Contents

List of Figures and Tables

Acknowledgements

Part I Critical Challenges

1. Introduction: Can NGOs Make a Difference? The Challenge of Development Alternatives

Conceptualizing Alternatives

NGOs as ‘Alternatives’: A Brief History

Mapping the Book’s Contributions

Thinking Forward

References

2. Have NGOs ‘Made a Difference?’ From Manchester to Birmingham with an Elephant in the Room

The Manchester Conferences: A Short Retrospective

Where We Were Wrong, and Why It Is Important

The ‘Larry Summers Test’

Conclusion

Note

References

Part II NGO Alternatives under Pressure

3. Challenges to Participation, Citizenship and Democracy: Perverse Confluence and Displacement of Meanings

The Perverse Confluence of Political Projects

Perverse Confluence and the Redefinition of Meanings

Conclusion

References

4. Learning from Latin America: Recent Trends in European NGO Policymaking

Trends and Perspectives in Priority Countries

Trends and Perspectives in Thematic Priorities

Patterns in Funding Allocations

Trends and Perspectives in Partner Selection and Partner Relationships

New Priorities and Issues for the Near Future

Lessons Learned

Conclusion

References

5. Whatever Happened to Reciprocity? Implications of Donor Emphasis on ‘Voice’ and ‘Impact’ as Rationales for Working with NGOs in Development

Changes in Donor Funding of NGOs and Its Rationale

‘Voice’ as the New Donor Rationale for Working with NGOs

Impact’

‘Squeezing Out’ Fundamental Aspects of NGO Work in Development

Notes

References

6. Development and the New Security Agenda: W(h)ither(ing) NGO Alternatives?

International Security: A Strategic Framework

Taking Sides in the War on Terror

Constraints on NGDOs Associated with Counter-terrorism Measures

Constraints Associated with Development Aid for Security

Conclusions

References

Part III Pursuing Alternatives: NGO Strategies in Practice

7. How Civil Society Organizations Use Evidence to Influence Policy Processes

The Policy Cycle

Identifying Problems and Setting the Agenda

Influencing the Formulation and Adoption of Policy

Influencing the Implementation of Policy

Monitoring and Evaluating Policy

Conclusion

Note

References

8. Civil Society Participation as the Focus of Northern NGO Support: The Case of Dutch Co-financing Agencies

Understanding and Promoting Civil Society: Perspectives and Approaches from the Netherlands

Contextual Features Affecting Civil Society Participation in Conflict-affected Countries

Supporting Civil Society Participation in the South: The Role of CFAs

Moving Forward: Conceptual and Practical Advances

NGO acronyms

References

9. Producing Knowledge, Generating Alternatives? Challenges to Research-oriented NGOs in Central America and Mexico

Theorizing the Informal University: Concepts for Thinking about Research-oriented NGOs

The Case Study Organizations

Theorizing the Relationships between Knowledge, Civil Society and Development

Challenges to Research-oriented NGOs

Conclusions

Note

References

10. Anxieties and Affirmations: NGO–Donor Partnerships for Social Transformation

Carving Out and Protecting Democratic Space

Disembedding: From Local to Global and Back

Concluding Reflections

References

Part IV Being Alternative

11. Reinventing International NGOs: A View from the Dutch Co-financing System

The Development Context of the 1980s and 1990s

The Dutch Co-funding Programme between 1965 and 2000

What Has Happened to Us?

Reinventing the System in ICCO: Aiming for Change

ICCO as an International Network Organization

Changing the Dynamic of North–South Cooperation

Can the System be Reinvented?

References

12. Transforming or Conforming? NGOs Training Health Promoters and the Dominant Paradigm of the Development Industry in Bolivia

The Current Development Paradigm

Conscious and Unconscious Strategies of Power and Influence

Bolivia, Social Fields, Health Care and the NGO Sector

Theoretical Aims and Actual Practice

References

13. Political Entrepreneurs or Development Agents: An NGO's Tale of Resistance and Acquiescence in Madhya Pradesh, India

The Making of an NGO

Acquaintance with Neelpura Village

A Troubled Period: Confrontation, Resistance and Development

Formal Agent of the State: Doing Development Daily

Using Law to Effect Local Rights within a Project Framework

Scaling Up Development and Scaling Up Politics

Hegemony or Counter-hegemony

Conclusion: The Nature and Limits of NGO Power

Note

References

14. Is This Really the End of the Road for Gender Mainstreaming? Getting to Grips with Gender and Institutional Change

The Death of Gender Mainstreaming?

Understanding Gender Mainstreaming in Oxfam GB

What’s Happened to Gender Mainstreaming at Oxfam?

Understanding Institutional Change: Master Plans or Misconceptions?

Gender Mainstreaming: Some Critical Reflections on Ideas and Activists

Making Institutional Change Central to Gender Mainstreaming

References

15. The Ambivalent Cosmopolitanism of International NGOs

Ideas of Cosmopolitanism

NGOs and Cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitanism in Practice

Conclusion

Note

References

16. Development as Reform and Counter-reform: Paths Travelled by Slum/Shack Dwellers International

Context

A History of Development in Five Paragraphs

What is Shack Dwellers International?

NGO Support Professionals for the Urban Poor: Arsenic in the Jam?

SDI: An Evolutionary Watershed?

Possibilities and Constraints Born from a Conscious Partnership with NGOs

The First Signs of an Important Mutational Leap

Conclusion

References

Part V Taking Stock and Thinking Forward

17. Reflections on NGOs and Development: The Elephant, the Dinosaur, Several Tigers but No Owl

NGOs, Neoliberalism and Development Alternatives

The Elephant, the Dinosaur, Several Tigers but No Owl

Conclusion

Note

References

Contributors

Index