Development Policy and Development NGOs: the Changing Relationship

Abstract: This paper reviews the changing inter-relationship between Northern development NGOs (NNGOs) and international development policy, drawing mainly on the UK context. NGOs themselves are undergoing major changes. Firstly, many NNGOs in the past decade or so have moved from implementation of development projects towards a partnership approach in which they fund and attempt to work with SNGOs. This has increasingly led to the idea of NGO capacity building as a key objective, but a significant growth in SNGO capacity in countries such as Bangladesh increasingly renders such objectives less meaningful. Secondly, official bilateral or multilateral development donors are increasingly moving towards the direct funding of Southern NGOs rather than the previous model of funding through Northern NGOs in the partnership approach. This leaves many NNGOs in an uncertain position. Thirdly, the need to respond to international emergencies in the post-Cold War order has led governments increasingly to fund NNGOs to undertake relief and emergency work on a contractual basis. UK Development policy as set our in the 1997 White Paper suggests that NGOs have themselves played a part in changing development policy priorities by bringing issues such as participation, gender and poverty – the so-called ‘reverse agenda ’- to the fore. While NGOs are constrained by shifting policy priorities, they are themselves simultaneously contributing to these changing agendas