Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The making of NGOs: the relevance of Foucault and Bourdieu
- 2 The NGOs and their global networks
- 3 NGO behavior and development discourse
- 4 Interdependence and power: tensions over money and reputation
- 5 Information struggles: the role of information in the reproduction of NGO-funder relationships
- 6 Learning in NGOs
- 7 Challenges ahead: NGO-funder relations in a global future
- Notes
- References
- Index
5 - Information struggles: the role of information in the reproduction of NGO-funder relationships
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The making of NGOs: the relevance of Foucault and Bourdieu
- 2 The NGOs and their global networks
- 3 NGO behavior and development discourse
- 4 Interdependence and power: tensions over money and reputation
- 5 Information struggles: the role of information in the reproduction of NGO-funder relationships
- 6 Learning in NGOs
- 7 Challenges ahead: NGO-funder relations in a global future
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
Struggles over the shaping and use of information are central to relationships between non-governmental organizations and their funders. This chapter examines the effects of external funding on the structuring of information systems of NGOs, and the strategies used by NGOs to resist this external interference.
Research in the United States has suggested that the public funding of non-profits, especially for purposes of service delivery, has been accompanied by increased governmental oversight and regulation (Smith and Lipsky 1993; Young 1999). While monitoring and regulation are important for purposes of accountability, government financing can significantly affect both the organizational culture of non-profits and the kinds of services they provide. And although governmental support, especially in the form of public service contracting, may enable non-profits to scale up and professionalize their activities, it can also divert non-profits from their original missions, effectively establishing a parastatal apparatus of service delivery organizations (Sen 1999; Wolch 1990). At the same time, however, it is important to note that NGO–government relations can take various forms, ranging from cooperation, supplementarity and complementarity, to co-optation and confrontation (Najam 2000; Young 1999).
The international development literature has similarly noted the expansion of NGOs, particularly in public service provision. This is a global phenomenon that has been fueled by the availability of funding, not only from domestic public sources but also from official bilateral and multilateral sources, as well as from Northern NGOs (Clark 1995; Dichter 1999; Edwards and Hulme 1996).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- NGOs and Organizational ChangeDiscourse, Reporting, and Learning, pp. 77 - 106Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003