations in Thailand (CCHROT).

The catalytic role of NGOs: a concerned party and a countervailing pow er.

In creating development "from the bottom up", the NGOs work closely and widely with the common people and concerned academics to develop their understanding of situations and to consider appropriate responses. To counteract the often inhumane results of official programmes emphasizing macro-level industrialized development, the NGOs insist on the need for self-reliant development and a people participation approach. Together with some academics, their activities include reviews, publications, commentaries, and discussions covering, for instance, the works of Phraya Suriyanuwat, the Economic Draft of Pridi Phanomyong and many practical NGO reports. They address in particular the economic, social and political problems of the poor such as the low price for paddy and uncertain prices for other cash crops, the condition of slums dwellers, the exploitation of child labour and child prostitution as well as the political and legal disadvantages suffered by the poor. The ultimate aims of the NGOs are not only to combat suffering but also to raise peoples' consciousness and to propose political and legal reform through social-welfare and structural-analysis approaches. Their activities include the distribution of goods and income to the poor, assistance in the control of productivity, and help for the people to gain power to determine their own destiny.

From their practical grass roots awareness of the predicaments and development needs of the common people, the NGOs are well placed to play an important representational role on behalf of the poor. This they do on three main fronts which I will consider below: first, they publicize the grievances of the poor, second, they lobby government to review development policies and to reduce dependency on the West; and thirdly, they urge the government to guarantee participation for all in a law-based society.