Aid Reduction and Local Civil Society: Causes, Comparisons, and Consequences

Appe, Susan; Pallas, Christopher L.

doi:10.1007/s11266-017-9846-0

Cited by 24 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Increasingly, the financial sustainability of civil society organisations has become an essential subject for conversation in recent years (WACSI, 2015;Vandyck, 2017;Appe & Pallas, 2018;Arhin et al, 2018;Pallas & Sidel, 2020;Senanu, 2020;WACSI, 2020). Whiles some are discussing the need to reshape donor's relationship with organisations in the global south (ISTR 2016;Vandyck, 2017;Pallas & Sidel, 2020), others are centralising on growing the local philanthropic sector (Charitable Aid Foundation, 2018;Senanu, 2020).…”

Section: Local Giving As An Alternative Resource Mobilisation Tactic For Csosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local Giving During COVID-19 in Ghana: Uncovering the Potential of Domestic Resource Mobilisation in Ghana

Kusi¹

2021

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the Institute except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Disclaimer:WACSI, SAP and STAR Ghana Foundation accept no responsibility for suitability of any materials submitted by the contributors of this publication. Use of this research report constitutes acceptance and understanding of these dis claimers.

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Section: Local Giving As An Alternative Resource Mobilisation Tactic For Csosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local Giving During COVID-19 in Ghana: Uncovering the Potential of Domestic Resource Mobilisation in Ghana

Kusi¹

2021

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“…Diversifying the funding base to both international and local sources may also help mitigate this, but the local funding environment is critical [7]. If donor funding ceases and CSOs become reliant on government funding, their ability to openly hold governments accountable may be restricted [2,9,10], ([21], p. 21). Alternative funding mechanisms, such as social enterprise, endowments, or crowdfunding are among options to create greater sustainability [2], ( [9], p. 10), [81,93].…”

Section: General Funding Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Donor transitions pose a substantial threat to the role of CSOs as accountability mechanisms. CSOs are likely to face significant funding shortfalls that may force them to scale back their activities, seek other funding sources, or rely on their governments for funding, which may jeopardize their ability to serve as independent advocates [1,2,[9][10][11]. Vulnerable populations most in need of support may lose critical advocates, compromising their access to lifesaving care and threatening important global health achievements [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How donors support civil society as government accountability advocates: a review of strategies and implications for transition of donor funding in global health

McDonough

Rodríguez

2020

Global Health

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Background Global health donors are increasingly transitioning funding responsibility to host governments as aid budgets plateau or decline and countries meet development and disease burden goals. Civil society organizations (CSOs) can play a critical role as accountability mechanisms over their governments, but transitions raise questions about how donor-supported CSOs will fare following transition, especially in environments of limited political commitment. Decreases in funding may force CSOs to scale back activities, seek other funding, or rely on their governments for funding. Vulnerable populations most in need of support may lose critical advocates, compromising their access to lifesaving care and threatening the reversal of global health achievements. This review investigates donor strategies used in the past to support CSOs as accountability advocates across the international development sector by exploring what activities are supported, how support is provided and who receives support. It provides considerations for global health donors to better equip civil society as advocates during and following transition. Methods A literature review of four databases of peer-reviewed literature, websites focused on civil society support and snowball searching identified 180 documents for review, after application of exclusion criteria, covering up to December 2019. Results were categorized and analyzed by who, what and how donors have supported civil society’s accountability role. Results Donors support a variety of civil society actors, including individual organizations and networks, through capacity building, access to information, backing participation in policy dialogues, securing citizen engagement and targeting the broader policy context. Funding may be provided directly or through pooled, intermediary or bridge mechanisms. Key concerns identified include insufficient engagement of CSOs in defining support, limited donor flexibility, tensions in balancing organizational professionalization with community connections, and jeopardized CSO legitimacy and independence from relying on foreign funds. Conclusions Given the urgency of global health donor transitions, the literature demonstrates that any donor support to CSO advocates should emphasize transition preparations from the start. Capacity building, institutionalizing mechanisms for civil society participation, planning for information needs, and flexible funding are priority mechanisms to ensure that vulnerable populations continue accessing lifesaving care and global health progress is not reversed.

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“…The popular talk of a "Shrinking Space for Civil Society" is not the complete story (European Foundation Centre, 2017). 15 Furthermore, the changing space discourse may also better reflect developments in the context of aid reduction discussed in the Voluntas April 2018 issue (Appe & Pallas, 2018). In the case of China, we definitely see a reduction of foreign aid to nonprofits and such reduction is not only due to stricter regulations but also to changing donor policies in the context of China's middle income status.…”

Section: New Perspectives On Civil Society Discoursesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing Spaces for Civil Society Organisations in China

Kuhn¹

2018

OJPS

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Concerns about shrinking spaces for civil society organisations have risen in China over the past years, in particular among international nonprofit organisations. The third sector in China, however, continued its growth in numbers, diversity and activities of organisations, accounting for more than 700,000 registered organisations. Government's financial support to nonprofits significantly increased through contracting out of services. The new Charity Law contains provisions for public fundraising activities, including for online platforms. International activities of Chinese nonprofits took off in the context of participation in global conferences. Chinese NGOs also started to engage in delivering humanitarian aid to communities in other countries. Assessments on shrinking or changing spaces for civil society in China much depend on the type of organisations in focus. This paper pays attention to discourses related to NGO development in China and sheds light on changing spaces for different types of nonprofits in China, those that are negatively affected by new regulations and different kinds of restrictions and those benefiting from emerging opportunities in the context of growing cooperation with the government or the business sector. Analysis based on interviews and talks with experts in China and abroad shows that advocacy-oriented organisations and those receiving foreign funding tend to face more difficulties. Larger international nonprofits with a long track-record in China, however, are seen to continuing or even expanding their activities.

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Aid Reduction and Local Civil Society: Causes, Comparisons, and Consequences

Cited by 24 publications

References 32 publications

Local Giving During COVID-19 in Ghana: Uncovering the Potential of Domestic Resource Mobilisation in Ghana

Local Giving During COVID-19 in Ghana: Uncovering the Potential of Domestic Resource Mobilisation in Ghana

How donors support civil society as government accountability advocates: a review of strategies and implications for transition of donor funding in global health

Changing Spaces for Civil Society Organisations in China

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