NGOs, States and Donors: An Overview

In the opening chapter of their collection of essays on NGOs, states and donors, Hulme & Edwards chart the rise of NGOs. Their opening question is whether the popularity of NGOs reflects genuine recognition of their alternative approaches and special relationship with the grassroots, or, conversely, whether the popularity is rather a sign that NGOs have now become fully institutionalised into the mainstream 'development industry'.

They link the NGO revolution to the wider 'associational revolution' of the past couple of decades. They also place the rise of NGOs in the context of the 'New Policy Agenda' (comprising neo-liberal economics and liberal democracy) adopted by Northern development agencies and donors in the 1990s, following the World Bank's lead. Under the New Policy Agenda, NGOs have several comparative advantages as efficient service deliverers, credible vehicles for democratisation, and components of civil society.

The close link between the New Policy Agenda and NGOs illustrates the close relationship between (Northern) donors and NGOs. Hulme & Edwards point out that there is a continuous danger of cooption involved when one party funds the other, and that even though many NGOs pride themselves on behaving independently of their donors, on balance it is clear that donors have far greater influence over NGOs than vice versa.