Can NGOs Make a Difference?: The Challenge of Development Alternatives

✍ Scribed by Anthony Bebbington, Samuel Hickey, Diana C. Mitlin

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 369
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Can non-governmental organisations contribute to more socially just, alternative forms of development? Or are they destined to work at the margins of dominant development models determined by others?  Addressing this question, this book brings together leading international voices from academia, NGOs and the social movements. It provides a comprehensive update to the NGO literature and a range of critical new directions to thinking and acting around the challenge of development alternatives. The book's originality comes from the wide-range of new case-study material it presents, the conceptual approaches it offers for thinking about development alternatives, and the practical suggestions for NGOs.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 6
List of Figures and Tables......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Part I Critical Challenges......Page 12
1. Introduction: Can NGOs Make a Difference? The Challenge of Development Alternatives......Page 14
Conceptualizing Alternatives......Page 16
NGOs as ‘Alternatives’: A Brief History......Page 20
Mapping the Book’s Contributions......Page 29
Thinking Forward......Page 41
References......Page 45
2. Have NGOs ‘Made a Difference?’ From Manchester to Birmingham with an Elephant in the Room......Page 49
The Manchester Conferences: A Short Retrospective......Page 50
Where We Were Wrong, and Why It Is Important......Page 55
The ‘Larry Summers Test’......Page 56
Conclusion......Page 61
References......Page 63
Part II NGO Alternatives under Pressure......Page 64
The Perverse Confluence of Political Projects......Page 66
Perverse Confluence and the Redefinition of Meanings......Page 68
Conclusion......Page 79
References......Page 80
4. Learning from Latin America: Recent Trends in European NGO Policymaking......Page 82
Trends and Perspectives in Priority Countries......Page 83
Trends and Perspectives in Thematic Priorities......Page 86
Patterns in Funding Allocations......Page 90
Trends and Perspectives in Partner Selection and Partner Relationships......Page 92
New Priorities and Issues for the Near Future......Page 94
Lessons Learned......Page 96
Conclusion......Page 98
References......Page 99
5. Whatever Happened to Reciprocity? Implications of Donor Emphasis on ‘Voice’ and ‘Impact’ as Rationales for Working with NGOs in Development......Page 101
Changes in Donor Funding of NGOs and Its Rationale......Page 104
‘Voice’ as the New Donor Rationale for Working with NGOs......Page 107
‘Impact’......Page 112
‘Squeezing Out’ Fundamental Aspects of NGO Work in Development......Page 114
References......Page 119
6. Development and the New Security Agenda: W(h)ither(ing) NGO Alternatives?......Page 122
Taking Sides in the War on Terror......Page 125
Constraints on NGDOs Associated with Counter-terrorism Measures......Page 127
Constraints Associated with Development Aid for Security......Page 132
Conclusions......Page 136
References......Page 139
Part III Pursuing Alternatives: NGO Strategies in Practice......Page 142
7. How Civil Society Organizations Use Evidence to Influence Policy Processes......Page 144
The Policy Cycle......Page 145
Identifying Problems and Setting the Agenda......Page 146
Influencing the Formulation and Adoption of Policy......Page 149
Influencing the Implementation of Policy......Page 152
Monitoring and Evaluating Policy......Page 155
Conclusion......Page 158
References......Page 161
8. Civil Society Participation as the Focus of Northern NGO Support: The Case of Dutch Co-financing Agencies......Page 164
Understanding and Promoting Civil Society: Perspectives and Approaches from the Netherlands......Page 165
Contextual Features Affecting Civil Society Participation in Conflict-affected Countries......Page 169
Supporting Civil Society Participation in the South: The Role of CFAs......Page 171
Moving Forward: Conceptual and Practical Advances......Page 179
References......Page 184
9. Producing Knowledge, Generating Alternatives? Challenges to Research-oriented NGOs in Central America and Mexico......Page 186
Theorizing the Informal University: Concepts for Thinking about Research-oriented NGOs......Page 187
The Case Study Organizations......Page 191
Theorizing the Relationships between Knowledge, Civil Society and Development......Page 193
Challenges to Research-oriented NGOs......Page 196
Conclusions......Page 202
References......Page 205
10. Anxieties and Affirmations: NGO–Donor Partnerships for Social Transformation......Page 207
Carving Out and Protecting Democratic Space......Page 208
Disembedding: From Local to Global and Back......Page 216
Concluding Reflections......Page 226
References......Page 228
Part IV Being Alternative......Page 230
11. Reinventing International NGOs: A View from the Dutch Co-financing System......Page 232
The Development Context of the 1980s and 1990s......Page 233
The Dutch Co-funding Programme between 1965 and 2000......Page 235
What Has Happened to Us?......Page 239
Reinventing the System in ICCO: Aiming for Change......Page 243
ICCO as an International Network Organization......Page 245
Changing the Dynamic of North–South Cooperation......Page 247
Can the System be Reinvented?......Page 248
References......Page 250
12. Transforming or Conforming? NGOs Training Health Promoters and the Dominant Paradigm of the Development Industry in Bolivia......Page 251
The Current Development Paradigm......Page 253
Conscious and Unconscious Strategies of Power and Influence......Page 256
Bolivia, Social Fields, Health Care and the NGO Sector......Page 258
Theoretical Aims and Actual Practice......Page 263
References......Page 269
13. Political Entrepreneurs or Development Agents: An NGO's Tale of Resistance and Acquiescence in Madhya Pradesh, India......Page 272
The Making of an NGO......Page 275
Acquaintance with Neelpura Village......Page 276
A Troubled Period: Confrontation, Resistance and Development......Page 278
Formal Agent of the State: Doing Development Daily......Page 281
Using Law to Effect Local Rights within a Project Framework......Page 282
Scaling Up Development and Scaling Up Politics......Page 284
Hegemony or Counter-hegemony......Page 285
Conclusion: The Nature and Limits of NGO Power......Page 286
References......Page 289
The Death of Gender Mainstreaming?......Page 290
Understanding Gender Mainstreaming in Oxfam GB......Page 292
What’s Happened to Gender Mainstreaming at Oxfam?......Page 293
Understanding Institutional Change: Master Plans or Misconceptions?......Page 295
Gender Mainstreaming: Some Critical Reflections on Ideas and Activists......Page 300
Making Institutional Change Central to Gender Mainstreaming......Page 305
References......Page 306
15. The Ambivalent Cosmopolitanism of International NGOs......Page 309
Ideas of Cosmopolitanism......Page 311
NGOs and Cosmopolitanism......Page 314
Cosmopolitanism in Practice......Page 319
Conclusion......Page 322
References......Page 324
Context......Page 327
A History of Development in Five Paragraphs......Page 328
What is Shack Dwellers International?......Page 330
NGO Support Professionals for the Urban Poor: Arsenic in the Jam?......Page 334
SDI: An Evolutionary Watershed?......Page 335
Possibilities and Constraints Born from a Conscious Partnership with NGOs......Page 338
The First Signs of an Important Mutational Leap......Page 341
Conclusion......Page 342
References......Page 343
Part V Taking Stock and Thinking Forward......Page 346
17. Reflections on NGOs and Development: The Elephant, the Dinosaur, Several Tigers but No Owl......Page 348
NGOs, Neoliberalism and Development Alternatives......Page 350
The Elephant, the Dinosaur, Several Tigers but No Owl......Page 352
Conclusion......Page 355
References......Page 356
Contributors......Page 357
Index......Page 362