Substitution or Facilitation: Service-Delivery NGOs and Political Engagement in the Peruvian Amazon

Abstract

Whether nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) undermine or build democratic linkages between citizens and governments in developing contexts is a long-standing debate. This research explores the divergent claims of whether service-delivery NGOs, by doling out goods, decrease demands made of governments or whether they facilitate interactions with governments. Using a mixed-methods approach based on original household data from the Peruvian Amazon and interviews with community leaders, NGOs, and government, the research paints a nuanced picture fleshing out aspects of the NGO debate. The likelihood of pressing for services and interacting with government increases with more NGO interaction, supporting claims about the positive effects of NGOs. However, higher levels of NGO activity in communities can have a deterrence effect on petitioning government for support, a result that likely hinges on the role of information. The research has implications for the role of NGOs in affecting government responsiveness and accountability.

Public Sector Governance Reform and the Motivation of Street‐Level Bureaucrats in Developing Countries

“…This is in line with attraction and selection mechanisms, and it is consistent with the notion that mission‐driven organizational contexts could help offset some of the potential negative consequences of performance incentives, though additional qualitative data are needed to shed light on the principal organizational dynamics underlying the relationships observed here (Kjeldsen and Jacobsen ; Langbein ; Moynihan ; Sanabria‐Pulido ). Additionally, there remains an open debate about the relative merits and potential trade‐offs of backfilling or replacing substantial state functions using civil society actors, especially in settings in which democratic institutions are relatively new and still being developed (Boulding ; Brass ; Cammett and MacLean ; Nelson‐Nuñez ). The findings in this study show one positive consequence of having NGOs manage the delivery of public services, but this is an important area for additional research that should consider a wider range of outcomes, particularly among members of the public who are using or not using these systems.…”

Do Service Provision NGOs Perform Civil Society Functions? Evidence of NGOs’ Relationship With Democratic Participation

“…Brass (2012) argues that interactions with, and learning from, NGO practices have increased democratic norms within the civil service in Kenya. In Latin America, Boulding similarly shows that NGOs can play a powerful role in stimulating protesting and activism toward electoral challenges (Boulding, 2010, 2014; Boulding & Gibson, 2009), and Nelson-Nuñez (2018) finds that greater levels of NGOs can facilitate citizen engagement with government. Murdie and Bhasin (2011) likewise find that some NGO activities are associated with increased protesting.…”

“…In Jordan, moreover, even when NGOs attempt to engage in civic activities, they are stymied by deliberate state interventions to limit their effects (Wiktorowicz, 2002). In addition, sometimes, participation reduction is unintentional: Nelson-Nuñez (2018) finds that when NGO provision results in sufficient service coverage, citizens petition the government less.…”

Is governance enough? Assessing municipal capacity and CSO participation for complex service delivery

“…This may be particularly the case in municipalities with high poverty levels, and despite the number of organized nonstate actors present (Torpey-Saboe 2015). The outcomes and relationship types, however, may depend on the specific service sector, the objectives, context, and extent of the involvement of civil society actors, and how government (or elite interest) reacts to their presence (Coston 1998;Nelson-Nuñez 2019). However, others claim that the efforts of CSOs, especially NGOs with weak embeddedness in society and that are not membership-based, do not produce the expected structural social transformations that address profound socioeconomic inequities (Banks et al 2015).…”

“…However, when bureaucratic administrative capacity is limited and services are underprovided, or not at all, collaboration becomes less likely because this central partner cannot contribute toward the goals of a collaboration of this kind (Agranoff 2007, 157;Babiak and Thibault 2009;Brinkerhoff 2002;Cammett and MacLean 2011;Loeffler and Bovaird 2016;Page et al 2015). In these cases, civil society tends to step up and substitute or support the role of government to ensure that services are provided (Brass 2016;Mcloughlin 2011;Nelson-Nuñez 2019;Post et al 2017).…”