The Role of NGOs and Civil Society in Development and Poverty Reduction

Abstract

Since the late 1970s, NGOs have played an increasingly prominent role in the development sector, widely praised for their strengths as innovative and grassrootsdriven organisations with the desire and capacity to pursue participatory and peoplecentred forms of development and to fill gaps left by the failure of states across the developing world in meeting the needs of their poorest citizens. While levels of funding for NGO programmes in service delivery and advocacy work have increased alongside the rising prevalence and prominence of NGOs, concerns regarding their legitimacy have also increased. There are ongoing questions of these comparative advantages, given their growing distance away from low-income people and communities and towards their donors. In addition, given the non-political arena in which they operate, NGOs have had little participation or impact in tackling the more structurally-entrenched causes and manifestations of poverty, such as social and political exclusion, instead effectively depoliticising poverty by treating it as a technical problem that can be 'solved'. How, therefore, can NGOs 'return to their roots' and follow true participatory and experimental paths to empowerment? As this paper explores, increasingly, NGOs are recognised as only one, albeit important, actor in civil society. Success in this sphere will require a shift away from their role as service providers to that of facilitators and supporters of broader civil society organisations through which low-income communities themselves can engage in dialogue and negotiations to enhance their collective assets and capabilities.

Understanding Contemporary Challenges to INGO Legitimacy: Integrating Top-Down and Bottom-Up Perspectives

“…Recent reflections on INGO futures have involved widespread questioning about whether the INGO sector is 'fit for purpose' (Bond 2015) in an era of growing spontaneous activism from middle classes in emerging economies, and where INGOs have become de-politicised, over-professionalised, and less autonomous (CIVICUS 2014;Banks and Hulme 2012;Howell 2013;Sriskandarajah 2014). These criticisms link to a more long-standing concern that the values, organisation, and accountability of INGOs have been reshaped through prolonged engagement with donors, eroding two key comparative advantages which have been deemed as critical foundations of INGO legitimacy-their grassroots orientation and their capacity for innovation (Banks et al 2015).…”

“…While some argue that there is a need for INGOs to accept more incremental change (Mitlin et al 2007), others call for radical break with existing INGO norms and structures (Sriskandarajah 2014;Banks and Hulme 2012). In a recent review of INGOs' roles and effectiveness, Banks et al (2015: 713) argue that there is a need for INGOs 'to step away from the '''driving seat'' of resource flows and their associated agendas to become supporters and facilitators of more deeply networked social action in which other groups pursue their own goals with the appropriate kinds of support'.…”

Factors Influencing Effective Management of NGO Partnerships

“…NGO reliance on the programmatic and geographic priorities and definitions of poverty of donors means that NGOs do not hold, as commonly perceived, strong comparative advantages in grassroots-driven development [24].…”

From compliant to capable: balanced capacity development for local organisations

“…The framework extends beyond research on public-private partnerships that has often focused on either the skills, resources, and roles of the individual organisations involved (Banks and Hulme 2012), or just on the partnership itself (Probandari et al 2011). It recognises that local organisations' capacity to deliver technical support to Indonesian district governments depends on more than their own abilities and resources.…”