Changing partners

Northern NGOs, Northern governments

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12248952
AutoresIan Smillie (Novita Healthcare (Australia), autor de correspondencia)
Año1994
Volumen5
Número2
Páginas155-192
Fecha de publicación1994-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaVoluntas Revista Internacional de Filosofia (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2179-3786 • E-ISSN: 1573-7888
EditorialSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/bf02353984
OpenAlexW1987820597
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas18
Referencias citadas12

Northern NGOs live with an increasing level of insecurity and change. Governmental pressures to professionalise contribute to bureaucratisation, while inadequate overheads, an outdated project approach and lengthy approval procedures work against professionalism. Although they spend tens of millions of dollars annually through NGOs, few OECD governments have taken evaluation seriously. Northern NGO survival, therefore, has been largely de-linked from performance. More fundamental is the growing identity crisis that Northern NGOs have in relation to their increasingly effective Southern counterparts. Recession and faltering public support have pushed governments into reduced aid budgets and new concepts of accountability, participation and the role of ‘civil society’. Adding to the burden these shifts place on NGOs, many governments now deal directly with Southern NGOs. Many governments have also restricted their matching or ‘responsive’ NGO funding programmes, while providing massive funding increases - on highly favourable terms - for emergency and refugee work. Most OECD governments have also initiated special funds for AIDS, women, democracy and special geographical troublespots, channelling NGOs towards governmental priorities. Some basic principles are proposed for remedying the problems and for treating NGOs as important elements of civil society rather than as delivery mechanisms for governments

Accountability · Civil society · Democracy · Economic growth · Economics · Political science · Politics · Work (physics · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Public Administration