News
NGOs need a third way: collaboration
NGOs need a third way: collaborationWhen times are hard, NGOs should eschew competition and compromise and instead co-operate to achieve better results, argues Jonathan Glennie in the Guardian.Times are pretty hard for international development NGOs. Like most other organisations, western NGOs grew in times of plenty. But now, whether funded primarily by private donations (including big ones from the likes of Bill Gates and small ones from the likes of you and me) or government grants, NGOs...
The Future Calling
Our world is changing quickly and profoundly. Rich and poor – regardless of where they live – are faced with increasingly ‘thick’ problems and social change is more politicized and contested than ever before. And yet, most international development NGOs (INGOs) keep offering ‘thin’ solutions to these problems. Solutions geared to measurable material success. Solutions that are aimed at increasing participation in unsustainable economies and polities.
What can Western donors learn from China's approach in Africa
African Studies Centre Seminar in cooperation with Knowing Emerging Powers in AfricaSouth-South cooperation is gaining prominence and was high on the agenda at the Busan conference on aid effectiveness. All eyes were on China: would China be in or out? Ultimately China signed the Busan Declaration because it states that the nature, modalities and responsibilities of South-South cooperation are different from North-South cooperation and that the principles an...› read more...
Date: 28 March : Location: Venue: Room 1A41, African Studies Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University, Pieter de la Court building, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden, a 7-minute walk from Leiden CS. Note that the temporary building entry is at the Wassenaarseweg side.
Date: 28 March : Location: Venue: Room 1A41, African Studies Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University, Pieter de la Court building, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden, a 7-minute walk from Leiden CS. Note that the temporary building entry is at the Wassenaarseweg side.
The Future of Citizenship
All over the world the spotlight is on the citizen. From Time magazine’s nomination of the protestor as person of the year to the enduring optimism around the ripples of the Arab spring: from Obama’s ‘yes we can’ to Cameron’s big society: citizenship seems to have become the new magic bullet. But will this new starring role for the citizen actually lead to solutions?› read more...
Date: 23 February : Location: Nutshuis, Riviervismarkt 5, The Hague
Date: 23 February : Location: Nutshuis, Riviervismarkt 5, The Hague
It's the Future Calling
What do you do when the phone rings? You pick up, or let people leave a message on your voicemail and check it soon after. The phone has been ringing for a long time now in the development sector. What do you do when a caller starts conversing? You talk back - if only to say you're going to hang up. We talk a lot in the sector. What do you do when the caller starts shouting? You hang up, even if the other person has a valid reason to shout. In the development sector, we don’t like shouters. W...
Bureaucracy kills democracy
"As long as states represent the highest form of political authority, it will be impossible to channel human self-interest toward common solutions." This is stated by Rob Annandale, a Vancouver-based journalist and contributor to the Guardian and a.o. to this debate at The Broker. I admire this statement as it acknowledges the bankruptcy of the state that is likely to follow the failure of the greed-based economic-growth model that it has attempted to s...
Demanding Justice
It sounds almost as a cliché, but our present world is changing rapidly – and so is the role of NGOs. The emergence of new economic powers, speedy globalization, the power of social media – these are just some of the developments covered in our daily newspapers which are changing our world at an incredible pace. There is however one vital change that is incredibly important for our work and which doesn’t get the attention it should get: we live in a world of growing scarcity...
Let's not look for the Holy Grail
Yes, the crisis affecting international NGOs working on development is real. Having had a clear role and function for 50 years, the midlife crisis, as Michael Edwards describes it, has arrived. Before moving to a new future, let’s be proud of what has been achieved. Where would development have been without the innovative contribution of NGOs in gender, microfinance, HIV/Aids and ecological farming? And NGOs have undeniably played an important part in the struggle against South American dicta...
The midlife crises of NGOs
It’s a midlife crisis. This conclusion about the current condition of the NGOs strikes my mind after reading the think-piece by Michael Edwards for the debate on the future role of NGOs. Just look at the symptoms mentioned: i) a crisis of identity, with a perceived gap between what one wants to be and what one is (thick problems and thin solutions), and ii) the existential questions about the meaning of life: what have I achieved, will I ever be able to achieve anything at all?
How are the game changers spending their time
As we look into the future of aid, can INGOs harness the energy currently focused on controlling finances and demonstrating results based on donors’ needs, and use it instead to concentrate on the priorities of those their mission ultimately serves? The good news is that international non-governmental organizations do not operate from a profit motive. They can change the game until the game doesn’t look the same. Jennifer Lentfer argues;