‘What Exactly are We a Part of Now?’ Norwegian NGOs’ Engagement with State Governmentality

Abstract

Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) have risen to the forefront of the development sector. Yet, for a group of development actors that are explicitly non-governmental, it is conspicuous that their rise to prominence owes itself to state funding. This conundrum has spurred a debate about whether NGOs represent the poor and marginalized, or the states that funds them. This debate is highly topical today as donor states increasingly conflate development policy with other policy fields, a process often referred to as ‘the new humanitarianism’. Here, we contribute to this debate by exploring the relationship between Norwegian humanitarian NGOs and the Norwegian state. Through semi-structured interviews with 10 Norwegian NGOs, we investigated how the state and NGOs influence each other. By using a Foucauldian approach to the study of governance, we find that the state shapes NGOs by orienting their activities towards professionalism and quantifiable targets. NGOs, however, are not passive, but continuously try to mold the structures of their relationship with the state in a plethora of ways. Nonetheless, the new humanitarianism is inserting a new rationality into the Norwegian aid system, where NGOs reorient their activities to achieve security and foreign policy objectives. As a result, many Norwegian NGO workers find their activities compromised. The new humanitarianism, with its potential for a holistic approach to development, has instead undermined the practices of Norwegian NGOs.

Keywords:

• Governmentality
• Norwegian
• NGO
• state
• Foucault
• new humanitarianism

Notes on contributors

Sverre Ofstad is a Master's Graduate at the Department of International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).

Dr. Andrei Marin is a researcher at the Department of International Environment andDevelopment Studies (Noragric), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). He has been working in Mongolia, Kenya, and Norway with topics at the interface between environmental and social changes such as climate change adaptation, globalization, and institutional dynamics. He is currently working on social transformations and development pathways.

ORCID

Sverre Ofstad http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2399-8788

Andrei Marin http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9783-3612

Notes

1 The crisis involved the movement of ca. 2 million people fleeing the Iraqi Government forces, most of which crossing into Iran where they were relatively well cared for by the Red Crescent and the Iranian authorities, while 30% trying to cross into Turkey were denied access and were stranded in high mountain areas of Iraq. The international community involved military forces, international NGOs and UN agencies to deliver assistance.

2 We choose to use the more common English translation of the original ‘l’art du gouvernement’, while acknowledging a translation as ‘the art of governing/governance’ would be closer to Foucault’s meaning.