Distant obligations: speculations on NGO funding and the global market

Abstract

This article offers speculative answers to two inter‐related questions of strategic importance for non‐governmental development organisations (NGOs). First, what is the long‐term scenario for their funding, particularly for NGOs in the poorer countries of the South and especially in Africa? Second, what, if any, is the likely relationship between NGO financing and the rapid growth of a global capitalist market? Answers to these questions are arrived at using a simple model of the various sources of NGO finance and information on their trends. Two conclusions are that, for the foreseeable future, Southern NGOs will remain dependent on surpluses derived from Northern economies in which official aid will become dominant; and that NGOs will increasingly function as a component of an international system of social welfare because this role serves the international reproduction of capital. An ancillary conclusion is that poorer states, although nominally sovereign, will act as local governments in a new international order because their ability to function is essentially determined by foreign aid. These findings suggest that NGOs will have to (a) revise current notions that they operate as agents of popular transformation and facilitators of countervailing power, (b) review their position within the future political‐economy of poor Southern states and (c) recognise that the self‐financing of Southern NGOs will remain an illusion unless Northern donors significantly change their funding practices. Overall, NGOs need to make a radical reappraisal of their development strategies and roles, as well as taking strategic decisions on how to secure the autonomy of their funding base.