Winners or Losers? NGOs in the Current Aid Paradigm

Catherine Agg examines the trends in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and asks if the ‘golden age’ of NGOs is behind us? Although NGOs have become increasingly important actors in development policies in the last two decades, current donor rhetoric stresses the need to work with recipient governments to reduce poverty. She examines the extent to which recent policy developments have affected the standing of NGOs, looking at (i) the proportion of ODA channelled to the NGO sector by the main bilateral donors; (ii) funding trends for individual NGOs. She presents a mixed picture in terms of funding trends, pointing to a change for INGOs in the current development paradigm rather than their demise.