Flexible ngo-donor coordination in aid interventions to strengthen resilience
The case of Lebanon’s primary healthcare system
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21879608 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rawya Khodor (0009-0000-3379-9734, The London College), Lama Bou Karroum (American University of Beirut), Fadi El-Jardali (0000-0002-4084-6524, Impact) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 11 |
| Pages | e016614 |
| Publication date | 2024-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | BMJ Global Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2059-7908 • E-ISSN: 2059-7908 |
| Publisher | BMJ (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1136/bmjgh-2024-016614 |
| PMID | 39537210 |
| OpenAlex | W4404339725 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 57 |
INTRODUCTION: With shifts in international aid, international donors have increasingly regarded non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as capable of providing alternative public service arrangements. As funding flows to NGOs, particularly in contexts where both actors work towards strengthening health system resilience, NGO-donor relationships evolve. However, despite calls to investigate the contribution of relationships between actors within health systems, including NGOs and their donors, to health system resilience, empirical research is limited. Understanding these relationships is crucial for comprehending their role in fostering resilient health systems. This research fills this gap, by examining how NGO-donor coordination contributes to health system resilience in Lebanon. METHODS: This research focuses on Lebanon's primary health system, primarily managed by NGOs through contracts and heavily funded by donors. It examines NGOs operating under the national primary healthcare network (PHCN). The participants, including staff from these NGOs and donor agencies funding them, were purposively selected. 31 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The analysis framework relied on a thematic analysis. RESULTS: The findings revealed that the flexibility in NGO-donor coordination in Lebanon depends on donors' trust, regular coordination and donors' willingness to listen to NGOs' needs. In this light, they uncovered that flexible NGO-donor coordination enhances NGOs' resilience capacities in shocks, allowing them to operate flexibly. By strengthening NGOs' resilience, which contributes to the resilience of the broader health system, this relationship contributes to health system resilience. CONCLUSION: The findings contradict the mainstream development literature on NGO-donor relationships. The latter focuses on donor funding requirements that often result in rigid NGO-donor coordination, making it difficult for NGOs to be resilient. Rather, they emphasise the donors' role in implementing flexible development approaches, through flexible NGO-donor coordination, strengthening health system resilience. Overall, this paper contributes to the health system resilience literature by exploring how specific configurations of NGO-donor coordination strengthen health system resilience
Business · Economic growth · Economics · Health care · Mainstream · Management · Political science · Psychological intervention · Psychological resilience · Public relations · Qualitative research · Sociology · Thematic analysis · Disaster Response and Management · Global Maternal and Child Health · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Public Administration · Social Psychology · Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research
Doing a thematic analysis
Does Trust Matter? Exploring the Effects of Interorganizational and Interpersonal Trust on Performance
Building resilient health systems
Prelims - Whose Reality Counts?
Governance and Capacity to Manage Resilience of Health Systems
Everyday resilience in district health systems
The Role of NGOs and Civil Society in Development and Poverty Reduction
The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology
Health system resilience
Public health emergency preparedness
Tackling Covid-19 in informal tented settlements (Lebanon)
Cut from a Different Cloth? Comparing Democracy-Promoting NGOs in Ghana and Indonesia
Neoliberalism is dead, long live neoliberalism? Neostructuralism and the international aid regime of the 2000s
NGOs, trust, and the accountability agenda
Accountability in Humanitarian Action
From shouting to counting
NGOs and Innovation
A Paradox of Learning in Project Cycle Management and the Role of Organizational Culture
Too close for comfort? the impact of official aid on nongovernmental organizations
How Successful Transnational Non-governmental Organizations Set Themselves up for Failure on the Ground
Four Criteria of Development NGO Legitimacy
NGOs, States, and Donors Revisited
From bouncing back, to nurturing emergence
Towards an understanding of resilience
Information Systems and Nongovernmental Development Organizations
New development alternatives or business as usual with a new face? The transformative potential of new actors and alliances in development
Governance, Representation and International Aid
Using thematic analysis in psychology
The use of cash assistance in the Covid‐19 humanitarian response
Managing Public Service Contracts
Resilience capacities of health systems
Coming to Terms With the Public-Private Partnership
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |