In the mid-2000s, international NGOs (INGOs) were some of the most trusted institutions in the global development landscape. 20 years later, this trust has eroded – in part due to widely-reported scandals, but also because INGOs have continuously presented themselves as the ultimate solution to global challenges, while often sidelining local actors in the process. In her new book The INGO Problem – Power, Privilege and Renewal, Deborah Doane lays out the central thesis that INGOs are acting as a barrier to shifting more power and resources to local civil society.
The reasons for this are multiple, Deborah argues, due to the systemic issues plaguing the INGO sector. The book spells out how INGOs’ work is often carried out at the expense of national and local actors. INGOs capitalize on a system of structural racism that paints the Global South as untrustworthy and lacking in capacity. This restricts direct funding access for local actors and, effectively, marginalizes the very communities that INGOs claim to serve. As observed by Deborah, “the dominance of INGOs perpetuates the dominance of INGOs.” Historically, the success of an INGO has been too often measured by funds raised rather than actual work done, while the “waste” of resources by INGOs is easily forgiven compared to the “waste” of resources by local organizations. In the same way, the origins and institutional design of INGOs continue to perpetuate systems of Western supremacy, with policies cooked up on the Global North imposed unquestionably on organizations in the Global South. The consequence of all of this is a less diverse, less resilient civil society at the national and local levels, which is a barrier to solving the very problems that INGOs profess to address.
The dominance of INGOs perpetuates the dominance of INGOs.
So what can be done about the INGO problem? On 2 December the GFCF hosted two online discussions (recordings above) to consider the book’s relevance to the #ShiftThePower movement and to the “demand side” of efforts to reform and transform the international development system. The conversations were not intended just to provoke further criticism of a creaking INGO sector (although it is an itch that can be easy to scratch), but rather to encourage a broader questioning of a dominant system that, at best, has underestimated the value of national and local civil society actors and, at worst, has entirely undermined them.
What, if any, roles might INGOs still effectively play in the context of a more equitable, distributed and joined up civil society system? In her book, Deborah argues that there is still a role for INGOs – and she reiterated the same in both online meetings – but it would needed to be grounded in two broader principles. The first is subsidiarity, and the idea that the locus of action should be “as local as possible, and as international as necessary.” The second is solidarity, and an intentional reclaiming of the word in the form of new and deliberate actions, behaviours and values. What this might look like in practice might vary. It could include INGOs acting as strategic partners in service of local and national actors and broader civil society ecosystems, particularly in terms of accessing, participating in and influencing global spaces. Certainly, INGOs should stop gate-keeping resources, and start investing in the growth and futures of national and local civil society organizations, by recognizing and building on local assets and capacities. And INGOs registering as local versions of themselves and competing with local actors for “localized” international aid flows as well as other forms of local philanthropic resources should not be part of the equation either.
INGOs should stop gate-keeping resources, and start investing in the growth and futures of national and local civil society organizations, by recognizing and building on local assets and capacities.
Participants discussed the importance and urgency of radical reimagining that extends beyond individual institutions, governance and management structures. At a time of multiple intersecting crises, as well as anti-civil society narratives espoused under the auspices of nativist populism, alternative values-based, horizontally networked, global civil society operating systems, based on new ways of deciding and doing, and driven by new “coalitions of the willing”, are more important than ever. The importance of forward-looking spaces such as RINGO, Pledge for Change, Talk to Loop, and the #ShiftThePower movement were discussed, as well as examples of joined-up advocacy approaches such as #TooSouthernToBeFunded campaign.
Both sessions highlighted the negative effects of the over-professionalization of civil society, and the bureaucracies and hierarchies that it can produce – under the guise of vertical accountability to donors – which can threaten to kill the spark of activism or even the normative purpose of social change work itself, which is, after all, less about the movement of money rather than the transformation of power.
To purchase the book, visit Practical Publishing. Use promotional code INGOPROBLEM10 to receive a 10% discount. For bulk orders, please contact the publisher directly for an offer. The book is also available on Amazon.